Off the Charts

Take a Walk: American Heart Month, for Nurses and Everyone Else

By Shawn Kennedy, MA, RN, AJN editor-in-chief

By Eric Hunt/via Wikimedia Commons

So we all know what we need to do to prevent heart disease: eat a healthy diet (such as the highly touted Mediterranean diet, which has been “consistently effective with regard to cardiovascular risk”), get regular exercise, and don’t smoke. But most of us—and I’m guilty—don’t quite follow the advice we may give our patients or family members. It’s difficult to carve out time for oneself in addition to working all day (and for most nurses, we’re not talking a nine to five day—many work 12-hour shifts, or at least a 10-hour day if in administrative positions), plus commuting and then spending time with family. If you have school-age children in activities, there are also car pools and homework.

We need to find 30 minutes—or even 20 minutes—daily to jump-start our own engines. According to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, heart disease kills one in four women and is the leading cause of death for both women and men in the United States. And while genetics certainly plays a part, cardiovascular health is mostly about prevention. So make a 30-minute appointment with yourself and stick to it.

The American Heart Association (AHA) initiative highlighting heart disease in February is a good reminder to us all, especially in […]

Shawn Kennedy, MA, RN, FAAN, editor-in-chief (emerita)2016-11-21T13:05:31-05:00February 3rd, 2014|nursing perspective, personal health practices|0 Comments

AJN’s February Issue: New Nurses, Children’s Posttonsillectomy Pain, Medication Errors, More

AJN’s February issue is now available on our Web site. Here’s a selection of what not to miss, including two continuing education (CE) articles, which you can access for free.

With high hospital turnover rates, keeping newly licensed RNs (NLRNs) continues to be a priority for hospitals. This month’s original research article, “Changing Trends in Newly Licensed RNs,” found that new nurses considered themselves to have fewer job opportunities and to be less likely to work in hospitals and more likely to have a second job than new nurses who were surveyed six years earlier. Earn 2.5 CE credits by reading this article and taking the test that follows.

Tonsillectomy is effective at treating a variety of pediatric disorders, such as sleep apnea and frequent throat infection. But it often results in prolonged, moderate-to-severe pain. “Posttonsillectomy Pain in Children” reviews the causes of posttonsillectomy pain, the efficacy of various treatment interventions, and the recommendations for patient and family teaching regarding pain management. Earn 2.3 CE credits by reading this article and taking the test that follows. If you’re reading AJN on your iPad, you can listen to a podcast interview with the author by tapping on the podcast icon on the first page. The podcast is also available on our Web site.

According to an Institute of Medicine report, at least 1.5 million preventable medication-related adverse events occur in the U.S every […]

Amy M. Collins, managing editor2016-11-21T13:05:32-05:00January 31st, 2014|nursing perspective, nursing research|0 Comments

Voice of Dissension: When Nurse Teamwork and Patient Safety Diverge

Dissension (from the series Pareidolia), charcoal & graphite on paper, 12″ x 9,”
2012 by Julianna Paradisi

Julianna Paradisi, RN, OCN, writes a monthly post for this blog and works as an infusion nurse in outpatient oncology. The illustration of this post is by the author.

The term “voice” gets thrown around a lot these days, usually in reference to creative content. Visual artists, writers, musicians, and actors rise to their unique place in the art world on the originality of their voice, not merely for mastery and talent.

In nursing, voice is important too. Hospitals spend a small fortune in paid staff hours for team-building meetings or retreats for nurses to smooth the rough edges of staff members, reducing friction among unit nurses with the ultimate goals of nurse retention and improved patient care. While these are admirable goals, I’m beginning to wonder if too much emphasis on team building may also diminish a nurse’s unique voice, thereby inadvertently interfering with patient safety? A team is only as strong as its individual members. […]

Julianna Paradisi, RN, OCN2016-11-21T13:05:33-05:00January 29th, 2014|career, nursing perspective, patient safety|4 Comments

Workplace Discrimination: A Survey Among Newly Arrived Foreign-Educated Nurses

By Sylvia Foley, AJN senior editor

Table 2. Outcome Metrics by Recruitment Model

This country has often relied on foreign-educated nurses (FENs) to ease nursing shortages—and with more shortages predicted for as early as next year, it’s likely we’ll do so again. A positive workplace environment is a known predictor of staff retention; yet little is known about how FENs experience their jobs. To learn more, Patricia Pittman and colleagues surveyed more than 500 FENs. This month’s original research CE, “Perceptions of Employment-Based Discrimination Among Newly Arrived FENs,” reports on their findings. This abstract offers a brief overview.

Objective: To determine whether foreign-educated nurses (FENs) perceived they were treated equitably in the U.S. workplace during the last period of high international recruitment from 2003 to 2007.
Background: With experts predicting that isolated nursing shortages could return as soon as 2015, it is important to examine the lessons learned during the last period of high international recruitment in order to anticipate and address problems that may be endemic to such periods. In this baseline study, we asked FENs who were recruited to work in the United States between 2003 and 2007 about their hourly wages; clinical and cultural orientation to the United States; wages, benefits, and shift or unit assignments; and job satisfaction.
Methods. In 2008, we administered a survey to FENs who were issued VisaScreen certificates by the Commission on Graduates of Foreign […]

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Guest Author2017-07-27T14:48:52-04:00January 27th, 2014|nursing perspective, nursing research|3 Comments

AJN’s Top 15 Most Viewed Articles in 2013

by rosmary/via Flickr

We thought readers might be interested in seeing which articles and topics got the most page views in 2013. Many of these articles are open access, including a number of CE articles as well as the articles from our Evidence-Based Practice: Step by Step series. Some articles require an AJN subscription or individual article purchase. Several of the articles in this list were from recent years other than 2013; a couple were much older, but are evidently still relevant, since not every idea in nursing is ephemeral or subject to improvement by the next generation.—Jacob Molyneux, senior editor

1. “Asking the Clinical Question: A Key Step in Evidence-Based Practice” – (March, 2010) – part of AJN‘s EBP series

2. “Improving Communication Among Nurses, Patients, and Physicians” – (November, 2009)

3. “The Seven Steps of Evidence-Based Practice” – (January, 2010) – part of our EBP series

4. “Nurses and the Affordable Care Act” – (September, 2010)

5. “From Novice to Expert: Excellence and Power in Clinical Nursing Practice” – (December, 1984; not HTML version; readers must click through to PDF version)

6. “COPD Exacerbations” – (CE article; February, 2013)

7. “Therapeutic Hypothermia After Cardiac Arrest” – (CE; July, 2012)

8.

Jacob Molyneux, senior editor/blog editor2016-11-21T13:05:35-05:00January 24th, 2014|Nursing|0 Comments