The Evolution of Nursing: Always a Mirror for Cultural Attitudes, But With Some Constants

Of hygiene practices at one public institution, Hobson wrote, “The visitor found a woman with a broken leg twelve days after she had been brought to the hospital in the same miserable garments in which she fell.” In describing an almshouse (poorhouse) hospital, she said, “The condition of the patients was unspeakable; the one [untrained] nurse slept in the bathroom, and the tub was filled with filthy rubbish.”

. . . On the subject of nutrition, Hobson recounted a Friday meal in the same hospital, wherein “the dinner of salt fish was brought in a bag to the ward and emptied on to the table; the convalescents helped themselves, and carried to the others their portions on a tin plate with a spoon.”

Pediatric NP, circa 1965. Courtesy of Barbara Bates Center for the Study of the History of Nursing, Univ. of Penn. School of Nursing

These are quotes from “Key Ideas in Nursing’s First Century,” an article in the May issue of AJN by historian Ellen Davidson Baer. Baer draws on vivid primary sources  from the 19th century, such as the one quoted above, to depict stages in the evolution of nursing into a respected and regulated profession with standards and essential skills and knowledge.

Though nursing has changed a great deal since its early days, Baer sees theory and compassion as intertwined constants throughout the history of nursing, both of them very much present from the start.

She’s also attuned to ways in which the […]

2016-11-21T13:10:09-05:00May 14th, 2012|career, nursing perspective|1 Comment
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How Good Are Your CPR Skills? Research Shows Monthly Practice Is Crucial

A nurse practices CPR on a voice advisory manikin. Photo courtesy of Laerdal Medical.

By Maureen Shawn Kennedy, AJN editor-in-chief

Most of you are probably aware of the AHA’s revised CPR guidelines that were issued in 2010. They include a major change in the resuscitation sequence—which now begins with chest compressions rather than ventilation—and emphasize the importance of achieving adequate compression of the chest—“at least two inches (5 cm)”—to achieve adequate blood flow. (You can see a video by the AHA demonstrating the new guidelines here.)  This change is especially important in light of recent research on CPR skills.

In 2011, Marilyn H. Oermann and colleagues conducted research with nursing students to determine how often one needs to practice CPR skills to maintain competence. 

As she explains in an article in the May issue of AJN, students who practiced briefly each month not only maintained their skills, but improved them significantly by the end of 12 months.

In comparison, the skills of those who only  had an initial training session deteriorated after three months; by 12 months, few could perform CPR adequately, especially in terms of achieving adequate depth for chest compressions. And although these were students, Oermann describes studies showing similar results with paramedics, non-ICU nurses, and nurse anesthetists. 

Most hospitals and agencies only require an annual review or demonstration of skills to be recertified in CPR; few, I bet, measure the depth of compressions. Sounds like it’s time to revisit this […]

2016-11-21T13:10:10-05:00May 11th, 2012|Nursing|1 Comment
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Nurses Week: Comparing Notes on Matters of the Heart

By Marcy Phipps, RN, a regular contributor to this blog. Her essay, “The Love Song of Frank,” was published in the May issue of AJN.

Image courtesy of Wikemedia Commons

Earlier this week I took care of a man who nearly coded, rather unexpectedly. I was standing next to his bed when his heart rate slowed suddenly and significantly, with one extraordinarily long pause between beats.

A pause doesn’t have to be extraordinarily long to feel like it is, especially when you’re standing next to someone, palpating their pulse while watching the monitor. In this case, in this five-second pause that felt like minutes, I’d dropped the bed rail, shouted out to my team, and was ready to start chest compressions when his heart beat again. His symptomatic bradycardia was treated accordingly; there were no chest compressions, and it was no code.

I had lunch with a good nurse-friend of mine who works in a nearby hospital. I was telling her how “bradycardia with a five-second pause” feels a lot like asystole, when you’re standing next to your patient, and she was telling me that her hospital had sort of cancelled Nurses Week this year. Instead of the traditional week of silly games, superlative awards, and physician-sponsored lunches, and then a later “Hospital Week,” her facility was having a combined “Team Member Week.”

“It feels like we’ve lost recognition,” my friend said. “We don’t feel appreciated, and we’re angry.”

I definitely see […]

2016-11-21T13:10:11-05:00May 9th, 2012|career, nursing perspective|1 Comment
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‘How Can You Bear to Be a Nurse?’ – Nurses Week Begins

By Maureen Shawn Kennedy, AJN editor-in-chief

Photo from otisarchives4, via Flickr.

Many people, myself included, have mixed feelings about Nurses Week. But since many institutions have finally gotten the message that “I love nurses” shoelaces and bumper stickers are not appreciated, I’m fine with using the week to highlight nurses’ accomplishments or provide special educational programs—we should use all opportunities available to increase awareness of the value nurses bring to health care.

Former AJN editor Mary Mallison wrote an editorial for Nurses Week in 1987 that’s been deemed a classic. We’ve reprinted it in the journal, but it’s timeless in how it captures what nurses do, so here it is again (either click the above link to the article on our Web site, or just click the PDF below) for Nurses Week.

  PDF version: HowCanYouBearToBeANurse?

2018-03-28T10:38:24-04:00May 7th, 2012|nursing perspective|7 Comments
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E-Cigarettes: Positive Smoking Substitute or a New Problem Replacing the Old?

Photo by Michael Dorausch, via Flickr

By Michael Fergenson, senior editorial coordinator

The dangers of smoking cigarettes are well documented, from the terrifying commercials about what smoking does to our bodies to the warnings right on the pack. Yet the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 45.3 million people in the United States smoke.

Now, a new trend in tobacco products has become the center of much debate. I’m referring to the electronic cigarettes, or e-cigarettes, that are gaining popularity as a smoking alternative and, for many, as a tool to quit.

I personally know two people who are using this device in an attempt to stop smoking. An article published in the New York Times last November reports that the number of Americans trying e-cigarettes “quadrupled from 2009 to 2010.” The article also cites the results of a survey published in Tobacco Control last year, which found that 1.2% of adults, or close to 3 million people, had reported using these products in the previous month. But are e-cigarettes really a positive smoking substitute and aid to quitting?

How they work. Most e-cigarettes are shaped like a real cigarette, but some have a unique look. They work by heating up a liquid—purchased separately […]

2017-03-10T16:53:37-05:00May 4th, 2012|Nursing|21 Comments
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Views expressed on the blog are solely those of the authors or persons quoted. They do not necessarily reflect AJN’s views or those of Wolters Kluwer Health/Lippincott Williams and Wilkins.
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