National Women’s History Month–What’s Nursing Got to Do With It?

By Karen Roush, MS, RN, FNP-C, AJN clinical managing editor

Back in the late 60s, when I was trying to figure out what I wanted to be when I grew up, one particular piece of advice kept popping up: “Become a nurse. That way, if anything happens to your husband, you’ll be able to get a job and support your family.”

This month we celebrate National Women’s History Month. The theme is Women’s Education–Women’s Empowerment. I think back to that advice and how it captures the journeys of both nursing and women over the last 45 years.

That one piece of advice reflected so many beliefs of the time. The husband (and there should be a husband for any self-respecting woman) is the breadwinner. A woman doesn’t really want to work and shouldn’t work; her role is to take care of husband and home. She doesn’t need the fulfillment of a career—only the ability to pay the bills if she suddenly finds herself alone.

Nursing was the safety net job. Not something to pursue for its own sake—for the intellectual, emotional, and financial rewards it could offer. Women who did pursue it found themselves earning their own paycheck—but still subjugated, the handmaiden to the physician.

Thankfully, that has changed. Women pursue all kinds of careers and are surpassing men in numbers of […]

2016-11-21T13:10:32-05:00March 7th, 2012|nursing history|1 Comment
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New Nurses: Committed to Their Current Jobs—Or Biding Their Time?

By Sylvia Foley, AJN senior editor

It’s no surprise that the recent economic recession caused many older nurses to return to the workforce or to delay retirement and work longer hours, thus easing the projected nursing shortage—at least for the time being. But nurse researcher Carol S. Brewer and colleagues wanted to understand how the recession affected new nurses’ work attitudes and behaviors, in particular those related to turnover. What they found has many implications, both now—although the recession is reportedly over, we’re still in an economic slump—and as the economy recovers.

To learn more, Brewer and colleagues compared data for two cohorts of newly licensed RNs. The first cohort consisted of 983 new nurses licensed between August 2004 and July 2005 who were surveyed before the economic downturn; the second cohort consisted of 1,765 new nurses licensed between August 2007 and July 2008. The survey tool included questions on attitudinal variables in four areas: personal characteristics, work attributes, work attitudes, and job opportunities. The researchers report the results in this month’s CE–Original Research feature, “New Nurses: Has the Recession Increased Their Commitment to Their Jobs?”

Among the key findings:

2016-11-21T13:10:33-05:00March 5th, 2012|nursing perspective, nursing research|1 Comment
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Are You Ever Justified in Deceiving a Patient?

A patient’s irrational refusal to take medication can be frustrating for the nurse. Crushing the pill into applesauce or ice cream saves time and effort, and spares the patient the aggravation of quarreling. But while hiding medication is sometimes ethically justified, often it is not.

That’s the start of the “Putting the Meds in the Applesauce,” an article (free for March) by nurse ethicist Douglas Olsen in the current issue of AJN. Olsen notes that studies suggest hiding medications in food may be a relatively common practice, considers the ethical principles at play in such a decision, and offers advice for those who may be considering it. (Added: The column chiefly concerns the nursing care of cognitively impaired patients—not those who simply don’t want medications or those with with psychiatric illnesses who may be endangering themselves or others by refusing medication.)

Says Olsen, “[t]wo factors must be considered in determining whether hiding medication is justified or not: the nurse–patient relationship and the patient’s rights.” He adds that such a decision “requires the nurse and surrogate decision maker to imagine how the patient might have reasoned: would the earlier, cognitively intact patient have agreed that, given the present impairment, the providers shouldn’t be morally bound to accept the patient’s decision to decline medication?”

Another question he suggests asking oneself is this: “could the deception survive public scrutiny, including that of professional peers?”

What’s your take? What’s your experience?—JM, senior editor

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2016-11-21T13:10:34-05:00March 1st, 2012|Ethics, Nursing, patient engagement|3 Comments
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A Role to Live Up To

By Kinsey Morgan, RN. Kinsey is a nurse who lives in Texas and currently works in the ICU in which she formerly spent three years as a CNA. Her previous posts on working as a new nurse can be found here.

Now in my sixth month as a new nurse, I find every day that there is something new to learn, figure out, or adjust to. The constant stimulation and challenge is part of what makes me love being an ICU nurse.

Recently I was exposed to the simple yet powerful fact that being a “unit nurse” carries more weight than I’d thought. During a code blue on the medical–surgical floor a few weeks ago, I was performing CPR when it became necessary to initiate a dopamine drip to support a failing blood pressure.

One of the medical–surgical nurses spiked the bag and connected the tubing and proceeded to tap me on the shoulder and ask me if he had correctly entered the dosage of dopamine into the IV pump. Time stood still for a split-second while I contemplated the weight of this question. Though my mind and body quickly returned to the task at hand, the implications of that question haven’t left me yet.

The nurse who asked has been an RN for several years and has a lot more experience than I have. In reflection, I am honored and humbled by his trust. Not having encountered vasoactive drugs very often in his practice, this nurse […]

2016-11-21T13:10:35-05:00February 28th, 2012|career, nursing perspective|1 Comment
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Military Medicine Has a Head Nurse – Notes from Our Interview

By Maureen ‘Shawn’ Kennedy, MA, RN, AJN editor-in-chief

“Hi, this is General Patty Horoho,” and so began a phone interview with army nurse Lieutenant General Patricia Horoho, who was sworn in as the 43rd Army Surgeon General in December.

Horoho made history, becoming the first woman and the first nonphysician to assume command of the U.S. Army Medical Command, a $13 billion global health system. She had also been the first nurse to command Walter Reed Army Medical Center, taking over after a report  in the Washington Post revealed a host of deficiencies in care, housing, and processes at that facility, leading to the firing of the commanding officer, Maj. General George Weightman.

She was recommended for her new position by the prior Army Surgeon General, Eric Schoomaker, and it then went up the chain to the secretary of the army and the secretary of the defense, who then recommended her appointment to President Barack Obama.

We (there were representatives from four nursing publications on the call) spent over an hour peppering General Horoho with questions about her experience, objectives, strategic plans, and major challenges. Here’s a few of the highlights:

2016-11-21T13:10:36-05:00February 24th, 2012|nursing perspective|3 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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