Off the Charts

Children, Swimming Pools, and Preventing Death by Drowning

Boy in children’s swimming pool/image via Wikipedia

By Shawn Kennedy, AJN editor-in-chief—Most children love water, from splashing in puddles to throwing rocks into streams to just playing in the bathtub (a favorite activity of one of my boys was to stand on a chair at the kitchen sink and “wash dishes” with mounds of bubbles). Keeping them away from potentially dangerous situations around water requires constant vigilance when they’re young and repeated warnings as they get older. But often that’s not enough. Too many children drown or nearly drown each year in backyard swimming pools. U. S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data shows drowning as the second leading cause of death from unintentional injuries among children ages one to 14.

Last Friday, there was an especially heart-wrenching story: one-year-old twin boys both drowned in a backyard pool in Northern California. Their mother found them, pulled them out of the pool, and tried to revive them but was unsuccessful. I can’t imagine the depths of her grief.

We tend to think that it’s only the large, in-ground swimming pools that pose a hazard. But a recent study by pool management by United Pools, documents that danger persists for all pools, including small backyard portable pools (wading pools, inflatable pools, soft-sided pop-up pools, etc). It […]

Jacob Molyneux, senior editor/blog editor2017-05-22T13:47:26-04:00July 20th, 2011|Nursing|1 Comment

The Five Most Popular Articles at AJN

Amanda Geer, AJN administrative coordinator—We look at the statistical views and visits of users at AJN‘s home page to determine our most viewed articles, how many visitors listen to our podcasts, what day of the week we get the most traffic, and a number of other categories to make sure we keep up to date on what matters to our readers. We also look at what our users search for. Some of the most common keyword(s)/phrases are evidence-based practice, research, diabetes, cancer, and stroke. We also look at our most popular articles. For the last few months, the following five articles have dominated our top 10 chart (in an upcoming post, we’ll look at the most popular articles on this blog):

Jacob Molyneux, senior editor/blog editor2016-11-21T13:12:25-05:00July 18th, 2011|nursing perspective|0 Comments

Drunk on Water, Drug Shortages, Understanding Health Care News, Plus Nursing Blog Posts of Note

The water myth: A physician, writing in the British Medical Journal (abstract only), has looked at the evidence for drinking eight glasses of water a day and says the oft-recommended practice is “debunked nonsense,” a myth the bottled water companies have been only too happy to exploit and that many respected health care organizations and experts continue to support. Maybe common sense reasoning is also partly to blame—after all, the idea seems to make sense. And all that water certainly conjures images of purification, which is inevitably appealing in a world of pervasive toxins, chemicals, food additives, and the like, and in a time when fewer people in any given Western country practice the same or similar religious sacraments or rituals, practices that may—among other functions—have once served a similar “purifying” psychologic purpose.

Drug shortages: The Wall Street Journal Health Blog has reported on two surveys that suggest that “unprecedented” drug shortages are being experienced by most hospitals. The reasons are multiple: shortage rumors that prompt hoarding, FDA actions that halt production, lack of a crucial ingredient, poor inventory management, and others:

All treatment categories were affected, hospitals said, with 80% or more respondents experiencing shortages of surgery/anesthesia, emergency care, cardiovascular, gastrointestinal/nutrition, pain or infectious disease drugs. And 66% of hospitals reported shortages of cancer drugs. Some 47% of […]

Share this:
Facebook
Bluesky
X
LinkedIn

Jacob Molyneux, senior editor/blog editor2016-11-21T13:12:26-05:00July 15th, 2011|healthcare social media, Nursing|5 Comments

Patient and Family Cell Phone Use Can Seem Intrusive, Until It’s Not

Oh no, here comes another Dad with a Bluetooth.

My colleague and I roll our eyes at each other in frustration. Another self-important junior executive who must be in touch with everyone in the world while his wife labors unsupported, I mutter with dismay as I rise from my chair to greet our newest birthing couple.

I have to coach myself: Change your attitude. Change your attitude, as I weigh the mom and escort the couple to the birthing room. Dad-to-Be proceeds to spread out his equipment on the dresser in front of the window while Mom-to-Be, in obvious distress, changes into a gown in the bathroom.

That’s the engaging beginning of “Before the Signal Fades,” this month’s Reflections essay in AJN. The essay traces an unexpected path from complaint to something much deeper. Click the link to read the entire essay (and click through to the PDF version for a nicer reading experience). What’s your take on patient use of cell phones, cameras, smartphones, and the like?—JM, senior editor

YG6YUZXXWH2A

Jacob Molyneux, senior editor/blog editor2011-07-15T16:19:24-04:00July 13th, 2011|nursing perspective|3 Comments

New Medical Residents and Patient Mortality – Does the ‘Nurse Effect’ Lessen the ‘July Effect’?

Last week, a post on the New York Times Well blog discussed whether mortality rates in hospitals are worse during July when new interns and residents begin their clinical training. It described findings from three studies, with the final conclusion, “Though the debate continues, most studies have not found a spike in hospital mortality rates in July.”

It was common thinking in hospitals when I worked clinically—“Never be sick enough to have to go to a hospital the first two weeks of July, and NEVER, EVER need surgery during that time”—and I’d venture that many people still believe it, despite what studies may report. (And, as I write, I see that ABC News is reporting on a new review of 39 studies, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, that does support the existence of the July Effect. Click the image below for the ABC article and videos.)

I remember working in the ED when the new residents on call would come to see patients, their “whites” impeccably spotless and starched, with new blank index cards in their pockets, looking eager and anxious to finally be getting to the real work of their profession. By mid-August, they all seemed a bit haggard, the whites rumpled and the pockets torn a bit, bulging with […]

Shawn Kennedy, MA, RN, FAAN, editor-in-chief (emerita)2018-04-26T10:16:40-04:00July 12th, 2011|nursing perspective|2 Comments