Off the Charts

Treating Kids With Asthma in the ED Means More Than Just Putting Out Fires

EDs play an important role in the care of children with asthma. ED clinicians often treat families who don’t have a consistent relationship with a primary care provider. Given this opportunity, it’s essential that all members of the pediatric ED health care team be informed, educated, and updated on the latest asthma treatment guidelines to ensure best practice and high quality outcomes.

In this month’s Emergency column, “Managing Pediatric Asthma Exacerbations in the ED” (which will be free for the next six months), three nurses at Children’s Hospital Boston present a composite case, review the evidence regarding treatment options, describe practices at their own hospital and asthma treatment guidelines, and emphasize the crucial importance ED nurses can play in making sure these children don’t end up back in the ED because of lack of follow-up care or poor care in the home.

Have a look and let us know what you’re doing to make sure you’re not just putting out fires when you treat a child with asthma in the ED.—JM, senior editor

Jacob Molyneux, senior editor/blog editor2016-11-21T13:14:02-05:00February 15th, 2011|Nursing|1 Comment

Web Roundup: Comparing Online Health Info, Questioning a Breast Cancer Treatment, Guilt in Any Gender

Many women with early breast cancer do not appear to need removal of their lymph nodes, as is often recommended, according to a federally funded study released Tuesday.

Read the full Washington Post story about a new study published in JAMA (abstract is here). This story is being covered in most major news sources today, and it may signal a significant treatment shift for some patients. (One of the possible adverse long-term effects of lymph node removal is lymphedema. Here’s a page with links to the two-part article we ran about the condition a while back, as well as a related blog post by senior editor Sylvia Foley that looked at what people had been writing about their experiences with this condition.)

Speaking of advice about your health and about treatments, the health care journalism blog Covering Health alerts us today to an article at the NY Times comparing health information found at the WebMD and Mayo Clinic sites. Do you prefer the glitzy, highly produced one with lots of corporate sponsors, or the nonprofit? You know which one gets more visitors . . .

And speaking of patients, as we should, what about those who are transgendered? Does it confuse or challenge you to care for such a patient? There’s a very sensitive and painful post at the blog Nursetopia about caring for a transgendered patient […]

Jacob Molyneux, senior editor/blog editor2016-11-21T13:14:03-05:00February 9th, 2011|Nursing|0 Comments

Nurse Brings Photo Exhibit to U.S. Capitol

By Shawn Kennedy, AJN editor-in-chief

Kathleen Bartholomew, MN, RN, a consultant and speaker from the state of Washington, has made it her mission to enlighten policy makers and legislators about the important work of nursing. And she believes in the power of photographs to help her make her case.

From January 24 through January 28, Bartholomew hosted AJN’s award-winning photo exhibit, Faces of Caring: Nurses at Work, which was on display in the rotunda of the Russell Senate Office Building in Washington, D.C. For two days of the previous week it was on display in the Rayburn House Office Building. Bartholomew had enlisted the help of her legislators, Congressman Rick Larsen and Senator Patty Murray, to get the necessary clearances and permissions for this unique location within the Senate building. While people viewed the exhibit, Bartholomew was available to speak with them about the vital work of nursing. She also visited senators’ offices and met with legislative aides.

The photographs in the exhibit are the winners and selected honorees from an international photo contest that was first exhibited at New York University College of Nursing in New York City in 2007, with support from the

Jacob Molyneux, senior editor/blog editor2016-11-21T13:14:05-05:00February 7th, 2011|Nursing|3 Comments

The Shape of a Woman: Two Poems in ‘Art of Nursing’

By Sylvia Foley, AJN senior editor

“I think about the woman / wilting // on the pillow of the steering wheel,” begins Stacy R. Nigliazzo’s poem “Sketch,” featured in this month’s Art of Nursing department. As the title suggests, the poem sketches out a scene, the immediate aftermath of a car accident. The driver appears dead; the paramedics “offer her up, prostrate / in white splints,” while the physician records the time. The narrator—who might be an ED nurse (perhaps Nigliazzo, an ED nurse herself)—describes what she sees. And as she does, we feel the terrible burden of her witnessing: the victim’s eyes brim “like black bowls that can’t be filled.” When the victim has been taken away, we’re left with almost nothing, only some coins and “buckled lines / in the shape of a woman.” It’s a short, spare piece that conjures up far more complicated matters, like where the dead reside, and how the living might go on.

The narrator of “Connection,” the poem by Camille Norvaisas that’s featured in January’s Art of Nursing, has undergone a double mastectomy. She is shockingly direct in her stated desire. “I want to feel the same / as my nipples, so cold, / in some jar in a sterile lab,” she tells us. She’s trying to comprehend a literal disconnection: once her breasts were part of her; now, “referred to as tissue,” they lie on a stainless […]

Guest Author2016-11-21T13:14:06-05:00February 4th, 2011|nursing perspective|2 Comments

Confused About the Charge Nurse Role? You’re Not Alone

Charge nurses—as is often the case, there’s the ideal and the reality. Consider a recent blog post at the nursing blog At Your Cervix, which expresses some honest reservations about acting as a charge nurse—both about the challenges involved, and the lack of compensation for the added duties. Here’s an excerpt:

I’m really not so sure about this charge nurse thing. I was told when I arrived on a recent shift that I was to be in charge. I think I’ve done charge (maybe?) three times. Those times were only because there was no one available who did charge, and I was the most likely choice to do it. I haven’t been trained or oriented to do charge. It was kind of a “toss her in there and do it” situation.

If you read the entire post, you’ll learn that this blogger isn’t so sure she wants to take this role on again anytime soon. As it happens, AJN published a CE article back in September of last year (our clinical editor, Christine Moffa, wrote this post about it at the time) on an initiative which took place at the highly respected New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center. Its goal was to figure out this charge nurse thing in a more systematic and sensible way.