“As Comforting as a Rodeo Clown”: When Competence Is at Odds with Bedside Manner

Then it comes to me. This is the same recovery nurse who brought our son out of anesthesia when he had ear tube surgery. This is the woman who jostled him in her arms like she was mixing pancake batter in a Tupperware container, who insisted “baby need stimulus,” dancing away from me as Luke reached and screamed.

That’s from the Reflections essay in our February issue, and is written by a patient who tells a funny (and insightful) story of finding himself dependent for a second time on a nurse and doctor he’d sworn to himself he’d never let near him again. So, does it help to hear the patient perspective sometimes? (For the best reading experience, click through to the PDF version.)

Bookmark and Share

2016-11-21T13:19:47-05:00January 28th, 2010|Nursing|0 Comments
Read More

If Health Care Reform Were an ICU Patient . . .

The idea that the Health Care Reform bill is on life support is disappointing, but not surprising. It was admitted in a weakened state of health. It appears suspiciously a victim of domestic violence by special interest groups. The bruises on its body resemble the outline of handprints of the insurance companies it was created to protect our citizens from.

So writes nurse-artist-blogger JParadisi RN in a recent post, which (whatever your beliefs about whether we should do something major soon about the increasing numbers of uninsured Americans and the skyrocketing costs of health care) has particular resonance as President Obama prepares to address the nation tonight about this and other issues.


(Full disclosure: Paradisi’s artwork appeared on the October 2009 cover of AJN.)

Bookmark and Share

2016-11-21T13:19:49-05:00January 27th, 2010|health care policy, nursing perspective|2 Comments
Read More

Essential Reading for Nurses Responding to Disasters

Many nurses are volunteering their services to assist the residents of Haiti following the earthquake. The magnitude of the damages and injuries will require a sustained disaster relief effort. AJN has compiled a list of our articles with useful information for nurses participating in any disaster relief effort. Given the current urgency of this issue, we have made all articles free. We hope you’ll take a look and pass along anything you find informative or helpful.

For example, our Disaster Care article back in December dealt with the often-overlooked physiologic and psychosocial needs of children in public health emergencies. These can be very different from those of adults.

(And if, by some chance, you’ve actually had any experiences working in Florida or in Haiti with the victims of this earthquake, please let us know what skills and knowledge you’ve found most crucial.) 

Bookmark and Share

2016-11-21T13:19:51-05:00January 26th, 2010|career, nursing perspective|0 Comments
Read More

Gallup Poll: Power Elite Believes Nurses Should Have More Say in Policy, Management

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

Last week I attended a press conference in Washington, D.C., where the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) released a Gallup poll it had commissioned to find out what 1,500 opinion leaders (or as Gallup editor-in-chief Frank Newport put it, “the people who run things in this country”) think about nursing leadership and nurses’ influence on health care reform. 

It’s no surprise that most (69%) see nurses as having little influence on health reform. Nurses ranked at the very bottom—immediately below patients, who were below physicians in the rankings. Mary Naylor, an innovative leader from the University of Pennsylvania and part of a reaction panel, hit the nail on the head: “Everyone should be concerned that the largest group of health care providers and the consumers are the least influential.” (Those seen as having the greatest influence are government officials and insurance executives—no surprise there, either.)

In identifying what impedes nurses’ ability to be in leadership roles, here’s how the opinion leaders weighed-in:

2016-11-21T13:19:52-05:00January 25th, 2010|career, health care policy, nursing perspective|1 Comment
Read More

‘You Start to See Everything’: Jackie Robidoux, Nurse and Photographer

By Sylvia Foley, AJN senior editor

Jackie Robidoux, a staff nurse on the orthopedic unit at Elliot Hospital in Manchester, New Hampshire, is also an amateur tracker and an award-winning nature photographer. This month we feature her stock photos both on our cover and in Art of Nursing.

“I love raw beauty,” Robidoux told AJN recently. To capture the image of the two does shown here, she waited for more than two hours on a hillside in 10-degree weather. “When you’re out there a long time like that, you start to see in a different way. You start to see everything around you.” Such patient alertness has also served her well as a nurse. To learn more, read On the Cover and visit her Web site.

If you’re a visual artist or a poet, we invite you to think about submitting to Art of Nursing. For details, read this blog post; guidelines can be found here. Still have questions? Write to me (I’m the department coordinator) and I’ll do my best to answer them: sylvia.foley@wolterskluwer.com.

Bookmark and Share

2017-04-14T09:07:38-04:00January 22nd, 2010|nursing perspective|0 Comments
Read More

Comment ground rules

1. Please be respectful.
2. We moderate all comments.

Content disclaimer

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.
Go to Top