Nurses Arrested at Senate Hearing on Health Care Reform

Photo courtesy of California Nurses Association. Photo courtesy of California Nurses Association.

Some nurse activists, along with like-minded physicians, celebrated National Nurses Week by getting arrested at a Senate Finance Committee meeting on health care reform. They were protesting the meeting’s lack of representation for those who support a single-payer health care system.

Why does this matter? We’re hearing a lot lately about related issues like the intensifying debate over cutting health care costs,  but most Americans, including nurses, simply don’t have time to follow the intricacies of health care reform—even if they’re well aware that over 45 million Americans don’t have guaranteed life insurance and even if (as nurses and as patients) they agree that something needs to be done about this ever-worsening problem. […]

2017-07-25T19:10:10-04:00May 14th, 2009|health care policy, nursing perspective|7 Comments
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The Psychology of Burn Pain: What Nurses Need to Know

The June issue of AJN includes the second part of a two-part article on burn pain (here’s the first part; for the best versions of both parts, click on “article as PDF”). Addressing the psychological component of this pain is key to the patient’s recovery. Below are some tips from Frank Costello, a clinical nurse specialist on a burn unit at Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York City, who spoke with editor-in-chief Diana Mason. (A podcast of the full interview with Costello can be found here.)

Burnpainscreenshot2

 

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2016-11-21T13:28:57-05:00May 13th, 2009|Nursing|0 Comments
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Give Us A Whirl: Submit Poems and Visual Art to AJN’s Art of Nursing

Artist at Work by ms. Tea / Tracy Ducasse, via Flickr.

First off, here’s some (perhaps) startling news: the work you’ll find in our Art of Nursing department might not be by a nurse or even about nursing, although of course it often is. It will somehow pertain to health or health care, and it will—we heartily believe—be worth the reader’s while. So, whether you’re a nurse or not, if you’re thinking about sending us a poem or visual art, why not give it a whirl? (We’ll also consider very short fiction—950 words or less.) As long as your work makes a connection to health or health care, is previously unpublished, and is well made, we’ll consider it happily. […]

2016-11-21T13:29:01-05:00May 13th, 2009|nursing perspective|6 Comments
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How Secure Are Your Medical Records? Farrah Fawcett Discusses Possible Breaches in Patient Confidentiality By Health Care Providers

“As time went on and more stories appeared, Fawcett said she grew convinced that information about her medical condition was being leaked by someone at UCLA. Whenever she sought treatment there, word always got out. Even when the tabloid reports were false, she said, they were based on a morsel of truth.”

Photo by k.steudel, via Flickr.

ProPublica‘s Charles Ornstein has conducted an interview (co-published yesterday in the Los Angeles Times; the article includes a short video) with Farrah Fawcett about living with a terminal illness under constant media scrutiny. Fawcett has been particularly critical of the National Enquirer, and of UCLA Medical Center for not protecting her medical records from employees who may have been releasing information to the media. At one point, she even set a trap to prove her suspicions were correct. As the Obama administration makes digitized health records a priority in its health care reform plans, how might this affect patient privacy, and are you (and your institutions) ready for the issues that might arise?

–Jacob Molyneux, AJN senior editor

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2016-11-21T13:29:14-05:00May 12th, 2009|digital health, health care policy|1 Comment
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School Nurses Do a Whole Lot More Than Applying Ice and BandAids

Photo by adrigu, via Flickr.

Recently, school nurses have been given a lot of recognition from the media, including AJN (here’s the most recent post, which contains links to several others). I was really happy to see them finally getting the credit they deserve. I was a school nurse for a while and I know firsthand how often they are taken for granted.

The first year, I worked for the New York City Department of Health as a per diem nurse, going to a different school almost every day to fill in for nurses that were out for the day. The following year I worked full-time at a school for the NYC Department of Education. (Department of Health nurses take care of mainstream students and Department of Education nurses are placed in schools to care for children with special needs.) I couldn’t believe how poorly I was treated by administration, students, and teaching staff. I quickly realized that school nurses were considered to be either glorified Band-Aid distributors or the place where children went to avoid classes they didn’t enjoy.  […]

2016-11-21T13:29:32-05:00May 12th, 2009|career, nursing perspective|4 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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