The ER Exit vs. the Long Goodbye: Notes of a Hospice Nurse on the Morning After

“Mourning Dove Bailing,” Bob MacInnes/ via Flickr. “Mourning Dove Bailing,” Bob MacInnes/ via Flickr.

I’m exhausted and shaky, and the “pssssht!” sound of the pneumatic doors of the ER closing behind me on the way out sounds final, and just fine. I didn’t used to feel this way when I worked in the ER. Of course, that was at the other end, the beginning, of my nursing career, when I was young(er) and callous and every code was a challenge and a rush—as if the people were characters in a play, and I got to join in each evening. I hadn’t a clue what they were going through. Now, 30 years and two dead parents, a dead best friend, and a score of minor players later, I’m beginning to understand. I suspect that this glimmer of connection and compassion is what makes hospice nursing sometimes so draining. […]

2016-11-21T13:33:13-05:00April 27th, 2009|nursing stories|0 Comments
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The Triple Talents of Some Nurse Bloggers

Yellow Triage Flower by zayzayem / Michael Zimmer, via Flickr.

Being very good at anything takes a lot of work. I’m impressed as all-get-out by people who get to be really good at, say, nursing. Or writing a blog. Or juggling. Or welding. I’m especially awed by people who get to be really good at more than one thing. In drifting through the blogosphere this week, I’ve come across some nurses with triple-threat skill sets, as it were. Have a look! […]

2016-11-21T13:33:33-05:00April 24th, 2009|career, healthcare social media, nursing perspective|1 Comment
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AJN Named One of the Century’s Most Influential Journals

Photo by Sarah G., via Flickr. Photo by Sarah G., via Flickr.

AJN has received lots of awards over the last decade, but few compare to the most recent one. The Specialized Libraries Association (SLA) has selected AJN as one of the 100 most influential journals of the century in biology and medicine—and the only nursing journal to receive that distinction.

AJN is in its 111th year of publication. It is the profession’s journal, the most reliable source of best practices, cutting-edge trends, and policy; and it also contains the history of American nursing in its pages—including developments in the American Red Cross, military nursing, the American Nurses Association (ANA), and issues that nurses have confronted across the decades and will continue to face as they go forward in this time of seemingly continual change.

As I write this, AJN is itself changing in many exciting ways to meet the needs of readers connected to the Web. Stay tuned as we go forward; tell us what you want to hear from us; engage us in conversation; and expect insight, challenge, and yes, that most boring, rare, and necessary of characteristics, reliability.
—Diana J. Mason, RN, Editor-in-Chief

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2020-02-07T11:29:19-05:00April 23rd, 2009|nursing perspective, nursing research|1 Comment
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What’s Your ‘Impact Factor’ as a Nurse?

Blue Impact I, by Helico, via Flickr. Blue Impact I, by Helico, via Flickr.

I hate to admit this in public but I do enjoy a good self-help book from time to time. My latest guilty pleasure is Write It Down, Make it Happen, by Henriette Anne Klauser. The title sums up the premise of the book pretty well: if you want to make changes in your life, start writing about them and your aspirations will begin to take on a life all their own.

I haven’t actually done that yet, so I will have to keep you posted. However, what really struck me was an anecdote about a study from the 1960’s (apparently this story has gotten around quite a bit and may have become an urban legend). Scientists observing monkeys on an island off the coast of Japan noted that these monkeys were washing sand off potatoes in a stream. Little by little other monkeys adopted this same behavior. When a certain number of monkeys (a “critical mass”) was reached, primates on neighboring islands started to do it too. This is sometimes referred to as the 100th monkey theory. […]

2016-11-21T13:33:56-05:00April 23rd, 2009|Nursing|0 Comments
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So a Nurse Walks into a Hospital with a PhD . . .

By Jason Ford, via Flickr. By Jason Ford, via Flickr.

. . . and the PhD turns to her and says . . . (Sorry. That’s copyeditor humor—dangling modifiers and all that.)

My question for you is, should that nurse (let’s call her Beverly Smythe) be called Dr. Smythe? It’s an intriguing question, if only because it seems that some people think the answer is no. Diana Mason (PhD, RN, FAAN) mentioned this in her editorial last August. […]

2020-02-07T11:29:35-05:00April 22nd, 2009|career, nursing perspective|10 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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