Reducing Assessment Frequency: And Other Recommended Reading from AJN’s August Issue

The August issue of AJN is now live.

Does decreasing comprehensive physical assessments from twice daily to once daily in the general care setting affect patient safety or care quality? The authors of “Optimizing Nurses’ Time: Reducing Assessment Frequency in General Care” discuss a quality improvement project that addressed this question.

This month’s CE article, “Auto-Brewery Syndrome: Diagnosis and Treatment of This Little-Known Condition,” outlines presentation, diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up and the nursing implications for the care of these vulnerable patients. (Open access)

In “Health Care Workers and Burnout: A Cross-Sectional Study,” Vidal and colleagues note that “the effects of trauma-informed care practices on health care worker burnout, in the context of stressors such as workplace violence, are not fully understood.” Their study explores associations between workers’ attitudes toward trauma-informed care, worries about workplace violence, and burnout through a survey administered as part of a public health initiative.

Our August AJN Reports, “Barriers to Full Practice,” examines the American Medical Association’s push against APRN independence.

The latest article in the Nursing Research, Step by Step series, “Reporting Guidelines: An Overview,” explains reporting guidelines relevant to nursing research, how they’re developed, and why they’re important; introduces the […]

2025-07-24T14:40:03-04:00July 24th, 2025|Nursing|0 Comments

Nurses as Vital Partners in the Fight Against Antimicrobial Resistance

Photo: Shutterstock

Reducing the impact of antimicrobial therapy is a part of fundamental practice for health care providers, pharmacists, microbiologists, and public health professionals. Inclusion of nurses in the conversation regarding actions and implementation to achieve this end has often been an afterthought.

However, the number of nurses practicing across every health care setting makes us critical and active partners. What, specifically, are the roles and actions of nurses in addressing antimicrobial resistance, antimicrobial stewardship (AMS), and safe patient care and outcomes? Let’s first review the basics of the problem.

Nursing Activities Relevant to Antimicrobial Use and Stewardship

The approximately 5.77 million active nurses in the United States are widely trusted and well positioned to provide education on antibiotic use and influence behavior related to antimicrobial therapy. Their universal presence in health care settings empowers them to play a role as frontline actors in antimicrobial stewardship across inpatient, outpatient, and community settings. To make this happen, programs supporting appropriate use require commitment from health care leadership, available expertise in antimicrobial drug use, regular performance […]

2025-07-14T10:38:24-04:00July 14th, 2025|Nursing, patient safety|0 Comments

R3: Resilient Nurses Initiative Seeks to Redefine the Nursing Narrative

A film created to spark meaningful conversations about nursing.

With support from a state-funded grant, the R3: Resilient Nurses Initiative has embarked on a project to further its mission of promoting renewal, resilience, and retention in the nursing profession—a short film. In collaboration with the Dracopoulos-Bloomberg iDeas Lab at the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics, the team created Harnessing the Promise of Nursing.

The film includes interviews with a diverse array of Maryland nurses

The film aims to spark meaningful conversations that help nurses reconnect with their power, purpose, and value—ultimately strengthening and sustaining the nursing workforce.

Featuring interviews with Maryland nurses across generations and practice areas, the film offers a diverse range of voices and perspectives. It seeks to shift outdated narratives about nursing by highlighting both the profession’s challenges and its profound rewards. Through this lens, the film explores strategies for building a more sustainable future for nurses.

‘Capturing authentic, first-person experiences.’

A central theme of the project is the importance of nurses using their own voices to shape the story of their profession. By capturing authentic, first-person experiences, the film reclaims the narrative—centering it on pride, agency, and the essential role of nurses in health care. It also explores the generational, experiential, and cultural differences […]

2025-06-30T16:04:36-04:00June 30th, 2025|Nursing|0 Comments

Assessing Sleep Health: And Other Recommended Reading from AJN’s July Issue

The July issue of AJN is now live.

This month’s CE article, “Assessing and Promoting Sleep Health: A Brief Guide for Nurses,” outlines foundational information on sleep; general sleep health assessment; symptoms, risk factors, and screening measures related to common sleep disorders; and practical strategies nurses can use to promote healthy sleep.

“It’s important that RNs have effective ways to access and use integrative health programs and resources that are available to them. But this can be especially difficult for nurses who work at night,” write Withall and colleagues in “An Integrative Health Educational Intervention for RNs Working at Night: A Pilot Study.” This study aimed to assess whether an asynchronous integrative health educational intervention, tailored for night-shift nurses, was useful to them. (Open access)

Our July AJN Reports, Maternal Health: ‘A Crisis Within a Crisis,’” explores how recent federal funding cuts are threatening efforts to improve care and disparities.

In “Utilization of Pressure Injury Prevention Interventions in Acute Care Hospitals,” the authors examine the relationship between nurses’ adherence to pressure injury prevention practices and hospital-acquired pressure injury development. (Open access)

As noted by Otis and colleagues in this month’s Program Evaluation, “The trauma that nurses experience when […]

2025-06-26T11:21:16-04:00June 26th, 2025|Nursing|0 Comments

The World Can Use Our Help: A Nurse’s Thoughts on Retirement

After a varied, fulfilling, and fascinating 43-year career as a nurse, I finally retired. To be honest, I was a little anxious about it. After all, what would I do with all that free time?

So many of my colleagues were continuing to work long past the age of 65. But my husband and I had planned to move across the country when we retired, from Connecticut to California where our daughter and her family were living. Now that time had arrived.

Once we settled in the San Francisco Bay area, I looked around to see what I could do. I have always said that “everyone needs to be needed.” But where was a retired nurse needed? It soon became evident that volunteer opportunities abounded. I volunteered one day a week in a clinic for the underserved and unhoused, providing patients with health education. That is, until the clinic closed due to financial constraints. Back to square one.

An eye-opening experience.

Then the perfect opportunity presented itself. […]

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