On the Road Again (Sort of) with Virtual Nursing Meetings

Virtual meetings are likely here to stay, at least in part.

For the past 18 months, I’ve spent a lot of time attending virtual meetings. You name the app—Zoom, Facetime, Microsoft Teams—I’ve been on it. While I appreciate the advances that enable us to have visual as well as audio connections with colleagues, family, and friends, I do miss meeting the old-fashioned way: in person. The good news is that many people who might not have been able to attend meetings because of the travel costs are now able to “zoom-in” on meetings.

I’ve “attended” several virtual meetings this spring but messages from two of them stay with me:

The resurgence of the clinical nurse specialist (CNS).

The National Association of Clinical Nurse Specialists (NACNS) had its virtual meeting with 900 attendees from 46 states. The theme was “The Resurgence of the CNS,” focusing on how the CNS has become the “go to” professional to lead quality initiatives. I recall the 1980s, when hospitals were in a cost-cutting mode and many cut the CNS role.

A decade later, reports from the National Academies of Medicine on medical errors (To Err is Human) and later, on safety and quality (Crossing the Quality Chasm) called for change, but there was no […]

2021-04-30T08:22:25-04:00April 30th, 2021|Nursing|0 Comments
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But Where Are You Really From?

Anne Lano will graduate from a family nurse practitioner program next month.

As a five-year-old adoptee from Korea who grew up in the primarily white world of central Nebraska, I often wished, as a child, that I could look like everyone else. Early on, I was often confused or hurt by the unthinking remarks I received. Neighborhood boys teased me about my eyes. When I was in my teens, a woman in the locker room turned  in my direction and said, slowly and loudly, “Welcome to America!” When I was sure she was talking to me, I said, “Uh, thanks! You too?!”

While I was chasing my kids around the playground, another little girl climbed up a ladder close to me. When she was eye level with me, she brightly said, “Hola!” It took me a second to realize she thought I was Hispanic, but I chuckled and, with a smile said, “Hola!” back to her. Likewise, at a friend’s relative’s house, a woman claimed that I look just like someone she knew. She searched all her photo albums to show me a picture of an Asian man who, in my opinion, looked […]

2021-04-28T09:30:57-04:00April 28th, 2021|Nursing, nursing stories|1 Comment
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Isn’t It Ironic: A Nurse Reflects on Her J&J Vaccination

Irony: a state of affairs or an event that seems deliberately contrary to what one expects and is often amusing as a result. -dictionary.com

Vaccine, by Julianna Paradisi

On a recent Saturday afternoon I received the Johnson and Johnson/Janssen COVID-19 vaccine. The following Tuesday, its further administration was put on pause, “out of an abundance of caution,” after reports that six women between the ages of 18 and 48 developed a rare but serious form of blood clot six to 13 days after receiving the vaccine. One of the six women died.

There is nothing amusing about the irony that people seeking protection from COVID-19 may have developed a life-threatening adverse reaction from the vaccine. For health care providers, and perhaps especially for nurses, such events are heartbreaking.

Lifting the J&J pause.

On Friday, April 23, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the FDA lifted the 10-day pause on the J&J vaccine, without restrictions, instead issuing a fact sheet to medical providers warning them of the potential for the extremely rare but serious blood clots.

When the pause was lifted, over 7 million people had received the vaccine, with additional confirmed cases of blood clots that had been reported bringing the […]

2021-04-26T11:16:05-04:00April 26th, 2021|COVID-19, infectious diseases, Nursing, nursing perspective, Public health|0 Comments
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AJN May Issue: What We Know About MIS-C, Clinician Peer Support, More

“The nursing mentality is complicated: we typically prioritize patients, family, and friends above ourselves. . . . No one understands the mentality except those in it.”—Janey Eden Kottler in her Reflections essay, “Built for This”

May is National Nurses Month. This month, and always, AJN and its publisher, Wolters Kluwer, honor the work of all nurses as you demonstrate to the world the power and value of nursing. To thank you, the entire May issue is free to read for the month.

CE: Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children: A Review

This comprehensive evidence-based review describes the epidemiology, pathophysiology, signs and symptoms, alternative potential diagnoses, and treatment options of MIS-C, an emerging pediatric disorder associated with COVID-19.

CE: Providing Care for Caregivers During COVID-19

The authors discuss Care for the Caregiver—a peer-to-peer program that provides support to clinicians who have experienced an unexpected and emotionally distressing event—and how it was adapted in their health system in response to the pandemic.

Special Feature: A Look Back at the Year of the Nurse and the Midwife

A photo-essay highlights the diverse experiences of nurses and midwives around the world during a challenging year. […]

2021-04-23T10:15:02-04:00April 23rd, 2021|Nursing|0 Comments
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Celebrating Earth Day: Connecting Health and the Environment

Photo by Fateme Alaie via Unsplash

Earth Day, celebrated on April 22, is an annual event to demonstrate support for environmental protections. First held in 1970, it now includes a wide range of events coordinated in more than 192 countries across the globe. The Earth Day celebration that stands out most for me was the 20th anniversary held in Central Park in New York. The event was estimated to have drawn more than 750,000 people—a big incentive being the free concert, which included a performance by the B-52s (who doesn’t love “Love Shack”?).

This year marks the 41st Earth Day, and amidst a global pandemic, activities will look a lot different. (Click here for more information on the virtual events taking place this year.)

Free articles from our environments and health column.

In honor of Earth Day, AJN would like to offer free access to the below selection of articles from our Environments and Health column until May 15. There’s a lot to unpack in these articles—from steps to reduce waste at the hospital level, to how nurses can get involved in fighting climate change, to how patients’ health can be affected by our environment, particularly the mental health conditions that may arise amid extreme […]

2021-04-22T14:42:23-04:00April 22nd, 2021|climate change, environmental health, environmental health, Nursing|0 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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