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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Chemotherapy-Induced Neuropathy: More Than Just Pins and Needles

When I was in graduate school, I worked as a chemotherapy nurse. Patients would often talk about the side effects of the medications. One of the most bothersome was the peripheral neuropathy that caused numbness and tingling—the “pins and needles”—and often cramping, pain, and weakness that made walking difficult.

Assessing and managing CIPN as well as educating patients.

This month, Robert Knoerl’s article, “Chemotherapy-Induced Peripheral Neuropathy” (CIPN), provides a review of “strategies to use in assessing, managing, and educating patients who are at risk for or are experiencing CIPN.” He notes that CIPN affects 68% of patients receiving many commonly used drugs for cancer treatment and can begin as early as the first treatment and continue long after treatment ends, resulting in months of debilitating symptoms.

Although certain classes of medication may help alleviate symptoms in some patients, there are no medications approved specifically for treating CIPN. There is, however, some evidence that exercise can help mitigate the effects. […]

2021-04-22T07:29:29-04:00April 19th, 2021|Nursing|0 Comments
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Nurse Volunteers on the Front Lines of the Vaccination Effort

Joanne Disch, PhD, RN, FAAN, is professor ad honorem at the University of Minnesota School of Nursing, Minneapolis, and Ellen Elpern, MSN, RN, is a retired advanced practice nurse, formerly at Rush University Medical Center, Chicago.

Nurse volunteers as an essential resource.

As of April 15, 2021, there have been over 31 million cases of COVID-19 in the United States and over 561,000 deaths. Sobering numbers. But there are some heartening numbers as well: 198 million vaccination shots have been administered so far, with 3 million doses now being given per day. To reach and continue to meet the current pace has required an extraordinary ramp-up of sites—and of the number of individuals administering the vaccines. An essential resource that’s emerged is the use of nurses as volunteers to help staff these sites.

For more than a year, the public has witnessed the compassion, competence, and heroism of nurses who are on the front lines of the COVID pandemic. Those of us who are nurses and not in the clinical setting watched with pride and empathy, knowing better than most what these nurses were experiencing—and wishing there were something that we could do. Stepping forward to volunteer for service in a vaccine clinic is one way to make a difference. These volunteer opportunities are as varied as the vaccination sites themselves, but in all cases the effort is being enriched by the active engagement of nurses, retired and otherwise.

Defuniak Springs, Florida

2021-04-16T09:15:42-04:00April 16th, 2021|COVID-19, infectious diseases, Nursing, nursing career|0 Comments
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Improving the Response to Mental Health Emergencies

What is a mental health crisis?

Image by Petra Šolajová from Pixabay

As a psychiatric NP, I treat patients with mental illness through medication and therapy, but there are no guarantees treatment will work. It’s often a process to find a medication that both works to control the patient’s symptoms and doesn’t cause the unwanted side effects (such as sedation and weight gain) that can make a patient not want to continue taking it.

While this process is happening, the patient is living his or her life, coping with usual stressors such as working and navigating personal relationships, and possibly more intense stressors like poor living conditions or trauma. These factors can put someone at risk for a mental health crisis.

According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), “a mental health crisis is any situation in which a person’s behavior puts them at risk of hurting themselves or others and/or prevents them from being able to care for themselves or function effectively in the community.” When a person exhibits these types of behaviors, it’s common for 911 to be called and for police officers to arrive on the scene. This can have dangerous ramifications for the person with mental illness. However, there is […]

2021-04-14T10:10:40-04:00April 14th, 2021|Nursing|0 Comments
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Assessing the Post-Pandemic Future of Virtual Care

The following is a condensed version of an upcoming news article by Joan Zolot scheduled for AJN’s May edition.

Studies of safety and quality will determine the optimum use of this option.

Photo by Anna Shvets from Pexels

The use of telemedicine surged during the COVID-19 pandemic. Phone and videoconferencing limited patients’ exposure to the virus while maintaining their access to care. One estimate found that virtual care peaked at 42% of all ambulatory visits covered by commercial insurers in April 2020. The February 2 JAMA published several articles* addressing the safety, effectiveness, and quality of virtual consults and their future in health care.

Some obvious and potential benefits.

Because of its efficiency, virtual care has been shown to be particularly suitable for mental health consults, prescription refills, and straightforward evaluations. It can reduce patient inconveniences such as travel to appointments and lost work time. It can also enable patients to receive needed care sooner, especially those with limited mobility, caregiving responsibilities, or who live in remote areas. It may also have the potential to improve care coordination by enabling primary care clinicians and specialists to confer jointly with patients.

Risks, concerns, ongoing questions.

Because virtual medicine does not allow for physical examination, it’s inadequate for common clinical situations such […]

2021-04-07T14:15:14-04:00April 7th, 2021|digital health, patient engagement, Patients, Public health, Technology|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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