A Message from the Tri-Council for Nursing: Nurses Need to Vote in 2020

The Tri-Council for Nursing, an alliance between the American Association of Colleges of Nursing, the American Nurses Association, the American Organization for Nursing Leadership, the National Council of State Boards of Nursing, and the National League for Nursing representing nurses in practice, nurse leaders, and nursing educators, urges you to exercise your right to vote in the 2020 election.

The Tri-Council for Nursing calls upon all nurses to carefully weigh the positions, proposals, and legislative voting records of candidates who aspire to elected office on November 3, 2020. In these unprecedented times, voting may look different, especially with early voting options and vote-by-mail opportunities becoming increasingly relevant.

As we get closer to Election Day, the Tri-Council strongly recommends that you consider the safest way for you to cast your vote. To ensure you have the best information available and are ready to cast your ballot, follow these three simple steps:

  1. Register. Double check if you are registered to vote by going to vote.gov. Some states allow same day registration, but it is important to check now to ensure that you are prepared for Election Day.
  2. Do Your Research. While 2020 is a presidential election year, there are many open seats at the state and local levels as well. It is important to research not only who will be on the ballot, but any proposals that may also be up for consideration this election season.
  3. Vote. With COVID-19, states are […]
2020-09-04T08:57:21-04:00September 4th, 2020|Nursing|0 Comments
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Two Nurses Who Traveled to New York City to Care for COVID-19 Patients

“I’d been watching social media and seeing former colleagues and classmates who were working in New York City. [They were] very, very, burnt out and tired. I couldn’t turn down the opportunity to go and help them.” – Caitlin Doane

In the spring, when New York City was the U.S. epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic, we watched with increasing concern as hospitals became overwhelmed, nurses and doctors worked long shifts for days on end, and PPE was rationed.

Reports from nurses working under these conditions were often horrifying. (Read one nurse’s story from those early weeks here: https://ajnoffthecharts.com/deserted-note-from-a-young-icu-nurse-as-covid-19-pandemic-intensifies-in-u-s/)

Nurses understood.

Nurses from around the country understood far better than the general public just how dire the situation was in New York City hospitals. Some of them traveled here to help. AJN had the opportunity to sit down (virtually) with two of these nurses after their return home, and their stories are featured in the August Profiles column.

Caitlin Doane, an ED nurse from Ithaca, New York, who comes from a family of first responders, joined a medical mission organized by her hospital to travel downstate to hospitals in the […]

2020-09-03T08:32:20-04:00September 3rd, 2020|Nursing|0 Comments
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September Issue Highlights: Discussing Gun Safety with Patients, Trauma-Related Hemorrhagic Shock, More

“It is abundantly clear from this pandemic that we are all connected and need the strength of nations working together to thwart any threat to global health and well-being. We ignore
our connectedness at our own peril.”—Pamela F. Cipriano in her guest editorial, “Standing with the WHO”

The September issue of AJN is now live. Here are some highlights.

Original Research: Nurses’ Knowledge and Comfort with Assessing Inpatients’ Firearm Access and Providing Education on Safe Gun Storage

The authors sought to determine hospital nurses’ knowledge of firearm safety and current state law, and their comfort with asking patients about gun access and educating them on gun safety.

Trauma-Related Hemorrhagic Shock: A Clinical Review

This article discusses the general principles underlying the pathophysiology and clinical management of trauma-related hemorrhagic shock.

Special Feature: An Intimate Glimpse of Emergency Nurses at Work

A photo-essay featuring scenes from a new film by Carolyn Jones, In Case of Emergency, which profiles the daily lives of ED nurses across the country.

[…]

2020-09-01T08:51:36-04:00September 1st, 2020|Nursing|0 Comments
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Bringing Redemptive Voices from Greek Tragedy to COVID’s Frontline Clinicians

Bearing witness.

I enter my patient’s room and hear the sucking click as the door slides shut behind me. Vacuumed silence, negative pressure—but all the pressure in the world seems to settle onto my shoulders, my head, and down through my back, filling my feet like wet cement.

I need to move. His oxygen saturation is dropping again. He’s grimacing. Is he in pain? I wonder as I step closer to the bed. My pulse quickens as I take in the scene before me: glassy eyes inset upon a sunken, sallow complexion; bleeding mouth; the imperceptible rise and fall of chest to the biddings of the ventilator; swollen limbs. A lock of hair falls into my eyes, but my PAPR hood prevents me from pushing it aside. His heart rate and respiratory rate are higher now. Maybe he needs more sedation. If only he could speak. I take in a measured breath of filtered air as I suction his breathing tube. Breathe.

The doctor appears and is talking to me, but her voice is barely audible above the steady stream of air rushing past my ears. We’re practically shouting. The plan, a combination of trial and error, science, and visceral, pit-of-the-stomach intuition, is shaky at best.

As she moves away toward the door, I want to call out to her, to beg her to stay, to look upon the suffering and feel its weight, but I am silent and she disappears into a sea of blue scrubs. I am alone in this sealed room […]

2020-08-27T09:45:26-04:00August 27th, 2020|Nursing|1 Comment
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The Pediatric Illness PANDAS: Easy to Misdiagnose, Often Overlooked

What would you do if your young, previously healthy and happy child suddenly developed obsessive-compulsive disorder or symptoms of Tourette’s syndrome?

In “PANDAS: Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorders Associated with Streptococcal Infection,” authors Christine Pabst and Kim Subasic discuss an unusual pediatric illness that, although identified more than 20 years ago, is not well recognized by clinicians: PANDAS, or Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorders Associated with Streptococcal Infection.

PANDAS is characterized by the sudden and dramatic onset of “psychiatric” symptoms such as the ones above, appearing during or shortly after infection with group A streptococcus.

Two factors make PANDAS difficult to diagnose.

  • First, it seems so obviously a psychiatric disorder that psychotropic or other psychiatric medications may be prescribed without further investigation.
  • Second, carrying group A streptococcus without signs of actual infection can also precipitate PANDAS, making it difficult to connect PANDAS symptoms with a previous medical illness.

[…]

2020-08-24T06:27:32-04:00August 24th, 2020|Nursing, pediatrics|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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