Verified: Nurse Media Influencers

Responsible science communication can literally be the difference between life and death. Mass media, especially the news, as well as social media sites such as LinkedIn and Twitter, have a significant influence on people’s health beliefs and actions. As nurses we have a critical role to play in how the media reports on health issues and public health policy and on what messages the public and policy makers receive.

As clinicians, researchers, educators, public health practitioners, policy makers, and more, nurses need to use our expertise and voices to bring about change. At no  other time in our recent history has this been truer than during the current pandemics of COVID-19, racial injustice, and health inequity.

But nursing is a field often misunderstood by the public and the media. Most people think of nurses solely as clinicians at the bedside who do nothing more than take orders from physicians. But nurses are highly trained subject matter experts who work in a wide range of specialty areas including public health, social justice, law, history, research, education, school nursing, and more.

Nurses rarely recognized or ‘verified’ as experts.

Yet, the field of nursing is rarely recognized by the public, journalists, or even social media sites for this expertise. Open up any news article, or turn on any […]

2020-08-20T09:49:34-04:00August 20th, 2020|career, Nursing, nursing perspective|3 Comments
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In a Formidable Nursing Career, Bernardine Lacey Faced and Overcame Racism

Her story is important to know, because it offers an opportunity to learn from the not-too-distant past and explore some of the difficult truths about racism in nursing, the role of the profession in this history, and the effect of these accounts on current diversity and inclusivity efforts.

Lacey meeting with first lady Barbara Bush in the White House in the 1980s.

So write Sandra Lewenson and Ashley Graham-Perel in their article in the August issue of AJN, ‘You Don’t Have Any Business Being This Good’: An Oral History Interview with Bernardine Lacey. In the article, they recount Lacey’s upbringing in the South and the many racial barriers that made it difficult for her in getting an education and pursuing her career—which became a formidable one. As a result of her many accomplishments in education, practice, and leadership, she was named a Living Legend by the American Academy of Nursing in 2014.

Racial barriers remain.

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2020-08-17T09:38:48-04:00August 17th, 2020|career, Nursing, nursing history|0 Comments
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School Nurses as the New Front Line in the Struggle to Contain COVID

School nursing services did not end when our brick-and-mortar buildings closed in March because of COVID-19.

School nurses continued to provide a full spectrum of care in the most innovative ways. We supported parents as they grappled with the enormity of the sudden pivot to remote learning and linked parents and students to community resources that school nurses know so well. We continued care coordination, working with our most vulnerable students and families; created pathways to provide virtual school nursing services; and provided health education. Certified school nurses became contact tracers, delivered meals to students and families, and explained the transition from in-person medical appointments to telehealth. And we continue to support our parents in scheduling much-needed physicals and immunization updates before school reopening.

The front line of our struggle with COVID will now be at school and school nurses will be the first responders. Students and staff with one or more COVID symptoms may be asked to isolate for a minimum of 10 days following department of health guidelines. There will be mass absenteeism of both staff and students, as close contacts for those who have tested positive will also have to quarantine for 14 days.

This information has not been communicated clearly and consistently on a statewide level to our school communities. Youth community spread of the virus is already here and we are in an ever-changing landscape in terms of COVID-19 containment—we are chasing this virus and the virus […]

2020-08-12T09:20:23-04:00August 12th, 2020|Nursing, Public health, school nurses|1 Comment
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Many in Health Care Have Made Sense of COVID Through Art or Poetry

By Hayley Jasper. All rights reserved.

Since March, AJN has been inundated with COVID-19–related manuscripts from around the world, ranging from prospective feature articles to submissions for this blog as well as our Reflections and Viewpoint columns. Not unexpectedly, we are also seeing many visual art and poetry submissions to our Art of Nursing column as we all try to make sense of this pandemic experience.

Art of Nursing selections.

In the July issue, we feature a drawing and two poems that reflect the times, as well as a reprint of a recent post from this blog.

The drawing, Behind the Front Lines, is by Hayley Jasper, an award-winning artist who is a junior in high school. Hayley’s piece was inspired by her mother, who is an ICU nurse in a COVID-19 unit.

The poem “Alone, surrounded” was written by Dublin geriatrician Shane O’Hanlon. Behavioral health nurse Marianne Broyles wrote the poem “Using Time Wisely During COVID-19.” Here’s a brief excerpt:

And I feel very small, like a field mouse.
It is all I can do to
Blend in and hope the great
Horned owl will pass me over…

We hope both poems will invite […]

2020-08-07T09:58:10-04:00August 7th, 2020|Nursing, nursing perspective|0 Comments
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Nurses Drawdown: A Global Climate Movement for Nurses

By Katie Huffling, RN, MS, CNM, FAAN

When a small group of nurses first got together nine months ago to strategize how we could harness the collective power of nurses to address climate change, we had no idea what changes 2020 would hold for the nursing community. We were excited for the Year of the Nurse and Midwife and Florence Nightingale’s 200th birthday. What better time to bring nurses together to address climate change, one of the most pressing public health challenges we currently face?

Still the most trusted profession.

Now here we are midway through 2020 and the world seems completely different, with much of the globe still in quarantine as we battle COVID-19. But one thing hasn’t changed, and in fact the response to the pandemic has only made it more apparent to the world: nurses truly deserve the title of the most trusted profession. We are now in the spotlight, showing the exceptional professionalism, caring, and passion that are hallmarks of our profession. It is these qualities we are hoping to harness with the new initiative, Nurses Drawdown. If we can be leaders in responding to the global pandemic, nurses can be leaders in supporting solutions to climate change.

Nurses around the globe are invited to participate in Nurses Drawdown. The initiative is based on the science of Project Drawdown, a “research organization that reviews, analyses, and identifies the most viable global climate solutions, […]

2020-08-05T10:30:58-04:00August 5th, 2020|climate change, environmental health, environmental health, Nursing, Public health|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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