Nurses as Vital Partners in the Fight Against Antimicrobial Resistance

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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
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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 It seeks to shift outdated narratives about nursing by highlighting both the profession’s challenges and its profound rewards.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 that […]

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

2025-06-26T11:21:16-04:00June 26th, 2025|Nursing|0 Comments
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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. When I […]

2025-06-25T09:36:20-04:00June 24th, 2025|nurse retirement, Nursing, Public health, volunteering|6 Comments
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Kennedy’s Replacement of Entire Vaccine Advisory Committee Causes Widespread Alarm

Heather Hazzan, SELF Magazine

Department of Health and Human Services (HSS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has fired all 17 members of the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (ACIP), the body of experts that reviews vaccine safety and efficacy data and makes recommendations on vaccine scheduling as well as precautions and contraindications to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

In a June 9 news release, HHS announced the dismissals, claiming it as a “bold step to restore public trust in vaccines.” In a post the next day on the social media platform X, Kennedy accused the committee of financial corruption and of “malevolent malpractice” for allegedly not requiring placebo-controlled trials for childhood vaccines, a misleading and inaccurate claim he has made frequently in the past.

Refuted and misleading claims.

In a May ‘Fact-Checked’ news release, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) refuted his claims, stating that most childhood vaccines were tested originally in randomized clinical trials that included placebo or comparison groups. AAP also noted that when testing a replacement for an existing vaccine, the comparator is the existing vaccine, not an inert placebo, because “when a safe, effective vaccine already exists against a disease, […]

2025-06-13T08:31:49-04:00June 13th, 2025|COVID-19, infectious diseases, Nursing, pediatrics, 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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