Leaving WHO? Now?

Vital global health needs.

The July cover of AJN shows a nurse-midwife counseling a new mother in Ghana. We obtained this photograph from Jhpiego, a U.S.-based nonprofit organization that has been providing health services for women and families in developing countries since 1974. Not only does this image pay tribute to the Year of the Nurse and Midwife, but it’s a reminder that though the world’s attention is focused on the mounting cases of COVID-19, other vital global health care needs deserve our attention and our support. Infant and maternal mortality; communicable diseases like TB, Ebola, and malaria; and health crises arising from disasters, poverty, and war don’t pause while we deal with this outbreak.

A stunning departure.

I’m still in disbelief that the United States has given the World Health Organization (WHO) notice that it is pulling out of the organization. In May, the White House threatened to cut funding and leave, claiming that the WHO favored China and thus mishandled the COVID-19 outbreak (this was after praising them in April). This week, the United States confirmed it will leave the WHO. A global pandemic hardly seems the time to stop collaborating with other countries as the whole planet seeks solutions to combat this new and deadly coronavirus. […]

2020-07-09T11:32:24-04:00July 9th, 2020|climate change, infectious diseases, Public health|7 Comments
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Falls in Behavioral Health: Different Population, Different Risk Factors

“I need help in 230A! Mr. Johnson is on the floor!”

(click image to enlarge)

Does your heart still sink when you hear a patient has fallen? We’ve gotten better at preventing falls, but we haven’t eliminated them. They remain one of the most common “incident” reports in hospitals. And did you know that adult behavioral health inpatients have more falls and fall-related injuries than patients on medical-surgical units?

In this month’s Cultivating Quality article, “Preventing Falls Among Behavioral Health Patients,” free until July 20, Stephanie Ocker and colleagues discuss their very successful falls-related interventions on an inpatient behavioral health unit. As they proceeded with their root cause analyses of recent falls, an unusual risk factor stood out:

“Patients frequently walked in the unit’s common area with bath blankets hanging around them and often trailing under their feet. When nurses would ask patients not to walk around with blankets to reduce the risk of tripping, patients would say they were cold.”

[…]

2020-07-06T10:53:28-04:00July 6th, 2020|Nursing|1 Comment
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July Issue Highlights: Magnet vs. Non-Magnet Hospitals, Rapid-Response Team Activation Barriers, More

“Health care workers need a break. . . . a respite from trudging from room to room or house to house, donning and doffing gowns and masks and gloves . . .”—editor-in-chief Shawn Kennedy in her July editorial, “In the Aftermath”

The July issue of AJN is now live. Check out the highlights:

Original Research: How Magnet Hospital Status Affects Nurses, Patients, and Organizations: A Systematic Review

The authors analyze the current evidence comparing Magnet and non-Magnet hospitals to determine whether different outcomes exist between them—and provide new information regarding the economic impact of Magnet recognition.

The Effects of Smoking on Bone Health and Healing

A review of the effects of smoking on bone health, the importance of smoking cessation among patients scheduled for or recovering from orthopedic surgery, and the vital role nurses play in supporting patient efforts to quit.

Special Feature: Perceived Barriers to Rapid Response Team Activation Among Nurses

This literature review explores the major barriers many nurses face in calling the rapid response team—and how those barriers might be overcome.

[…]

2020-06-29T10:05:38-04:00June 29th, 2020|Nursing|0 Comments
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Reframing the Question: A Millennial’s Take On Preparing Nurse Educators of Tomorrow

A millennial novice nurse educator navigates the transition from the clinical arena to the world of nursing academia.

It was happening. I was enthusiastic and ready to start. Obtaining a position at a well-known public university as a lecturer had not only been my dream since my undergraduate years, but was a personal victory.

So many self-defeating thoughts went through my head in the weeks leading up to the notification by the university that I was hired. A member of the millennial generation nearing the end of my twenties, I knew that the outcome of hiring decisions could either boost me up or set me back. I was afraid that more established academic professionals from a senior generation would view me as “not a good fit for the position” or “lacking experience and knowledge.”

It is taboo to discuss, but age and generational bias is a concern for many professionals of the millennial generation. I had experienced this in the past while in the clinical setting.

Time to get to work.

Once I was past the hiring phase, I was faced with a new challenge that left no room to focus on self-doubt. I found myself accepted into academia with open arms from a team of well-rounded, skilled, nurse educators. They never seemed biased […]

2020-06-23T14:31:19-04:00June 23rd, 2020|Nursing, nursing career|2 Comments
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How’s Your N95 Supply These Days?

Since the pandemic began to wreak havoc in the U.S., my first question to bedside nurses has been, “Do you have enough PPE?” To my amazement, even as hospital admissions surged, many nurses told me that yes, they had a good supply of N95s. I quickly learned to be more specific: “How often do you receive a new N95?” Sometimes, the answer was “every shift.” More often, nurses told me “every week,” sometimes adding, “but I cover it with a new surgical mask every day.”

Redefining the PPE norm.

And so, barely a month into the pandemic, nurses had quickly adapted to a new normal. These days, it seems that N95 supplies are “good” when we have any at all. Certainly, nurses continue to protest our lack of PPE. But how did we arrive at this place where we are glad to have any protection at all?

“The lack of essential personal protective equipment (PPE) has been a defining characteristic of the coronavirus pandemic. From the beginning, respiratory protection guidance was driven by shortages of N95 respirators and surgical masks rather than by the well-established standards of infection prevention and control.”

In this month’s AJN Reports, we look at why PPE supplies are still suboptimal and likely to remain […]

2020-06-19T15:07:18-04:00June 19th, 2020|Nursing|1 Comment
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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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