“As a pediatric nurse working with medically fragile children, I have noticed a fault in others that I have only recently been able to work on in myself—the one thing worse than staring at a child with an obvious disability is to conspicuously pretend we don’t notice the child at all.” —Lindsey van Gennep, author of this month’s Viewpoint article, “Afraid to Notice: On Responding to Children with Visible Disabilities”

The September issue of AJN is now live. Here are some of the articles we’re pleased to have a chance to publish this month.

CE: Too Much Sitting: A Newly Recognized Health Risk

This integrative literature review examines compelling evidence that overall daily sitting time—regardless of whether a person engages in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity—may be an independent health risk for cardiometabolic health conditions, certain cancers, and all-cause mortality. It also reveals new insights into high-volume sitting (seven or more hours a day) and prolonged uninterrupted sitting (30 minutes or more) and their relationship to adverse health outcomes.

CE: Managing Stable COPD: An Evidence-Based Approach

The authors describe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) risk factors, clinical manifestations, and diagnostic testing, and discuss how to put the revised Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease recommendations into practice.

AJN Reports: Responding to Mass Shootings: Are Hospitals—and Nurses—Fully Prepared?

The nurses and physicians who have experienced mass shootings firsthand—including the nurse supervisor of the trauma resuscitation unit that treated the victims of the Las Vegas shooting—discuss the importance of disaster planning.

Mental Health Matters: Antidepressant Medications

This second article in a series on the medications used to treat mental health disorders provides a brief overview of the indications for use, adverse effects, and nursing considerations related to antidepressants, including issues such as treatment-resistant depression, mono- versus combination therapy, and the possible connection between antidepressant use and suicide. 

There’s much more in our September issue, including:

  • A Profile of Elizabeth Iro, the World Health Organization’s chief nursing officer.
  • An On the Road with AJN report from editor-in-chief Shawn Kennedy about the annual meeting of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners in Denver.
  • A Cochrane Corner article on the efficacy of topical anesthetics for pain control during skin laceration repair.

Click here to browse the table of contents and explore the issue on our website.

A note on the cover:

This month’s cover photo of newsroom employees exemplifies the way many people spend a significant portion of their time: sitting. As discussed in the CE article mentioned above, evidence indicates that regularly engaging in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity may not be enough to negate the detrimental health effects of spending too many hours seated. Taking frequent breaks to walk or stand seems to be the most effective strategy to counteract the negative effects of prolonged sitting, though more research is needed.