American Journal of Nursing Archives - Page 9 of 9

‘How Can You Bear to Be a Nurse?’ – Nurses Week Begins

By Maureen Shawn Kennedy, AJN editor-in-chief

Photo from otisarchives4, via Flickr.

Many people, myself included, have mixed feelings about Nurses Week. But since many institutions have finally gotten the message that “I love nurses” shoelaces and bumper stickers are not appreciated, I’m fine with using the week to highlight nurses’ accomplishments or provide special educational programs—we should use all opportunities available to increase awareness of the value nurses bring to health care.

Former AJN editor Mary Mallison wrote an editorial for Nurses Week in 1987 that’s been deemed a classic. We’ve reprinted it in the journal, but it’s timeless in how it captures what nurses do, so here it is again (either click the above link to the article on our Web site, or just click the PDF below) for Nurses Week.

PDF version: HowCanYouBearToBeANurse?

Shawn Kennedy, MA, RN, FAAN, editor-in-chief (emerita)2018-03-28T10:38:24-04:00May 7th, 2012|nursing perspective|7 Comments

April Apps and Other Good Things

By Maureen Shawn Kennedy, MA, RN, AJN editor-in-chief

April is one of those months most people like, I think—the weather becomes consistently warmer and flowers appear. And this month, we at AJN are especially delighted because we launch our very own iPad app! As a temporary introductory offer, you can download the app for free (click here, or search under American Journal of Nursing in the iTunes app store) and get the full April issue. (Eventual pricing is still being determined.)

It’s another way AJN is providing you with accurate, evidence-based information in formats that allow you to access it when and where and how you want it. Don’t forget to subscribe to our always free audio podcasts, too—there are monthly highlights and interviews with authors.

And April is a stellar issue. This month we focus on examining how we treat people with disabilities. The cover, the editorial, and two features all deal with how we need to do better in this area. In the original research article, Suzanne Smeltzer and colleagues report on their survey of people with disabilities, querying them on interactions with nurses during hospitalizations. Their findings are sobering and should serve as a wake-up call when providing care to people with disabilities when they are hospitalized.

There’s also a poignant piece, “Hard Lessons from a Long Hospital Stay,” describing the experience of one of the authors of the research article, […]

Jacob Molyneux, senior editor/blog editor2016-11-21T13:10:24-05:00April 4th, 2012|nursing perspective, nursing research|0 Comments

iPad Apps, the Future of Nursing, More: Notes from the Nurse Execs Meeting in Boston

By Maureen Shawn Kennedy, AJN editor-in-chief

Last week, the city of Boston hosted the annual meeting of the American Organization of Nurse Executives (AONE). For those unfamiliar with this group, it’s a subsidiary of the American Hospital Association and its mission is, according to the Web site, “to shape health care through innovative and expert nursing leadership.” It’s been a few years since I last attended this conference, and I was amazed at increase in both sophistication of exhibits and number and variety of sessions. There was even an iPad app for the meeting!

Best-selling authors abounded: Dan Pink, author of Drive: The Surprising Truth of What Motivates Us, opened the conference and Thomas Goetz, executive editor of Wired magazine and author of The Decision Tree: Taking Control of Your Health in the New Era of Personalized Medicine, closed the meeting. Dee Dee Myers, former press secretary to President Bill Clinton, also talked about her new book, Why Women Should Rule the World.

As at many meetings this past year, the Institute of Medicine’s Future of Nursing report figured prominently, with a track focused on interpretations and implementation of its recommendations.

I asked Linda Burnes Bolton, chief nurse officer of Cedars Sinai […]

Jacob Molyneux, senior editor/blog editor2016-11-21T13:10:26-05:00March 26th, 2012|nursing perspective|1 Comment

A Reminder On Keeping Problems in Perspective

I’m sure there are many people like me who worry about issues and problems that gnaw at them—things they should do, must do, are expected to do, would like to do, etc., but don’t do. We wish things were different, that we had more time, more money, more help. If only this one thing were better, we could (fill in the blank).

Jacob Molyneux, senior editor/blog editor2016-11-21T13:12:46-05:00June 8th, 2011|Nursing|2 Comments

AJN Named One of the Century’s Most Influential Journals

Photo by Sarah G., via Flickr.

AJN has received lots of awards over the last decade, but few compare to the most recent one. The Specialized Libraries Association (SLA) has selected AJN as one of the 100 most influential journals of the century in biology and medicine—and the only nursing journal to receive that distinction.

AJN is in its 111th year of publication. It is the profession’s journal, the most reliable source of best practices, cutting-edge trends, and policy; and it also contains the history of American nursing in its pages—including developments in the American Red Cross, military nursing, the American Nurses Association (ANA), and issues that nurses have confronted across the decades and will continue to face as they go forward in this time of seemingly continual change.

As I write this, AJN is itself changing in many exciting ways to meet the needs of readers connected to the Web. Stay tuned as we go forward; tell us what you want to hear from us; engage us in conversation; and expect insight, challenge, and yes, that most boring, rare, and necessary of characteristics, reliability.
—Diana J. Mason, RN, Editor-in-Chief