The Ethics of No-Smokers Hiring Policies: Examining the Assumptions

Army nurses light up in 1947. Photo courtesy of Everett Collection / Newscom. Army nurses light up in 1947. Photo courtesy of Everett Collection / Newscom.

By Jacob Molyneux, senior editor

The Ethical Issues column in the June issue is called “The Ethics of Denying Smokers Employment in Health Care” (free until July 16). As in his previous columns, nurse–ethicist Doug Olsen models the thinking process of an ethicist, illuminating the fundamentals of ethical reasoning even as he tackles a specific ethical question.

Most positions we take on tough questions depend on a number of assumptions, both conscious and otherwise. In this article, Olsen does a great job identifying and then testing the assumptions that underlie such no-smokers hiring policies. Here are the main ones, as Olsen describes them:

2016-11-21T13:04:29-05:00June 16th, 2014|career, Ethics, nursing perspective|10 Comments
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AJN June Issue: Genomic Advances in CF, LGBT Care Disparities, Denying Smokers Jobs, More

AJN0614.Cover.OnlineAJN’s June issue is now available on our Web site. Here’s a selection of what not to miss.

The newborn featured on our cover this month is wrapped in a blanket decorated with a string of letters—better known as genetic code. Today, all newborns in the United States are screened for various inherited and congenital conditions, but the use of genomic sequencing at birth could provide information beyond what current screen­ing already provides—health information to go in their medical records for use in detecting and managing disease.

Cystic fibrosis (CF) is one disorder that has been affected by recent developments in the field of genetics. The discovery of the CF gene in 1989, along with advances in molecular genet­ics, made it possible to screen for CF through DNA testing. Early diagnosis and prompt treat­ment of CF has been shown to improve patients’ overall health and survival. Genetic advances have also led to the development of promising drugs to treat CF. For more on the impact of genomic advances on diagnosis and treatment, and implications for nursing practice, read, “Genomic Breakthroughs in the Diagnosis and Treatment of Cystic Fibrosis,” and  earn 2.3 CE credits by taking the test that follows the article.

LGBT health care disparities. The health care disparities that affect people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT) are closely tied to sexual and social stigma […]

2016-11-21T13:04:38-05:00May 29th, 2014|nursing perspective|0 Comments
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The Blame Game

By Jacob Molyneux, senior editor

TheBlameGameIllustrationThe Reflections essay in the April issue of AJN is called “The Blame Game.” It’s by a nurse who finds herself visiting a family member in the hospital during her shift break at the same hospital. In her distress, she gets little relief or reassurance from the harshly judgmental nurse she encounters.

The vividly told episode raises the question: can the act of casting judgment on another person diminish our ability to see these people as complete human beings, whatever their failings? And also this question: what is the proper attitude of nurses toward their patients?

Please give it a read and see what you think. Is this nurse’s attitude an exception, or more common than it should be, as the author suggests? Here’s a brief quote from near the end:

There seems to be a dangerous epidemic of clinicians blaming patients for their health issues. As a nursing student, I saw more and more of this attitude. The health care profession seems to have evolved a culture of accusation and attack against patients, a group we should be empowering and protecting.

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2016-11-21T13:05:03-05:00April 7th, 2014|nursing perspective|7 Comments
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Top 15 American Journal of Nursing Blog Posts in 2013

Blogging - What Jolly Fun/Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com, via Flickr Creative Commons Blogging – What Jolly Fun/Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com, via Flickr Creative Commons

In keeping with journalistic custom, here’s an end-of-year list of the most popular 15 blog posts on Off the Charts in 2013. Some were new posts this year. Some were from previous years but are still as relevant as ever. We’d like to think not everything that appears on this blog is ephemeral. Thank you to all our excellent writers and thoughtful readers. Cheers!—Jacob Molyneux, senior editor/blog editor

 1. “The Heart of a Nurse”
“As nurses, we are drawn to the field for many different reasons. What is exciting and fulfilling to some is stressful and boring to others. Our ability to show compassion is perhaps our best nursing skill, better than our proficiency with machines, computers, and even procedures. It may not be what we do so much as how we do it.”

2. “A Report from the ANA Safe Staffing Conference”
“Nurses continue to beg to be taken out of the ‘room and board’ costs and to be seen as an asset. But instead, they are often seen as a major expense that can be reduced for the […]

2016-11-21T13:05:48-05:00December 20th, 2013|career, healthcare social media, nursing perspective|0 Comments
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Tightly Scripted: One NP’s Experience with Retail Clinics

By Karen Roush, MS, RN, FNP-C, AJN clinical managing editor

Retail health clinics (walk-in clinics that are in a retail setting such as a drugstore or discount department store)KarenRoush have become an effective mode of providing increased access to care for many people and a growing source of employment for nurse practitioners (NPs). Their place in the health care arena may take on even more significance as the Affordable Care Act (ACA) increases access to care for previously uninsured people.

I worked as an NP in a retail clinic for about six months while working on my PhD. I left because of concerns I had about the model of practice. It didn’t have to do with the fact that I had to mop the floor at closing time or collect the fees and cash out the “drawer” every night. Nor because I spent eight hours alone in a small windowless room tucked away in the back of a drugstore. Those aspects were not great, but they weren’t deal breakers.

What was a deal breaker was the rigid programming of my practice. The computer was in control. From the moment the patient checked in at the kiosk outside my door, every action was determined by the computer.

The organization I worked for prided itself on following evidence-based […]

2016-11-21T13:06:09-05:00November 1st, 2013|career, nursing perspective|2 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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