healthcare Archives - Page 2 of 6

Many in Health Care Have Made Sense of COVID Through Art or Poetry

Since March, AJN has been inundated with COVID-19–related manuscripts from around the world, ranging from prospective feature articles to submissions for this blog as well as our Reflections and Viewpoint columns. Not unexpectedly, we are also seeing many visual art and poetry submissions to our Art of Nursing column as we all try to make sense of this pandemic experience.

Art of Nursing selections.

In the July issue, we feature a drawing and two poems that reflect the times, as well as a reprint of a recent post from this blog.

The drawing, Behind the Front Lines, is by Hayley Jasper, an award-winning artist who is a junior in high school. Hayley’s piece was inspired by her mother, who is an ICU nurse in a COVID-19 unit.

The poem “Alone, surrounded” was written by Dublin geriatrician Shane O’Hanlon. Behavioral health nurse Marianne Broyles wrote the poem “Using Time Wisely During COVID-19.” Here’s a brief excerpt:

And I feel very small, like a field mouse.
It is all I can do to
Blend in and hope the great
Horned owl will pass me over…

We hope both poems will invite […]

Betsy Todd, MPH, RN2020-08-07T09:58:10-04:00August 7th, 2020|Nursing, nursing perspective|0 Comments

Environmentally Sustainable Nursing Practices: Small Changes Make a Big Difference

“The decisions nurses make about waste and efficiency on the front lines of clinical care matter, and the potential impact on health and the environment should not be underestimated.”

These days, most nurses have little time for anything that isn’t COVID related. Either we’re inundated with patients, changing work flow and physical spaces to accommodate long-term social distancing, or trying to home-school our kids or plan the next trip to the grocery store. Inevitably, though, our attention will return to other urgent issues in health care. The impact of our everyday work practices on the health of the planet is one of these issues.

How often do you toss unused linen into a laundry hamper after a patient is discharged, or discard leftover but unopened supplies that have been in a patient’s room, or hurriedly throw away soiled “chux” in a “red-bagged waste” container because that’s the nearest receptacle? In “Reducing Waste in the Clinical Setting” in this month’s issue, Sara Wohlford and colleagues at Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital in Roanoke, Virginia, share how increased attention to wasteful practices and modest changes in workflow can impact the environment and save money.

Small changes in three areas can make a big difference.

The authors looked at three facets […]

Betsy Todd, MPH, RN2020-06-04T10:11:36-04:00June 4th, 2020|environmental health, Nursing, nursing research|0 Comments

The Sound of Silence: Racism in Nursing

“In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.” -Dr. Martin Luther King

One of the conundrums I face when writing stories from my nursing career is the question “whose story is it?” For instance, does observing an act of racism give the observer the right to tell the story of what happened to another person? Does telling the story with the intent of exposing the ugliness of racism make it okay?

by julianna paradisi

It’s February, Black History Month. How can a white woman, a registered nurse, discuss race issues in a profession in which only 7.8% of the workforce is black without sounding ignorant, or worse, racist herself? Once or twice in the past I’ve made well-intended comments that revealed my own blind spots when talking about race. Fortunately, these were brought to my attention by friends who understood my good intentions, however misguided. I’m grateful for their support, and compassion. Like learning a new language, using the right words when talking about race requires commitment, practice, and a little bit of courage.

‘Here’s the chart. Answer the man’s questions.’

Years ago, I encountered a surgeon I’d never met before who repeatedly asked me for updates […]

Julianna Paradisi, RN, OCN2020-02-26T09:39:39-05:00February 26th, 2020|Nursing|3 Comments

What Do Haiku Have to Do with Nursing?

Nurse poets among us.

April is National Poetry Month, and all kinds of excellent poetry will be highlighted in various online and other venues, including, of course, in AJN’s Art of Nursing column, where the poem “Cat-a-tonic” by Shawna Swetech is featured this month (click on the pdf in the upper right corner of the landing page for the best version). I’m not a poet, though there are many nurse poets among us, and I’m not a fan of every poem I meet, but one form that is guaranteed to interest me every time is the haiku.

A short, simple poetic form.

Centuries ago, Japanese poets wrote the first haiku poems. A haiku has a very specific structure: three lines only, with exactly five syllables in the first line, seven in the second, and five in the third. Five-seven-five. (Though not every haiku today follows these rules strictly.) A haiku might rhyme, or not; it may or may not include punctuation or typical capitalization.

“Scrubs” not “uniforms” –
simpler than we used to wear.
Still, I miss my whites.

Traditionally, haiku have been written to celebrate nature. The best of these paint beautiful pictures in a few simple words. They are often very musical to the ear, as […]

Betsy Todd, MPH, RN2019-04-02T07:57:53-04:00April 2nd, 2019|Nursing, writing|6 Comments

Violence Against Health Care Workers: Time for a Zero Tolerance Approach

“Staff should know implicitly that they don’t have to work in an unsafe environment . . . “

The October issue of AJN has two articles that focus on workplace violence. We’ve shared them through social media—and sadly, the response and comments indicate that this information is sorely needed.

One, described in last week’s blog post by clinical editor Betsy Todd, is an article from a health system reporting on how they developed an innovative program to train their employees to deal with violent situations.

‘Staggering numbers.’

The second article (free until Nov. 8) is from nurse and attorney Edie Brous, our contributing editor and coordinator of our legal column, and covers what staff should expect from management in striving for safe workplaces. The numbers of workplace injuries and violent episodes are staggering—the CDC, Bureau of Labor Statistics, and other government agencies dealing with health and safety all show significant increases in the last five to ten years. Brous cites many of these data and notes, “The health care industry experiences almost as many violent injuries as all other industries combined.”