July Issue: Implicit Bias in Nursing, Grief Support for Hospital Staff, Understanding Malpractice, More

“Get to know patients’ former selves. Ask different questions. Discover their answers. I am so glad I did.” —Jennifer Chicca, author of the July Reflections column, “What Joanna Would Have Wanted”

The July issue of AJN is now live. Here are some highlights.

CE: Original Research: Helping Health Care Providers and Staff Process Grief Through a Hospital-Based Program

This study investigated the feasibility and effectiveness of offering an intensive bereavement support program—aimed at addressing grief and loss related to both professional and personal experiences—to hospital employees in a large health system.

CE: Addressing Implicit Bias in Nursing: A Review

This article describes the ways that implicit, or unconscious, bias among health care providers can contribute to health care disparities, and offers strategies nurses can use to discover and overcome their own implicit biases.

Special Feature: Rising to the Challenge: Re-Embracing the Wald Model of Nursing

The author discusses how Lillian Wald’s model of health care, in which nurses work at the intersection of medicine and society, may be useful today as nurses seek to address diseases of despair and improve health equity.

Transition to Practice: Surviving Your First Code

This article prepares new nurses for their first code, describes what happens during a code, and reviews the responsibilities of the resuscitation team.

2019-06-24T10:12:42-04:00June 24th, 2019|Nursing|0 Comments

December Issue: Nurses’ Advance Care Planning–Related Beliefs, Managing Movement Disorders, Delegating, More

“When despair for the world grows in me…. I come into the peace of wild things who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief. I come into the presence of still water…. I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.”—Wendell Berry, as quoted in the December editorial

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

CE: Original Research: Advance Care Planning: An Exploration of the Beliefs, Self-Efficacy, Education, and Practices of RNs and LPNs

The authors of this study surveyed RNs and LPNs working in skilled nursing facilities to learn about the similarities and differences in their advance care planning–related beliefs, sense of self-efficacy, education, and practices.

CE: Managing Movement Disorders: A Clinical Review

This article discusses the pathophysiology and assessment of three different, common neuromuscular disorders—muscle tightness, spasticity, and clonus—as well as the treatment options for each.

Cultivating Quality: Creating a Culture of Mobility: Using Real-Time Assessment to Drive Outcomes

The authors describe how they implemented an intervention based on the use of three new assessment tools to promote awareness of the importance of early mobility among nurses and physical and […]

2018-11-26T08:38:54-05:00November 26th, 2018|Nursing|0 Comments

As a Long-Predicted Nursing Shortage Gets Real, Staffing and Retention Issues Get Urgent

Is the nursing shortage finally here?

In her June issue editorial, AJN editor-in-chief Shawn Kennedy notes that in her recent visit to the annual National Student Nurses’ Association (NSNA) conference, many of the senior students she spoke with already had jobs lined up.

She surveys some recent indicators pointing to the possible arrival at last of a long-predicted nursing shortage, and some of the possible implications this is having or may have in the coming years for patient care and the health of organizations. For example:

“A survey of 233 chief nursing officers conducted last July conducted last July by national staffing company AMN Healthcare found that 72% said their shortages were moderate to severe, and most expected shortages to worsen over the next five years. They also acknowledged that the shortage was having a negative effect on patient care, patient satisfaction, and staff morale.”

Bonuses for new hires.

She notes that, with hospitals in some regions paying signing bonuses to new nurses, the question of staff retention and development remains the elephant in the room.

The class of 2018, it seems, is entering a job seeker’s market. . . . Organizations that can invest in new nurses with programs that provide support and training will have a leg up in recruitment. But retaining […]

June Issue: Hearing-Impairment and Hospitalization, Gaucher Disease, an Early Mobility Protocol, Giving and Getting Report, More

“The problem is the insidious way personal smartphones divert and fracture our attention. If you don’t take work home with you, why is it okay to bring home to work?” —Kathleen Bartholomew, MN, RN, author of this month’s Viewpoint

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

CE: Original Research: Understanding the Hospital Experience of Older Adults with Hearing Impairment

Older hospitalized adults with hearing impairment may be labeled confused, experience heightened fear and anxiety, or misunderstand the plan of care. This qualitative study assessed the hospital experience of hearing-impaired patients in order to formulate suggestions for improving nursing care.

CE: Understanding the Nurse’s Role in Managing Gaucher Disease

The author discusses the epidemiology and pathophysiology of Gaucher disease—a lysosomal storage disorder that can affect the spleen, liver, bones, bone marrow, and central nervous system—as well as recent advances in screening, diagnosis, and management.

Cultivating Quality: The Benefits of Implementing an Early Mobility Protocol in Postoperative Neurosurgical Spine Patients

The authors present their quality improvement initiative to establish an NP-led early mobility protocol aimed at reducing uncomplicated postsurgical spine patients’ length of hospital stay and eliminating the […]

2018-05-25T08:48:44-04:00May 25th, 2018|Nursing|0 Comments

Integrating Strong Emotions as a Developing Nurse

Most people, I would venture to say, start off in their profession with a fair degree of idealism, and this certainly holds true for nurses. When I talk with nursing students or new grad nurses and ask their story about why they chose nursing, the most common response runs along the lines of wanting to help others in meaningful ways.

Preparing new nurse grads for nursing realities.

In fact, I will meet with such a group of students this afternoon as I speak on a panel in the ethics class at my nursing alma mater. I, and other colleagues on this panel, want to encourage and inspire. But we will also be telling the students about the challenges we have encountered in situations involving moral distress, ethical dilemmas, and personal burnout. We will present situations when we felt that what we were doing at the bedside was not meaningful because we were only prolonging suffering—or, in other cases, so full of emotion and significance that it felt overwhelming to process.

We want to present the reality of nursing to these students, not to shatter their idealism, but to push them towards meaningful self-awareness from the start of their nursing career so that they are not caught off-guard by the degree to which they will be […]

2018-01-18T10:04:09-05:00December 8th, 2017|Nursing|2 Comments
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