nurse Archives - Page 3 of 16

Emergency Nursing 2019: Interactive Learning and Today’s Health Crises

The medical transport helicopter was at the ready. Meanwhile, the trauma team was in the midst of resuscitating a man. The crowd of onlookers remarked on the extreme pallor of the patient and were ready to jump in to help as needed. Fortunately, this was not a real life trauma but a scene in the exhibit hall of the sold-out Emergency Nurses Association (ENA) meeting in Austin, Texas, last week.

Four thousand ED nurses spent four days at Emergency Nursing 2019 attending educational sessions, skills labs (including a mock ED and a cadaver lab), and CE classes; viewing exhibit hall products; and relaxing in ‘Awesome Austin,’ celebrating themselves and the important work they do.

Documentary film producer Carolyn Jones (The American Nurse; Defining Hope) opened the meeting by presenting previews from her current documentary on emergency nurses, In Case of Emergency, a project in collaboration with the ENA for its 50th anniversary, to be released in May 2020. Jones and her film team traveled to seven EDs around the country, from an urban ED to rural farm country, to document ER nurses at work. […]

Shawn Kennedy, MA, RN, FAAN, editor-in-chief (emerita)2019-10-07T10:13:54-04:00October 7th, 2019|Conference reports, Nursing|1 Comment

What Would It Take to Make You Appreciate the Precious Moments of Your Life?

Illustration by McClain Moore for AJN.

Imagination vs. reality.

Who hasn’t thought about it from time to time, the sudden grim diagnosis, the force of the realization that all that time you thought you had to live, love, learn, explore, and change may really be finite after all? Who hasn’t wondered what you would do with the remaining time if that happened—and by corollary, what you should be doing differently now?

But that’s all in the mind and imagination. The real clarifying shock of such an experience remains out of reach for most of us—until it happens.

Collecting experiences ‘like Mario connecting coins.’

This month’s Reflections essay, “The Last One,” is by Fran Wiedenhoeft, a former nurse anesthetist in the military. In it, she describes her own reaction after she found herself, at a relatively young age, facing just such a diagnosis.

In the two weeks before the surgery . . . I threw myself with frantic determination into collecting lasts: last long run . . . , last trip to the zoo, last potato peeled, last kiss, last caress. . . . Rather than enjoying each precious moment and every last experience, I was rushing through each […]

Share this:
Facebook
Bluesky
X
LinkedIn

Jacob Molyneux, senior editor/blog editor2019-10-04T11:29:52-04:00October 4th, 2019|Nursing|0 Comments

Being a Bully and Being Bullied

‘Didn’t you learn that in school?’

Have you ever worked with a nasty colleague who knew everything? A nurse that the patients loved and showered with thank you cards and notes but was despised by coworkers? Unfortunately, I knew that person all too well. That bully nurse was me. It’s been nearly ten years since I received a wake-up call from another nurse and my then health care organization, making clear that I needed to change or risk heading further down a destructive path.

A few years into my nursing career—I can now admit—I thought I knew everything; the operative word here is thought. ‘Mary,’ a good colleague and still a friend today, would tell me, “I like you. I just can’t stand working with you.”

A kind person, Mary would never elaborate on my faults. In hindsight, it’s obvious to me what Mary was referring to. I could smell the blood of weaker individuals in the clinical setting and I was deliberately inconsiderate. I never raised my voice, but could be curt and make snide remarks: “Why are you bothering me now?” “Didn’t you learn that in school?”

None of the people I bullied stood up to me, so I continued. I really don’t fully understand it today. Was I power hungry? Possibly. Whatever the case, this way of […]

Guest Author2019-01-30T14:36:02-05:00January 30th, 2019|Nursing, nursing career|1 Comment

40 Million and Counting: These Days, Every Month Is Family Caregiver Month

Family caregivers, unpaid and unsung.

Photo courtesy of AARP Public Policy Institute.

November is, among other things, the month designated as family caregiver month. These are the 40 million or so people who provide care to loved ones at home, often by themselves. This can range from the basic tasks of daily living that a loved one can no longer perform by themselves, like bathing, dressing, and eating, as well as complex nursing care involving injections, wound and ostomy care, and more.

Helping nurses help the helpers.

In this season of short days and family holidays, it seems like a good time to remind you of the free resources AJN has for nurses and for the caregivers whom you work with. We’ve developed these articles and teaching videos in a decade-long partnership with the AARP Public Policy Institute directed by Susan Reinhard, and with the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at the University of California-Davis.

Teaching videos and tip sheets to share with caregivers.

Each article covers the evidence behind what and how you should teach a caregiver on a particular topic and is associated with a video demonstrating techniques and procedures for the caregiver to follow. […]

Shawn Kennedy, MA, RN, FAAN, editor-in-chief (emerita)2018-11-30T10:14:08-05:00November 30th, 2018|family caregiving, Nursing|1 Comment

‘So Many Things a Pill Can’t Solve’: An Integrative Therapy Nurse in Acute Care

“I don’t think that people realize how powerful human touch can be.”

“This therapy is invaluable to me—not just physically, but for my mental state too.”

“I think that we as Americans need more of this [integrative] therapy because there are so many things that a pill can’t solve.”

This is some of the feedback offered by patients after massage therapy sessions at the Minneapolis Veterans Affairs Medical Center. In this month’s AJN, integrative therapy nurse Hallie Boyd describes how her program has become a vital part of symptom management on the spinal cord injury and disorders unit there.

Help for patients in coping with chronic pain.

As a staff nurse on this unit, Boyd had encountered many patients who were trying to cope with chronic pain. While the hospital had long educated nurses on the use of integrative modalities such as guided imagery, acupressure, and aromatherapy, it was difficult for them to employ these techniques on a regular basis during busy and unpredictable shifts.

So, while continuing her work on the spinal cord unit, Boyd returned to school to focus on hospital-based therapeutic massage for medically complex patients. Training alongside a diverse group of practitioners, she developed and refined the idea of a full-time integrative therapy nurse as part […]

Betsy Todd, MPH, RN2018-11-28T11:01:10-05:00November 28th, 2018|Nursing|1 Comment