nursing research Archives - Page 5 of 9

Hitting the Nursing Conference Trail: Many Miles, But Much to Inspire

“Nurses are doing such interesting and important work.”

A big part of what we do at AJN is seek out the latest information and compelling stories to bring to readers each month. That often means a lot of traveling. While sometimes it does get a bit much (conferences are mostly clustered in the spring and the fall), I’ve come to enjoy traveling—nurses are doing such interesting and important work!

Here’s a recap of some recent travels:

Nursing Research

At the October biennial meeting of the Council for the Advancement of Nursing
Thomas LaVeist, PhD

Science (CANS), researchers also celebrated the 30th anniversary of the National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR). There’s a full report in the upcoming December issue of AJN, but among the highlights was Thomas LaVeist’s keynote on examining disparities in research. An engaging speaker, he brought his points home with vivid examples of how social status can determine health and well-being—for example, Titanic passengers in third class were 16 times more likely to die than those in first class because of life boat availability. There was also a well-attended session on funding opportunities (both of these presentations are available on the CANS […]
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Shawn Kennedy, MA, RN, FAAN, editor-in-chief (emerita)2016-11-21T13:00:52-05:00November 2nd, 2016|Nursing|0 Comments

AJN in October: Oral Treatments for Breast Cancer, PAD in Older Adults, Research or Not Research, More

The October issue of AJN is now live. Here are some articles we’d like to bring to your attention.

CE Feature: “A Review of Common Oral Treatments for Breast Cancer: Improving Patient Safety in Nononcology Settings”

According to the National Cancer Institute, more than 3 million women in the United States are currently living with a breast cancer diagnosis. Many seek care in nononcology settings for treatment, acute symptoms and complaints related to their cancer diagnosis, or unrelated concerns. Yet many nononcology providers are unfamiliar with the various oral agents used to treat breast cancer and their possible adverse effects and drug interactions. This article provides an overview of the most common oral treatments for breast cancer and discusses common adverse effects and management.

CE Feature: “Assessing Pain, Agitation, and Delirium in Hospitalized Older Adults“

In the acute care setting, pain, agitation, and delirium (PAD) often occur as interrelated parts of a syndrome rather than as separate entities. Because the three facets of PAD may be similar in presentation, it is often difficult for clinicians to recognize the syndrome and to assess and treat it. The challenge is particularly great in older patients. This article provides an overview of each aspect of PAD, discusses […]

Diane Szulecki, editor2016-11-21T13:00:54-05:00October 4th, 2016|Nursing|0 Comments

Injurious Falls in the Hospital Setting

by Maureen Shawn Kennedy, AJN editor-in-chief

Patient falls are, unfortunately, a frequent occurrence in hospitals and the consequences can vary from none to serious life-threatening injuries. There has been a lot of attention focused on identifying those at high risk for falls and effective prevention measures, but according to our September CE feature, there’s been little attention focused on falls that cause injuries. In this original research study, Predicting Injurious Falls in the Hospital Setting: Implications for Practice, Amy Hester and colleagues at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences conducted a retrospective review of medical records to see if they could pinpoint which patient factors were associated with falls with injuries. Their results may surprise you.

Here’s the abstract:

Background: Despite years of research and increasingly evidence-based practice, falls continue to be the most commonly reported adverse events experienced by hospitalized adults. Yet a majority of the relevant research has focused on predicting and preventing falls in general; there has been little focus on injurious falls.

Purpose: The purpose of this retrospective study was to determine which patient factors are associated with injurious falls in hospitalized adults.

Methods: The study site’s adverse event reporting database was used to identify 1,369 patients who fell between January 1, 2006, and October 31, 2013. Of these, 381 (27.8%) subjects suffered injurious falls. Variables of interest included age, sex, fall history, use of diuretics, use of central nervous system medications, cognitive impairment, primary discharge diagnoses, abnormal laboratory values, impaired mobility, and […]

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Diane Szulecki, editor2016-11-21T13:00:58-05:00August 31st, 2016|Nursing, nursing research|0 Comments

‘Do You Consider Yourself Healthy?’ Study Sheds Light on RNs’ Lifestyle Practices

By Sylvia Foley, AJN senior editor

Over the past decade, the lifestyle practices of nurses and their connection to quality of care and patient outcomes have been gaining attention. Indeed, according to the patient-centered, relationship-based care model, one of the main conditions for optimal care is that providers engage in healthy self-care behaviors. Yet there is some evidence suggesting that RNs don’t consistently do so, especially when it comes to exercise and stress reduction—even when they believe they should.

Nurse researchers Karen Thacker and colleagues recently conducted a study to learn more. They report their findings in this month’s CE–Original Research feature, “An Investigation into the Health-Promoting Lifestyle Practices of RNs.” Here’s a brief summary:

Purpose: To gather baseline data on the health-promoting lifestyle practices of RNs working in six major health care and educational institutions in southeastern Pennsylvania.
Methods: The 52-item Health-Promoting Lifestyle Profile II instrument was used to explore participants’ self-reported health-promoting behaviors and measure six dimensions: health responsibility, physical activity, nutrition, interpersonal relations, spiritual growth, and stress management.
Results: Findings revealed that physical activity and stress management scores were low for the entire group of RNs. There were statistically significant differences between nurses 50 years of age and older and those 30 to 39 years of age for the subscales of health responsibility, nutrition, and stress management, suggesting that older nurses are more concerned about their […]

Guest Author2016-11-21T13:01:18-05:00April 15th, 2016|Nursing, nursing perspective, nursing research, personal health practices|0 Comments

Have You Fallen Prey to a Predatory Publisher?

Predatory publishers promise prompt, easy publication. The hidden charges come later, as well as the realization that the journal has no real standing or quality control. Not only is this bad for potential authors, it’s bad for knowledge, flooding the market with inferior information made to superficially resemble the information you need.

Imagine this scenario: You receive an email from a seemingly respectable journal inviting you to submit a paper for publication. You’ve wanted to publish on this topic for some time, and this journal promises you a quick review and publication within a few months. As a new author, you are thrilled . . . that is, until you get charged an outrageous processing fee upon turning the article in. You’ve just fallen victim to a predatory publisher.

Unfortunately, this scenario is becoming all too common. These journals are often difficult to spot, with their professional-looking Web sites and names that sound legitimate, if a little vague. In fact, just recently at AJN, we stumbled across a Web site featuring a journal that looked a lot like ours and had a very similar name. (Jeffrey Beall, a librarian at the University of Colorado, has been tracking predatory publishers since 2009 and maintains a list of them on his Web site, Scholarly Open Access.)

In our April issue, editor-in-chief Shawn […]