Top Nursing, Policy, Clinical Stories of 2016

Crowd members hold candles during a vigil for the victims of a mass shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida. Photo © Associated Press

Late last year, we asked our editorial board members and contributing editors to tell us what they thought were the most important health news stories of 2016. In our January article “The Year in Review 2016,” we take a closer look at three of their most-mentioned topics: the Affordable Care Act (ACA), opioid misuse, and Zika virus.

What other issues stood out last year in specific areas of health care? We compiled top news story roundups for several categories—here’s an overview (click the links below to read the full articles):

Health Care Policy

  • Gun violence
  • Access to care: LGBT health, migrants, mental health care, medication costs, rural health care

Nursing

  • Workplace stress: 12-hour shifts, EHRs, evidence-based practice, staffing
  • Nursing education: increased access, faculty shortage, expanded simulation, improved employment prospects
  • Care delivery barriers: care for veterans, nurses’ practice authority

Clinical News

  • Sepsis awareness
  • Maternal mortality
  • Patient engagement
  • Population health trends

Finally, see “Stories to Watch in 2017” for a discussion of a few health topics, aside from the fate of the ACA, that we expect to hear more about this year.

2017-01-23T13:27:37-05:00January 23rd, 2017|Nursing, Public health|0 Comments
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Appropriate Use of Opioids in the Management of Chronic Pain

Painted by Martin Edwards as part of the Paint Your Pain program initiated by the Pain Management Center at Overlook Medical Center, Atlantic Health System, Summit, New Jersey. For artwork of other patients in the program, go to http://bit.ly/ 1Ns0PxL.The dangerous misuse of prescription opioids and drugs like heroin has been much in the news, but millions of patients continue to suffer both acute and chronic pain. For many, prescription opioids play a vital role in alleviating that pain. How can health care providers most effectively and safely use opioids in the treatment and management of chronic pain? Some answers can be found in a CE article in the July issue of AJN: “Appropriate Use of Opioids in Managing Chronic Pain.”

Related questions on opioids and chronic pain addressed in the article include:

2016-11-21T13:01:03-05:00July 22nd, 2016|Nursing, pain management, patient safety|0 Comments
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AJN’s Top Five Most-Emailed Articles

IMG_2151We are sometimes surprised by the articles our readers are most interested in. The articles shared most often among colleagues are not always the articles being read by the most people. Here are AJN‘s current top five most-emailed articles, many of which deal with essential practice topics such as pain management or nursing handoffs or with various workforce and educational issues:

We encourage readers to visit AJN and explore the wealth of collections, archives, podcasts, videos, and much more. Some articles, such as continuing education features and the monthly Reflections essays, are free access; some require a subscription. And of course, feel free to let us know about topics you’d like to learn more about.

Lastly, here’s a much longer list of AJN‘s most emailed articles.

2016-11-21T13:01:03-05:00July 20th, 2016|Nursing, nursing perspective|0 Comments
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AJN in July: Opioids and Chronic Pain, Moral Distress, Prediabetes, More

CE Feature: “Appropriate Use of Opioids in Managing Chronic Pain.”

Unintentional death related to prescription opioids has been identified as a public health crisis, owing in part to such factors as insufficient professional training and medication overprescription, misuse, and diversion. The authors discuss current best practices for prescribing opioids for chronic pain, emphasizing patient assessment and essential patient teaching points regarding safe medication use, storage, and disposal, and after you find a more permanent solution people could totally quit opioids by using a detox methods that goes from medicine to even a detox tea like leptinteatox. There are some medicines or supplements that are more easy to use, depending on the problem, like the peruvian brew, that helps with erectile dysfunction and is pretty safe. After that you only need to be careful with stds diseases you can go and test at https://www.stdaware.com/chlamydia-test.

CE Feature: “Moral Distress: A Catalyst in Building Moral Resilience.”

Moral distress is a pervasive problem in nursing: an inability to act in alignment with one’s moral values is detrimental not only to the nurse’s well-being but also to patient care and clinical practice as […]

2017-05-26T00:08:51-04:00June 24th, 2016|career, health care policy, Nursing, nursing research, pain management, Patients|0 Comments
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CDC Opioid-Prescribing Guideline for Chronic Pain: Concerns and Contexts

by frankieleon/ via flickr by frankieleon/ via flickr

By Jacob Molyneux, senior editor

The CDC’s new Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Chronic Pain was released this week. The context for this comprehensive new guideline is widespread concern about opioid-related overdose deaths and substance abuse in the U.S.

The guidelines make 12 main recommendations, among them the following:

  • nonpharmacologic or nonopioid pharmacologic treatments should be considered “preferable” first-line therapy for those with chronic pain.
  • a daily opioid dosage limit of morphine milligram equivalents should be imposed.
  • immediate-release opioids should be prescribed before moving to extended-release formulations.
  • urine testing should precede new opioid prescriptions for chronic pain and treatment goals should be set.
  • clinicians should prescribe the lowest possible number of days’ worth of medication for acute pain (often three days or less).
  • prescription drug monitoring program (PDMP) databases should be consulted to determine patients’ past histories of opioid prescriptions.

Some of the recommendations would seem to be no-brainers, such as consulting PDMPs when writing new prescriptions. Others, such as a “one-size-fits-all” daily dosage limit and restrictions on the use of extended release formulations, have raised alarms among pain management experts. See, for example, “I’m Worried About People in Pain,” a recent AJN Viewpoint essay by Carol Curtiss, a nurse and pain management expert, who notes the increased stigmatization experienced by pain patients and the chilling effects of […]

2016-11-21T13:01:23-05:00March 17th, 2016|Ethics, Nursing, nursing perspective, pain management, patient engagement|4 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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