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

2016-11-21T13:00:52-05:00November 2nd, 2016|Nursing|0 Comments
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Orlando: Another Reminder of Public Health Measures Not Taken

Mary_Magdalene_Crying_StatueOnce again, we’re reading about a mass shooting—this one the deadliest so far, with 50 dead in a nightclub in Orlando, Florida. We’ve learned that the alleged shooter, born in the United States to immigrant parents, appears to have been volatile and prone to angry outbursts.

He’d made threats about killings months earlier, according to news reports of interviews with coworkers and family members. Reports also indicate that he professed a hatred of gays and, during the attack, pledged allegiance to the radical Islamic terrorist group ISIS. He had been investigated by the FBI at earlier dates in conjunction with suspected terrorist activities.

And also once again, we learn that the guns, including an assault-style semiautomatic rifle*, were purchased legally. Assault rifles like the one used in Orlando are often used by mass shooters. Assault weapons had once been banned—but when the ban expired in 2004, it was not renewed by Congress, nor does it seem likely to be. […]

2016-11-21T13:01:08-05:00June 13th, 2016|nursing perspective, Public health|3 Comments
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Rise in Anencephaly (Like Microcephaly, a Neural Tube Defect) Cases Noted in One U.S. State

By AJN clinical editor Betsy Todd, MPH, RN, CIC

Maria Rosario Perez was one of the babies in the Washington State anencephaly clus- ter. Born May 25, 2012, she lived only 55 minutes. Photo by Erika Schultz / The Seattle Times. Maria Rosario Perez was one of the babies in the Washington State anencephaly clus-
ter. Born May 25, 2012, she lived only 55 minutes. Photo by Erika Schultz / The Seattle Times.

Microcephaly has been in the news in recent months because of its possible link to Zika virus infection. Here in the U.S., an unusually high incidence of babies with anencephaly in the state of Washington has concerned health authorities for the past four years.

In the spring of 2012, several babies were born with anencephaly in three counties in south central Washington. This unusual cluster of cases, occurring at more than twice the national rate for anencephaly, was first recognized by nurse Sara Barron. She explores the state’s investigation in “Anencephaly: An Ongoing Investigation in Washington State” in the March issue of AJN.

Like microcephaly, anencephaly is a “neural tube defect” that leads to tragic pregnancy outcomes. In microcephaly, the […]

2016-11-21T13:01:22-05:00March 21st, 2016|Nursing, nursing perspective|2 Comments
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Parallel Developments: Women’s Rights and the Professional Identity of Nurses

By Maureen Shawn Kennedy, AJN editor-in-chief

When women marched in the street to gain the right to vote, nurses marched with them. It’s no coincidence that nursing’s push for a professional identity occurred parallel to the women’s rights movement in the 19th and 20th centuries. As women were expanding their interests beyond the home and seeking a voice in the greater society, so too were nurses looking to establish their own professional identity and practice.

AJN‘s archives are replete with articles and letters from nurses who were on both sides of the suffrage question and other related issues affecting women and the nursing profession. During Women’s History Month, we will post several articles from our 115 years of archives. We hope you enjoy them and realize the many contributions of those nurses who came before us.

Below is an excerpt from one heartfelt letter drawing a connection between the women’s suffrage movement and nursing’s work in the public health sphere. It was published in the January 1909 edition of AJN (to read the entire letter, click here, and then click the link to the PDF version in the upper-right corner of the page):

The_Suffrage_Excerpt

…the sentence and the letter go on from there. It’s eloquent and to the point, even if some of the morality-tinged language will seem out of date. You can’t understand what’s happening today without looking to the past. Give it a read.—Maureen Shawn Kennedy, AJN editor-in-chief

 

 

 

2016-11-21T13:01:24-05:00March 7th, 2016|Nursing, nursing history|0 Comments
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The Bigger Picture: A New Nurse Embraces Her Ability to Still Ask ‘Why?’

Sarah Szulecki, BSN, RN, is a telemetry nurse at a hospital in New York State.

karen eliot/flickr karen eliot/flickr

As a new graduate nurse, I’ve found that adjusting to the microcosm of the hospital floor—its SBAR reports detailing a ‘here and now,’ its constant exchange of admissions and discharges, its wide spectrum of emotional extremes—has been challenging.

The experienced nurses on my telemetry floor tell me that it generally takes about one full year to start feeling as though you know what you’re doing. In the meantime, I find myself catching glimpses of scenes I hope I’ll someday be able to handle with grace—rather than with my current bumbling clumsiness.

A patient’s granddaughter is escorted into the hallway as staff flocks to her grandmother’s code blue, and I think of all the wrong things to say as she starts to cry.

As I examine his excoriated skin, a depressed patient looks humiliated and struggles to tell me that his home is infested with bedbugs—in my gut, I feel a grim helplessness about his future when he’s discharged a few days later.

A patient who has a sky-high hemoglobin A1c level admits that he has neither the desire nor the money to care for his diabetes. My pleas for change sound childish and naive to even my own ears.

These first few months of being a nurse amalgamate feelings of failure and […]

2016-11-21T13:01:26-05:00February 17th, 2016|career, Nursing, nursing perspective|2 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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