Nurses’ yearning to be supported and seen as human beings. Fluorescent lights flicker. A relentless symphony of beeps and alarms, the scent of disinfectant wipes seeping through the fibers of a surgical mask. Keystrokes on keyboards keep charts in check while medications are meticulously prepared: the science of nursing, a 24/7, 365-day dance of care. In stolen moments of quiet—in empty locker rooms or bathroom stalls—the weight of the workload settles. Tears well up in eyes etched with exhaustion under the crushing burden of impossible patient ratios, the sting of disrespect from colleague an ..read more

The May issue of AJN is now live. “If nurses are expected to have a strong sense of duty to care and to report to work even in disaster situations, then it’s essential to understand what factors influence that sense, in order to foster and sustain a workforce ready to do so,” write the authors of this month’s Original Research article, “Exploring U.S. Nurses’ Perceived Duty to Care During the COVID-19 Pandemic.” Read the study here. “The Mountain Model for Evidence-Based Practice Quality Improvement Initiatives” introduces a conceptual model that merges evidence-based practice and q ..read more

Overeating doesn’t cause obesity. Obesity causes overeating.” –Dr. Lee Kaplan, Harvard University Obesity is a disease. Image created by OpenAI’s ChatGPT with DALL-E. We see it everywhere, the very real and ongoing obesity pandemic. This pernicious disease now affects nearly half of the adults in this country, including those on both sides of the hospital bed rails, bringing with it over 200 associated complications and morbidities. Obesity first became common in America during the last decades of the 20th century; since then its prevalence has only accelerated. Our youth have not been spa ..read more

TCU nurse practitioner students. “The importance of foot care for this population cannot be overstated.” In the heart of the Fort Worth, Texas, community, where the daily struggles of people without housing are vividly evident, a group of doctor of nursing practice (DNP) nurse practitioner (NP) students from Texas Christian University (TCU) has embarked on a journey to make a difference. Through the foot clinic initiative in partnership with True Worth Place, a day shelter for people without housing, they’ve established hope and healing with a compassionate service. The initiative began in e ..read more

A nursing student treats a volunteer acting as a disaster victim during a high-fidelity simulation at the University of South Carolina Aiken Convocation Center. Photo courtesy of the authors. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), in the United States “there were 28 weather and climate disasters in 2023, surpassing the previous record of 22 in 2020.” With the number of disasters increasing in recent years, preparedness is crucial. Many simulationists may believe that creating a disaster simulation is complicated, expensive, and requires a lot of resources. T ..read more

Putting concerns about the environment into practice. Matthew Lindsley Matthew Lindsley, MPH, MSN, RN, PHNA-BC, is a lieutenant commander in the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps and is engaged in clinical trials as an oncology nurse at the National Institutes of Health. He spends his weekends working the soil, caring for animals, and volunteering with a sustainable agriculture initiative to improve the quality and resiliency of local food systems in his community. He is one of a growing legion of nurses who are putting their concerns about the environment into action both inside ..read more

Editor’s note: Hui-wen Sato is a pediatric ICU nurse in California and a regular writer for this blog who has gone deeply into the topic of grief, her own and that of patients and their families. Her insights reverse our usual ways of understanding grief, finding a generative energy instead of a wasteland. Here is a key passage from a TED-style talk (see video below) she gave at the last End Well Project conference in November 2023. End Well is “a nonprofit on a mission to transform how the world thinks about, talks about, and plans for the end of life.” “And so I realized that what I was goi ..read more

A qualitative study that looks at the experiences of nurses who have served on staffing committees. When I am faced with challenging situations and issues that involve multiple stakeholders, I seek guidance or information from others to make the most informed decisions. This is a practice many health professionals and researchers emulate, and it makes sense to do this, yet when it comes to the topic of nurse staffing in hospital settings, nurses are not usually involved in the process. If they are involved to some degree, it is likely because of a hospital’s pursuit for nursing excellence reco ..read more

Photo by Christina via Unsplash As a high school student, Gaby worked nearly full-time to support her family. She also helped care for her grandfather who was in failing health, giving him daily insulin injections and attending to his care. She dreamed of going to nursing school after graduation. Still, her classroom grades, which suffered because of her other commitments, were insufficient for admission to the nursing program of her choice. Philip, a high school athlete, was captain of a championship basketball team. He had the passion and personality to be a great nurse and wanted to follo ..read more

The March issue of AJN is now live. “Nurses play a critical role in disaster preparedness, response, and recovery,” says Linda M. MacIntyre, PhD, RN, PHN, FAAN, chief nurse of the American Red Cross (see On the Cover). Two articles in this month’s issue address disaster care: “Enhancing Disaster Management Preparedness Through Simulation,” which describes a mock disaster drill for nursing students in which volunteers acted as earthquake victims and local emergency medical personnel accepted patient handoff from the students. “Palliating Serious Illness During Disasters and Public He ..read more