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The Art of Aging
Frances Raines knows the secret to successful aging. “Keep busy,” says the 97-year-old resident at Bethany Health & Rehabilitation nursing home, flashing a knowing smile that momentarily erases the wrinkles on her face. With a bright red crochet hook and yards of sky blue and royal purple yarn, Raines keeps busy through her stitches, even…
Posted in Features, Issue, Spring 2012 | Tags: cover, slideshow
Geriatric research
“Is this a house of corrections or a house of comfort?” asked the attending physician, a native of Britain, noting that American nurses have such strange practices, tethering their patients. Those comments, delivered to a group on medical practice rounds that included a young Lorraine Mion, PhD, RN, FAAN, shaped the whole course of her…
Posted in Features, Issue, Spring 2012 |
Geriatric Nursing Facts
According to the Administration on Aging, a division of the Department of Health and Human Services: The population 65 years or older numbered 39.6 million in 2009, the latest year for which data is available. They represented 12.9 percent of the U.S. population, about one in every eight Americans. Older women outnumber older men at…
Posted in Features, Issue, Spring 2012 |
On a Patient’s Worst Day
Minutes from now, the newly conscious patient will flail softly in her bed and try to pull out her breathing tube. A nurse will be there to stay her hand. Right now, though, she’s slipping toward death. As she was being turned in her bed, her heart rate plummeted, and it hasn’t returned. She’s gone…
Posted in Features, Issue, Spring 2012 | Tags: cover, slideshow
Q+A: An Interview with Trish Trangenstein
What does the term “nursing informatics” mean? Nursing informatics is a specialty recognized by the American Nurses’ Association. Nursing informatics transforms electronic information into knowledge and eventually knowledge into wisdom needed to improve outcomes. Nursing outcomes can only be improved if you can apply wisdom across any number of areas, and a person needs advanced…
Posted in Features, Issue, Spring 2012 | Tags: cover, slideshow
Raiding the Medicine Cabinet
Drug disposal event saving environment /livesby Carole Bartoo America has a drug problem. But it’s not what you think; in fact this drug problem is probably happening in your community – even in your own home. The problem is the accumulation of prescription drugs with no good plan for disposing of them. As the number…
Posted in Fall 2011, Features, Issue | Tags: slideshow
Dangers of Improper Prescription Drug Use
Prescription painkillers can cause nausea and vomiting. Mixing anti-anxiety or sleep disorder drugs with other drugs, particularly alcohol, can slow breathing and heart rate, and possibly lead to death. Abusing stimulants while taking a cold medicine with decongestants can cause dangerous increases in blood pressure and irregular heart rhythms.
Posted in Fall 2011, Features, Issue |
Teen Prescription Drug Abuse
Source: National Institute for Drug Abuse After marijuana, prescription and over-the-counter medications account for most of the top drugs abused by 12th graders in the past year. Nearly half (47%) of teens who use prescription drugs say they get them for free from a relative or friend. More than three in five (62% or 14.6…
Posted in Fall 2011, Features, Issue |
How to Safely Dispose of Drugs
Drug take-back events are happening more frequently across the country. We challenge you to take a hard look at the contents of your medicine cabinet, purse, wallet, dresser drawer or any place where you keep medicine. Chances are you have some expired medicines. If there isn’t a drug disposal event near you, follow these steps:…
Posted in Fall 2011, Features, Issue |
Healing Through Literature
by Leslie Hill Christine Shih cared for a range of patients – adolescents in a student health center, premature babies, elderly eye patients and adults with leukemia – then turned her attention to a different set: the Elizabeth Darcys and Fanny Prices populating the Regency-period English countryside in classic novels by Jane Austen. The Setting…
Posted in Fall 2011, Features, Issue | Tags: cover, slideshow
Christine Shih’s Reading List
For a true picture of the Borderline personality Lady Susan Jane Austen Mansfield Park Jane Austen Jane Eyre Charlotte Bronte The Custom of the Country Edith Wharton Wuthering Heights Emily Bronte Alice in Wonderland Lewis Carroll Jane of Lantern Hill L.M. Montgomery The Bell Jar Sylvia Plath Till We Have Faces C.S. Lewis Look Homeward,…
Posted in Fall 2011, Features, Issue |
Above and Beyond
Doctorally-Prepared Nurses Making an Impact Anyone in the world of nursing knows it is a continuously evolving profession. As patient needs become more complex and health care reform overhauls take shape, who in the profession will lead the way? Many believe the answer is: doctorally-prepared nurses. The problem is that fewer than 1 percent of…
Posted in Fall 2011, Features, Issue | Tags: cover, slideshow
Rewriting How Nursing Students Learn
by Leslie Hill Everything in health care is constantly evolving, including how students are taught and faculty are trained. From the virtual world of Second Life to a comprehensive new approach to interprofessional learning, we’re erasing the old chalkboard and rewriting nursing education for the 21st Century. A New World The sweatpants-clad nursing student winds…
Posted in Features, Issue, Spring 2011 | Tags: cover, slideshow
Q and A
by Kathy Rivers Tonia Moore-Davis, MSN, CNM, manages the VUSN nurse-midwifery practice at two sites in Nashville with a daily staff of 10 serving clients across a wide cultural, educational and socio-economic spectrum. The faculty practice serves as an incubator for nurse-midwifery students, consistently wins national awards, and delivered more than 1,000 babies last year….
Posted in Features, Issue, Spring 2011 | Tags: cover, slideshow
Major Access Provisions
According to a Congressional Budget Office estimate, under the provisions of the Accountable Care Act some 32 million more Americans will acquire health coverage by 2019. • Minimum Medicaid eligibility will expand to 133 percent of the poverty level, increasing the rolls by an estimated 19 million people (current Medicaid enrollment is 47 million). •…
Posted in Features, Issue, Spring 2011 |
Major Cost and Quality Provisions
The law seeks innovation in care delivery. • CMS (Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services) will establish an innovation center to test new models of payment and care delivery. The law leaves the agency free to adopt any solutions found to lower costs and preserve or improve health care quality. • Medicare is freed to…
Posted in Features, Issue, Spring 2011 |
Health Care Reform
by Paul Govern Health care reform aims to transform U.S. health care delivery into a more preventive, coordinated posture. While the law is still hotly contested throughout the country, most agree that whatever happens, it will usher in a new era of opportunity for nurses. Under the provisions of the law, experts believe there will…
Posted in Features, Issue, Spring 2011 | Tags: slideshow
VUSN Technology
Vanderbilt University School of Nursing embraces technology to enhance the learning experience for today’s students and tomorrow’s practitioners and researchers. Blackboard – A course management system for all students at Vanderbilt University. Blackboard is where students log in to classes, submit assignments, learn about class announcements, take tests and even enter into live discussions. On…
Posted in Features, Issue, Spring 2011 | Tags: cover
Hey Florence!
Vanderbilt University Medical Center hosted a series of performances of “Hey Florence!” this year, a musical about the everyday lives of nurses, starring active-duty nurses from Vanderbilt, “Hey Florence! received a standing ovation at each performance,” said Donna Glassford, director of Cultural Enrichment and producer of “Hey Florence!” “A lot of people were amazed that nurses could…
Posted in Fall 2010, Features, Issue |
Florence Nightingale Pledge
This modified “Hippocratic Oath” was composed in 1893 by Lystra E. Gretter and a Committee for the Farrand Training School for Nurses, Detroit. It was called the Florence Nightingale Pledge as a token of esteem for the founder of modern nursing. I solemnly pledge myself before God and in the presence of this assembly, to pass…
Posted in Fall 2010, Features, Issue |
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