Advocate Journal of Nursing

The Secret Society of Mayhem and Abuse

Tags: abuse advocacy advocate COVID-19 hospitals trauma

The article highlights the crisis in global healthcare systems, particularly focusing on the immense stress on nurses. The author emphasizes that these challenges existed before the COVID-19 pandemic, with the crisis merely spotlighting them. Using personal anecdotes, they depict the struggles of nurses facing overwhelming workloads and unsupportive management. The article critiques the wage and responsibility disparity between nurses and hospital administrators, framing healthcare's issues as financial greed overshadowing patient care. The author calls on nurses to advocate for patients, emphasizing the need for unity and prioritizing care over financial motives.

The Superhero in You

Tags: advocate encouragement

Promoting the Nursing Profession Through Shared Governance

Tags: advocacy advocate conflict resolution nursing leadership profession promotion shared governance

This article takes a historical look at the image of nursing from the days of Nightingale. The nursing profession is strained and incivility is on the rise. Now is the time to go back to the basics and look through the lens of shared governance to promote the profession and preserve its numbers.

From Registered Nurse to Field Reimbursement – A Surprising Path to Patient Advocacy

Tags: advocacy advocate

When I took the oath of a nurse, I promised to be an advocate for patients. I never imagined that keeping this oath would lead me out of my bedside scrubs and into a suit as an FRM.

I Will Not Die But Live!

Tags: advanced practice advice advocacy advocate bullying child culture depression emergency emergency department Emergency nurse Emergency Nurses heart attack investigation love medication mental health patient safety stress treatment Whistleblowers work environment wound care

Since leaving nursing in 2008 I have wanted to write about my experiences as an emergency nurse and what happened to me as a whistleblower. This is my story.

The Future of Nursing Education: Heading for a Major Crisis

Tags: advanced practice advocate clinical experience future of nursing history of nursing nursing education nursing faculty nursing leadership nursing school requirements undergraduate

Nursing as a practice and profession has experienced significant changes over the years. For instance, in the 1800s nurses were expected to be subservient to doctors. Just hear what the doctor who gave Springfield Hospital’s first nursing graduation address: "Every nurse must remember that it is the attending physician's business to make a diagnosis of disease and hence that she should never hazard an opinion herself, under any circumstances." (Dr. Hooker, Springfield Hospital Annual Report, 1894). It would be interesting to know what the nursing faculty were thinking when they heard those words. Thankfully nurses during that era did not take the doctor’s advice and remained dedicated to advance and advocate for the profession of nursing. Around the same time that Springfield Hospital’s first nursing graduating class were listening to their graduation address, Florence Nightingale along with other nurse advocates, were making incredible strides to implement nursing education. After the Crimean War, Florence Nightingale recognized and introduced the need for formal nursing education but the education was limited to basic nursing knowledge and skills. As a result of the Women’s Rights Movement in the 1900s, the idea of nursing as a profession evolved into a reality. As society’s healthcare needs changed, nursing education had to change to meet those needs. There were however, challenges each century faced when trying to ensure nursing education met society’s needs and today, the challenges faced are heading right for a major crisis.

The Nursing Image: A Position Paper

Tags: advocacy advocate Community Health Nursing ethics future of nursing media Nurse Education nursing ethics Perception perioperative Position Paper profession reflection

The nursing image connotes a healing caregiver at a patient’s bedside. Nursing as a highly skilled and education profession remains incongruent with media and advertising portrayal of the nursing image, in contrast to published reports as the most trusted profession for the past decade. Current public perceptions of the nursing image are sharply contrasted to that of how nursing prefers to be viewed. This purpose of this work is to edify two contrasting positions of the ethical constructs of the nursing image as well as present posits of the author.

Do nurses really understand Advanced Health Care Directives?

Tags: acute care Advanced Health Care Directives advocate AHCD AHCD education health nurse

As a Nursing Supervisor, I have witnessed many problems associated with patients Advanced Health Care Directives (AHCD). On many occasions, patients are asked about AHCD when their medical condition worsens, leaving education of AHCD lacking and often put to the family to make end-of-life decisions. Both nurses and patients have verbalized not understanding AHCD. At the local hospital not only have many nurses acknowledged not understanding their role and responsibility about AHCD, but they also do not really have a good understanding themselves of what AHCD are; therefore, they do not feel comfortable educating patients and families about this vital healthcare issue. Research shows that providing AHCD education is effective in changing not only the treatment preferences of patients, but their attitudes toward end-of-life health care (AHRQ, 2003). There was an eminent need to look into this problem at the local community hospital.

Promoting the Sexual Health of Older People

Tags: advocacy advocate discrimination Empathy Health Promotion older people sexual health

This paper examines the issue of sexual health and older people. It identifies sexual health in this population group as a component of health that is often overlooked. As a practitioner of Gerontological Nursing, the author seeks to determine why this is and what can be done about promoting sexual health for this population group. Initially health promotion and sexuality are defined before outlining the rationale for the choice of this topic. Incorporated into the discussion is the acknowledgement that this is an area requiring significant development for all older people, regardless of sexual orientation, that in fact the need for health promotion for older gay and lesbian people may be a more pressing issue overall. Having outlined the need for health promotion, a number of strategies are introduced. Relatively little research into this specific issue has been conducted thus health promotion strategies in more broad terms are discussed.

Clinical Nursing: Keeping Your Skills In-Tune 

Tags: advocate clinical clinical experience dermatitis health care medical technology student nurse

The primary duty of every nurse is the assessment of a patient’s physical and emotional well-being. This basic-skill learned in the very first nursing class is the one skill and primary duty the nurse will use every day with his and/or her patients.