Category Archives: Nursing

The Health of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender People: Building a Foundation for Better Understanding

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Date:  March 31, 2011

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Researchers Need to Engage Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, And Transgender Populations in Health Studies

WASHINGTON — Researchers need to proactively engage lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people in health studies and collect data on these populations to identify and better understand health conditions that affect them, says a new report from the Institute of Medicine.  The scarcity of research yields an incomplete picture of LGBT health status and needs, which is further fragmented by the tendency to treat sexual and gender minorities as a single homogeneous group, said the committee that wrote the report.

The report provides a thorough compilation of what is known about the health of each of these groups at different stages of life and outlines an agenda for the research and data collection necessary to form a fuller understanding.

“It’s easy to assume that because we are all humans, gender, race, or other characteristics of study participants shouldn’t matter in health research, but they certainly do,” said committee chair Robert Graham, professor of family medicine and public health sciences and Robert and Myfanwy Smith Chair, department of family medicine, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Cincinnati.  “It was only when researchers made deliberate efforts to engage women and racial and ethnic minorities in studies that we discovered differences in how some diseases occur in and affect specific populations.  Routine collection of information on race and ethnicity has expanded our understanding of conditions that are more prevalent among various groups or that affect them differently.  We should strive for the same attention to and engagement of sexual and gender minorities in health research.”

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News from HIGN

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This came across my desk today…

HARTFORD INSTITUTE FOR GERIATRIC NURSING RE-BRANDS ITSELF AS “HIGN”

New Name Signals Launch of New Initiatives

New York, NY – March 3, 2011 – The Hartford Institute for Geriatric Nursing (HIGN) at New York University College of Nursing has launched a number of initiatives to more aggressively position the organization as the leading proponent for quality health care of older adults through nursing excellence. The initiatives are being implemented under the Hartford Institute’s new brand: HIGN.

HIGN is recognized for improving the practice environment through education, research, and evidenced-based protocols.

Some of the new HIGN initiatives underway are:

  • HIGN is launching a completely new web site designed to provide bedside nurses, advanced practice nurses, academics, and students with an easy-to-use, highly accessible, better looking, deeper content resource to support their various needs. Visit the new site at here.
  • The HIGN Report is a new, leading-edge communications effort published monthly to broadcast important information and events related to HIGN’s four core competencies: Practice, Education, Research and Policy. Visit the HIGN homepage to subscribe to the newsletter here.
  • The new HIGN e-Learning Center is a continuing education portal to courses, tools and other resources geared to improving care of older adults in clinical settings and integration of geriatrics in academic curricula. Learn more about the new e-Learning center here.

“Our new brand signals a re-dedication to our mission and a marked upswing in our efforts to expand and continue the legacy of the Hartford Institute as an invaluable resource,” says Tara Cortes, PhD, RN, FAAN, HIGN executive director. “These are substantive initiatives designed to better support practice, research, education and policy.

About HIGN

Since its start in 1996, the singular mission of the Hartford Institute of Geriatric Nursing (HIGN) has been to shape the quality of nursing care to older adults by assuring geriatric competency of America’s nurses. The commitment to this mission exhibited by the dedicated Hartford Institute leadership, staff and affiliate organizations has made HIGN today a globally recognized geriatric nursing resource.

For more information contact Barbara Bricoli at 212-992-9753
Barbara.bricoli@nyu.edu


From AHRQ: A Resource for Nurses

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There are many familiar names on the list of contributors for this book — Leslie

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Patient Safety and Quality: An Evidence-Based Handbook for Nurses. AHRQ Publication No. 08-0043. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Rockville, MD.

Patient Safety and Quality: An Evidence-Based Handbook for Nurses

Nurses play a vital role in improving the safety and quality of patient care – not only in the hospital or ambulatory treatment facility, but also of community-based care and the care performed by family members. Nurses need know what proven techniques and interventions they can use to enhance patient outcomes.

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From the CMAJ: Perinatal Hospice

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I recently received this press release and wanted to share with my colleagues. What an interesting and important issue!

Providing hospice in the womb

Amy Kuebelbeck was 25 weeks into her pregnancy when she received the terrible news. Her fetus had been diagnosed with an incurable heart defect. If she carried through with her pregnancy, her baby’s life would be a brief one.

Kuebelbeck did continue her pregnancy and gave birth to a boy. Her new son, Gabriel, was even sicker than anticipated. He died a few hours after his birth.

“He lived for nine months before he was born,” says Kuebelbeck, “and for two and a half peaceful hours afterward.”

That was in 1999, a time when perinatal palliative care — support for families expecting babies with life-limiting illnesses — was still very much in the concept stage. There was no formal support program at the hospital where Kuebelbeck, a freelance writer from Saint Paul, Minnesota, received care during her pregnancy with Gabriel. There was, however, one person on staff who helped her family though the entire process.

“One person validated for us that we still had a profound opportunity to parent and love this baby,” says Kuebelbeck.

Her experience led to a 2003 memoir, Waiting with Gabriel: A Story of Cherishing a Baby’s Brief Life. It also led to the creation of the website perinatalhospice.org, which lists hospitals, mostly in the United States and Canada, that have perinatal hospice programs. When she started the website, in 2006, there were only 10 programs on that list. Now there are 90.

“My long-term goal is to take the website down because every hospital has a perinatal hospice program, just as every hospital has an emergency room,” says Kuebelbeck.

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In Memory: Rose Mary Carroll Johnson

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From the INANE Mailing List:

To my colleagues,

It is with a heavy heart that I share the news that Rose Mary Carroll Johnson,
Editor of the Oncology Nursing Forum, passed away very early this morning, February 21st, surrounded by family and dear friends at her home in California. This is sad news and not unexpected – but difficult nonetheless. Rose Mary put up a long and strong fight against cancer – a disease that she also fought on the professional front. Rose Mary celebrated her 20th year as Editor of the Oncology Nursing
Forum this year, in 2011. For her professional and personal friendship, we are
all grateful. She will be missed in so many ways.

No arrangements have been finalized at this time. Her daughter, Elizabeth Mills,
has posted an update on the CaringBridge website
(http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/rosemarycarrolljohnson) and will share
further plans on the website as they become available. I will also share any
information I receive through ONS.

Please remember Rose Mary’s family in your thoughts and prayers. To all of Rose
Mary’s colleagues, we extend a wish for peace, solace and tender memories of a
dear friend.

Sincerely,
Susan Moore RN, MSN, ANP, AOCN
Assistant Editor
Oncology Nursing Forum

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This is very sad news. I was the Editor-in-Chief of The Journal of Hospice and Palliative Nursing from 2001-2009. Prior to my assuming the editorship, Rose Mary was in the editor role. I always enjoyed talking with her at INANE meetings and I appreciated her support in my first months on the job at JHPN. My thoughts and prayers go out to Rose Mary’s family, friends, and professional colleagues.

Editorial role in promoting discussion

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I think that most journal editors welcome “letters” to the editor, and many readers actually read them!  In the journal I edit,  Advances in Nursing Science, we receive letters all too rarely, but when we do, they tend to arise out of some idea that has prompted disagreement or reaction to an article.  We recently encountered a very strong response to an article we published titled  The politics of nursing knowledge and education: Critical pedagogy in the face of the militarisation of nursing in the war on terror. The letters that we have published in the current issue of journal are available on our web site.  How about some discussion here about our editorial role in promoting this kind of discussion … post your comments and let’s explore how various editors view this kind of “role” for our journals, and for those who believe this has value, how can we promote more of this.