Category Archives: Uncategorized

Marie Branch and the Power of Nursing

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Cory Ellen Gatrall, RN, CLC, Doctoral Student, University of Massachusetts, Amherst

The following is an excerpt of a recent post by Cory Ellen Gatrall, on Nursing Clio.

In June 2020, when millions took to the streets in the midst of a pandemic to protest police attacks on Black lives, public statements began to trickle out of major nursing organizations. The American Nurses Association (ANA) called racism “a public health crisis,” while the American Association of Colleges of Nursing declared that “racism will no longer be tolerated.” In fact, since its inception, organized nursing has not only tolerated racism but also actively practiced it, while those who have provided the field with both evidence and opportunity to make antiracist change have found themselves facing the weaponized inertia of the institutions which claim to represent them.

Read more at: https://nursingclio.org/2020/10/29/marie-branch-and-the-power-of-nursing/

1918 Redux: Supportive Nursing Care for the Coronavirus Pandemic Is Courageous Care

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Patricia D’Antonio, PhD, RN, FAAN, University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing

The following is an excerpt from a recent guest post by Barbara Bates Center Director Patricia D’Antonio, PhD, RN, FAAN, on Off the Charts, the blog of the American Journal of Nursing

The lessons of the past.

As we struggle to make sense of unfolding data, announcements, and public health directives about the current coronavirus pandemic, appreciating the lessons from past pandemics can help us understand the effectiveness and challenges related to quarantines and social isolation, as well as the need for reliable and timely communications.

In times of public health uncertainty, nurses and nursing care have played a critical role in saving lives and relieving suffering. We now know a great deal about the role of nursing during the 1918 influenza pandemic. Some lessons need heeding now…

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In Honor of Nurses Week – The Stethoscope: A Tool of Nurses’ Trade since the 1930s

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By Lydia Wytenbroek, York University 

Last September, the Miss America competition’s talent portion featured Kelley Johnson, Miss Colorado, a registered nurse, who appeared on stage wearing nurses’ scrubs with a stethoscope around her neck. Johnson’s talent was delivery of a monologue about her experience caring for Joe, a patient with Alzheimer ’s disease. In a competition where the majority of contestants choose to enact a song or dance, Johnson’s performance stood out as unique. But it was comments made about Johnson’s monologue the following day by the co-hosts of ABC’s The View which hurled Johnson, and the nursing profession, into the public spotlight. Continue reading →

Are Women Really Qualified for That? 100 Years Ago, Army Nurses Faced Similar Doubts

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By Marian Moser Jones, PhD

The U.S. debate over the integration of women into military combat roles, recently reignited by the Army’s April 15th announcement that it has selected 22 women as infantry officers, may seem to be covering new territory in the gender wars. But underlying the debate is an enduring question that resurfaces again and again in widely different contexts: are women really qualified for that?

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It’s a Small World: Lessons from Ebola and MERS

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CDC mock Ebola Treatment Unit (photo credit: Cleopatra Adedeji)

By Emma MacAllister, BSN

The most recent Ebola outbreak all began in West Africa with one 18-month-old boy in the remote village of Meliandou, Guinea. From there the outbreak exploded into a global crisis that claimed over 11,000 lives worldwide and counting. An inability to halt the virus’ spread left health officials alarmed. Yet, in the Fall of last year, experts in the United States were confident in the nation’s health system’s ability to control an outbreak if Ebola crossed our borders.  We possessed the ability, resources and technology to effectively treat the ill and stop the virus in its tracks.  This attitude proved overoptimistic.

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