Staff nurse perceptions of the Magnet journey.

Objective: The objective of this study was to compile a rich description of the phenomenon Magnet journey by registered nurses in clinical settings who provide direct patient care in community healthcare systems recently receiving Magnet designation.

Background: Evidence supports that Magnet designation leads to improved nursing, patient, and organizational outcomes. Descriptions abound regarding the organizational and cultural transformation during the time leading up to the Magnet designation, commonly referred to as the Magnet journey.

Understanding and managing coma stimulation: are we doing everything we can?

The incidence of people surviving with traumatic brain injury is rising at a remarkable pace. Unfortunately, patients also experience some form of coma and significant deficits (ie, cognitive, functional, etc). The focus is shifting from saving these patients to trying to figure out what else can be done for them? In the past, patients were medically maintained, stabilized, and then sent to rehabilitation centers for coma stimulation, in the hope of waking up their reticular activating system.

Stroke: historical perspectives.

The author gives a historical account of stroke, the devastating statistics that still plague Americans, what the future holds, the current research, and possible areas for improvement and growth. Now with specialized imaging, diffusion-weighted and perfusion-weighted magnetic resonance imagings may become the technique to rapidly diagnose brain attack. The cutting edge technology now involves balloons, coils, stents, angioplasty, and thrombolytics to save an ischemic penumbra.