“SLE IS LIKE A GREY WOLF LURKING AT THE EDGE OF THE WOODS, WAITING PATIENTLY TO ATTACK AN INDIVIDUAL’S BLOODSTREAM WHEN IT IDENTIFIES AN OPPORTUNITY…”
Education
It Takes a Team to Beat “The Beast” | Class III and IV Lupus Nephritis
When I met JP, she had just turned 22 years old. She had been living with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) since the age of 13, […]
Don’t Let Age Fool You! | Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE)
I work in a university-based rheumatology practice that includes an inpatient team that sees patients on the rheumatology service or consults on patients admitted to […]
Talk about Rough Teenage Years… | Juvenile Spondyloarthritis
One of our office’s most interesting and complicated juvenile spondyloarthritis (SpA) cases involved AZ, who presented to us as a 13-year-old male with a 3-year […]
Staying Attuned to Changing Patient Presentations | Ankylosing Spondylitis
GV is a 28-year-old female social worker who presented to my clinic in January as a new patient. During our initial conversation, she said she […]
Giving Parents Time to Think | Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis
As a pediatric rheumatology nurse, my visits typically involve more than just the patient. Including mom and/or dad in the discussion often requires a variety […]
Managing Out Colorful Array of Patients
Sometimes as rheumatology nurses, we walk into a room and our heart sinks as we’re faced with a patient who we know is going to […]
My Initial Experience with Biosimilars | Biosimilar
Not long after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved its first biosimilar agent for use in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), our office undertook […]
THE SHINGLES VACCINE: You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know | Vaccines
So this is new and fancy. Just when I thought I had the whole “shingles vaccine thing” covered, along come the JAK inhibitors to throw […]
Nurse-Focused Research at the ACR/ARHP Conference
The annual conference of the American College of Rheumatology (ACR)/Association for Rheumatology Health Professionals (ARHP) is typically the premier annual venue in the United States […]
Digging Deep for Clues | Reactive Arthritis
A few months ago, our office received an urgent call from an anxious primary care provider (PCP) asking to speak with our clinic director. In […]
The Many Faces of Psoriatic Arthritis | Psoriatic Arthritis (PsA)
Two years ago, a 30-year-old woman (RB) came to our office for an initial consult. She was in a wheelchair, covered from head to toe […]
The Long and Winding Road of a Young Athlete | Spondyloarthropathy
I recently saw a 17-year-old patient whose case caused a lot of people in our local healthcare community to scratch their heads. NJ is a […]
Taking a Stand for the Rheumatology Nurse
Recently, my Google Alert set for “rheumatology nursing” notified me of a curious short article out of Ireland. As we know, tragic, sensational, and even […]
Going Beyond Numbers on the Page | Rheumatoid Arthritis
“How are my numbers?” It’s a question that I get daily from my patients, often on several occasions. Patients will call and ask for a […]
When Patient Care Can’t Wait for Guidelines | Checkpoint Inhibitors
Raise your hand if you’ve heard of “checkpoint inhibitors.” OK, maybe don’t really raise your hand since you are probably sitting alone somewhere. Or maybe […]
Why CE Accreditation Matters to Nurses | Continuing Education
This issue of Rheumatology Nurse Practice (RNP) is the first of several coming out this year that will offer continuing education (CE) credit hours for […]
Getting at That “One Thing” That Makes a Difference | Rheumatoid Arthritis
We all have patients who are hard to connect with, stubborn beyond belief despite what we think is clear evidence that refutes their deep-seated obstinence. […]
Learning to Meet Our Patients Where They Are | Rheumatoid Arthritis
As a rheumatology nurse practitioner with 16 years of experience, I have seen a lot of patients with rapidly progressing disease. Unquestionably, after nearly 2 […]
Don’t Make Your Patient Visits Feel Like a Horror Movie
The scariest movie I ever saw was called “The Ring.” I’m not exactly sure what it was about, because I “watched” it while hiding under […]
Self-Efficacy Assessments: Valuable Tools for Patient Success
Because patient outcomes are increasingly being used as outcomes measures to determine the success or failure of certain treatment regimens, health behavior modifications, and compliance […]
Hoping for a Home Run, but Ending with a Strikeout | Rheumatoid Arthritis and Sjögren’s
J.T. was a former professional baseball player who came to our practice after being diagnosed at age 45 with severe rheumatoid arthritis (RA). In the […]
It Takes a Village | Seropositive Rheumatoid Arthritis
In nursing school, we are taught to use care plans to help manage our patients’ health problems. First, we assess the patient; next, we develop […]
The “What Ifs” That Stay With Us | Rheumatoid Arthritis
Sometimes, we encounter a patient in our practice who touches our life and our soul, and never leaves our heart. One such patient of mine […]
My Most Memorable Patient | Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis
As rheumatology nurses, we are lucky to be able to touch so many lives in a memorable way. Consequently, when a patient appears in our […]