On our cover this month, Edward Dzakpasu, RN, is shown helping his patient, James Dumpson, to ambulate up and down the hallways of Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. The photographer, Christine Ott Marshall, an NP at Mount Sinai, submitted the photo to AJN's Faces of Caring: Nurses at Work photo contest in 2005. The photo was chosen as one of 13 "judges' choice" winners. Marshall, an RN since 1992 and an NP since 1998, felt that the photo depicted one aspect of nurses' daily work, as well as the growing diversity among nursing staff.

Figure. On our cover this month, Edward Dzakpasu, RN, is shown helping his patient, James Dumpson, to ambulate up and down the hallways of Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. Photo by Christine Ott Marshall.

Although the photo was taken almost a decade ago, the importance of ambulating patients hasn't changed. For many patients, hospitalization brings prolonged periods of immobility or bed rest, which are associated with adverse health outcomes such as increased length of hospital stay, increased risk of falls, and functional decline. Despite this, many hospitalized patients, even those who can walk, spend a majority of their time in bed. To read about how one interdisciplinary team undertook a quality improvement project to mitigate the adverse effects of bed rest, see this month's CE feature, "A Mobility Program for an Inpatient Acute Care Medical Unit."-Michael Fergenson, senior editorial coordinator