Moving Forward with a New Look

Article Outline

• Copyright

Writing the editorial for the last issue of the year always has a special significance as it is a time to anticipate changes and transitions as we end one year and anticipate another. This particular issue of the Journal of Professional Nursing (JPN) is significant for three main reasons. First, this is a special issue devoted to the topic of evidence-based nursing, a subject that is of great importance and interest to our profession. Integrating evidence-based nursing into our educational curricula at our various schools of nursing will help move our profession forward and will be in line with the recommendations issued from the Institute of Medicine, urging all health professionals to develop practices that are founded on evidence. Dr. Jacqueline Dunbar-Jacob, dean of the University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing, served as a special editor for this edition of the journal, amassing a thought-provoking group of articles that address the current and important topics related to evidence-based nursing. Evidence-based nursing is a timely issue across all health care and scientific disciplines, and this particular edition of JPN should be very enlightening. I want to thank Dr. Dunbar-Jacob and her colleagues for their outstanding contribution to the journal.

The second reason for the significance of this issue is that the terms of office for our columnists have ended. Dr. Karen Aroian was responsible for the Cultural Diversity columns; Dr. Helen Burns, for the Public Policy columns; Dr. Miriam Cameron, for the Legal and Ethical Issues columns; Dr. Joanne Disch, for the Professional Practice columns; Dr. Susan Gennaro, for the Education columns; and Dr. Pamela Mitchell, for the Research columns. I want to sincerely thank our columnists who have written many thought-provoking columns for us over the years. Their expertise and passion for their work are reflected in their columns. We thank our dedicated reviewers as well. In this issue, there is a list of all who reviewed for us over the past year. Our journal would not exist without the tireless efforts of our reviewers. Producing a journal on a regular basis takes a huge amount of coordinated teamwork, and the members of the team who have helped make our journal successful deserve a heartfelt “thank you!”

The third reason that this issue of JPN is of particular significance is that it is the last issue that we will publish with our old look. Beginning with the first issue of 2006, JPN will have a new look that will consist not only of a new cover, which is a physical new look, but also of a different organizing framework for the presentation of the articles. Based on a strategic editorial planning meeting held in July, which was attended by several stakeholders—including officers in the AACN, reviewers for JPN, and authors for JPN—we decided to organize our articles according to three major areas. These three areas are: (1) education (both national and global), (2) leadership, and (3) health policy. We believe that these three areas will help provide an important organizing framework for the journal and are broad enough to include a variety of manuscripts that address diverse topics, categorized under these three larger umbrellas areas. I welcome your manuscript submissions and I hope that this organizing framework will help guide what you choose to submit to JPN. We also will include regular updates from the executive director of the AACN to highlight the current activities and issues.

I continue to encourage letters to the editor as a way to focus on issues of concern to our readers as well as issues that are controversial and that deserve some debate and presentation of various points of view. A journal is an excellent forum for scholarly debate and discussion.

As we embark on our newly renovated journal, I look forward to continuing to build on the work we have already been doing. In addition, I welcome your input and suggestions. It has never been clearer to me that a journal is much more than a collection of articles; it is a platform for information, for discussion, and for thought-provoking and provocative ideas. A journal can actually come alive through the active participation of its constituents. I sincerely encourage your active participation!