Successful nursing leaders learn through formal mechanisms such as mentorship and role modeling or through trial and error. Communicating the value of nursing and the business case for resources and change is an art. Early in my role as a chief nursing officer, a seasoned leader told me to do my homework and gather data before the meeting or presentation. This has been good advice whether referring to my role in the board room, dealing with a multidisciplinary committee, attending a nursing staffing meeting, or developing a manuscript.
Nurse leaders must be able to articulate the question, identify resources to provide expertise to support study and project design, and present and interpret data for others. These often overwhelming skills are necessary prior to the separate but important project management skills necessary to implement new practices and processes based on outcomes. Each phase involves exquisite execution, thus the art!
Magnet(R) environments of excellence support cultures of inquiry. In today's challenging and resource-constrained healthcare environment, nursing leaders in Magnet-designated organizations are actively identifying outcomes and evidence to support and enhance practice and data-based decisions. The partnership created in 2011 between JONA and the Magnet Recognition Program(R) supports a culture of inquiry. As the official leadership journal for Magnet, JONA has enhanced our mission of serving as a scholarly peer-reviewed nursing publication by reaching a new cadre of readers. All attendees at the 2011 Magnet conference, many of whom were staff nurses, received subscriptions to JONA. This wider audience has enabled communication and inclusion of nurses at the point of service in outcomes and evidence-based practice from reviewing the literature to citing evidence and replicating studies. A substantial number of recent publications have been collaborative projects written by teams of authors including researchers, nurse leaders, and bedside nurses. The extensive time these projects and ensuing manuscripts require is a dynamic example of nurses facilitating communication to enhance practice and commitment to scholarship. Steps in developing a manuscript include identifying an outline and flow, analyzing preproject data, articulating the process and methods of the initiative, analyzing postproject data, and identifying outcome recommendations for the target audience. Nurse leaders can refine written and verbal communication skills, build a case supporting evidence, and do their homework by emulating these steps.
The reprinted articles selected for this special Magnet supplement are examples of initiatives from project and research teams who have performed these same steps. They have identified recommendations and new knowledge. Regardless of Magnet status, nurses have a professional responsibility to improve practice and work environments. Magnet organizations and leaders have the additional burden of creating frameworks to systematically include and inform nurses at all levels. Frameworks include communication of information to others for education, to support change or to tell the story. Developing and submitting peer-reviewed publications to enhance communication contribute to the impact of our profession and to the benefit of our patients.
Congratulations to the teams of authors who have developed the articles highlighted in this special edition. Each of us should celebrate the accomplishments of these writing teams and support others in the continued dissemination of best practices and evidence. Thanks to the Magnet program office and particularly to Karen Drenkard, PhD, RN, NEA-BC, FAAN, executive director of the American Nurses Credentialing Center, and Craig Luzinski, MSN, RN, NEA-BC, FACHE, director of the Magnet Recognition Program for their leadership in this collaboration with JONA and the support of this special supplement.