With this issue, JNN completes 45 years of publication. To paraphrase Walt Disney, we have kept moving forward, opening new doors and doing new things, because we are professionally curious and this curiosity has led us down new paths. JNN's original aim was "to promote and elevate neurosurgical nursing throughout the world" (Kuttner, 1969, p. 5). In its early years of publication, JNN was printed once or twice each year; a significant number of our early manuscripts were written by physicians. The first "advisor" for the Journal was Dr. Paul Bucy; costs for production and printing were underwritten by individual neurosurgeon colleagues and the American Association of Neurological Surgeons.
Content included reprints of speeches delivered by the first leaders of the American Association of Neuroscience Nurses (AANN), papers that outlined pathophysiological and treatment basics for a host of neurologic and neurosurgical disorders or that discussed the nursing care for patients with these disorders. Authors submitted reports on new equipment and procedures, many of which we take for granted as having been around forever; for example, the second volume included "[horizontal ellipsis] for those looking to the future, Miss Rosenburgh's paper on blood gases" (Kuttner, 1969, p.5) and their potential use as a bedside diagnostic tool. Original reports of nursing research were relatively rare.
JNN has moved through the last 4+ decades at what seems like lightning speed. The body of neuroscience nursing knowledge existing today has grown exponentially and is based not simply on research conducted by our medical and surgical partners but on nurse designed, directed, and implemented research. Changes in practice mirror the changes and advances in technology, pharmacology, and scientific discovery that have occurred in medicine. We look at patient outcomes that are nurse-driven or nurse-sensitive rather than those outcomes that depend only on medical or surgical intervention; we have learned the value of specialty nursing care for our patients and their families.
JNN reflects all of this change. Although we continue to publish the old-fashioned or traditional way on paper, we also have a digital, online presence. We have readers, authors, and reviewers from around the globe. We have achieved professional recognition for the quality of content we print and the ways in which this content is used by others through our Impact Factor. JNN now offers continuing education credit to its reviewers and has begun offering an Open Access publishing option to our authors. Open Access will, we hope, provide wider access to our content, or, in some cases, make new information available sooner.
Wrapping up this issue and looking at the enormous body of work accomplished has been a true OMG experience! Looking back, it is clear that we have accomplished so much while remaining true to JNN's original aim. Our most recent vision is that we, as the leading authority in neuroscience nursing, inspire passion in nurses and create the future of the specialty.
Proust believed that "If a little dreaming is dangerous, the cure for it is not to dream less, but to dream more, to dream all the time" (Andres, 1993, p. 253). Looking back at the work published in the past 45 years, it is clear that the early authors and editors of JNN had dreams about and plans for the future of the Journal. We can only hope that their early hopes and dreams have been realized, perhaps wildly exceeded. As we look forward, our work will continue to build on their foundation.
The Editor declares no conflicts of interest.
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