Goodbyes are never easy, and they are often filled with emotions and memories. This is the place I am in at this moment as I write this editorial letter. It seems it was just yesterday that the idea of a companion journal to the Journal of Nursing Administration (JONA) was being discussed. Quickly, it manifested into a reality. I am most grateful to have been the developing editor for the journal. It was a wonderful experience that I will always treasure.
After a long and successful run, it is now time to say goodbye to JONA's Health Care Law, Ethics, & Regulation. This is an emotional moment indeed, surrounded by other significant events. When Rebecca Cady contacted me to contribute to this final issue, I had just found out days before that Suzanne Smith, EdD, RN, FAAN, had passed away suddenly, a real shock that set off a magnitude of memories and emotions within me. Suzanne was the long-standing editor in chief of the JONA. She took the journal from an entry-level journal to 1 of the top journal positions in all of the health care publishing industry. She was a dedicated, brilliant, and most caring person and professional. She was a superb mentor to me as well as to a multitude of nurse leaders from across the world. Her transformational leadership was exemplary and her work will live on through the journal and through the skills and accomplishments of all that she mentored over the years. She was instrumental in the conceptualization of JONA's Health Care Law, Ethics, & Regulation. It is most fitting that I say goodbye to her at this moment with a salute as well. To my dear friend Suzanne: a life well lived, a job well done! You will forever live on in the pages of your beloved JONA and in our hearts. I will miss you deeply.
The vision for JONA's Health Care Law, Ethics, & Regulation was to be a vehicle for the ongoing education of nurse executives and managers in these specific practice disciplines. Other goals included bringing to the awareness of nurse executives and leaders a great consciousness about the increased importance of law, ethics, and regulation in practice and to act as a foundation for professional self-development and ongoing education in these areas that are not often given enough emphasis in graduate programs. At the time of the journal's inception, these issues were in the forefront. We were dealing with transformational changes in accreditation models, issues regarding patients' rights and the right to die, as well as the movement of the patient to the leader of their own health care decisions and plans of care. We had implemented the Patient Self-determination Act and we were amidst the chaos of not only major changes in reimbursement systems but also a real transformation in the design of care delivery. More larger systems were being developed and communication systems were in transition. The age of technology was upon us, bringing with it its own world of accompanying legal, ethical, and regulatory issues to deal with.
Nurse executives and nurse leaders were inundated with fast changes and were seeking ways to keep abreast of the issues and make more sense of the chaos. The environment was also becoming more turbulent with an increase in malpractice suits and the new demand to practice professionally at a more defensive level. All of this change and transformation naturally led to the design of JONA's Health Care Law, Ethics, & Regulation. The JONA always held on to its mission of providing its readers cutting-edge information and strategies to readily implement in practice. And thus, the new companion journal served as a structured mechanism to allow this mission to expand. Over the past years, JONA's Health Care Law, Ethics, & Regulation has contributed significantly to the realization of JONA's mission, strategy, and goals.
The journal was a great success. The years have brought readers a real platform for the examination of these critical issues in practice. The journal was transformative at just the right time and rushed to meet the ever-growing needs of nurse executives across the world. Much quality contribution has been made by way of the journal to the ever-growing body of nurse executive practice knowledge. Nurse executives have been allowed to come into the world of law, ethics, and regulation to not only learn but more importantly to transform health care delivery and contribute to executive-level decision making and practice.
Many executives and graduate students have accessed the pages of JONA's Health Care Law, Ethics, & Regulation. They will continue to do so in the years to come. The journal set a higher standard for publications in this area of practice specialty and will continue to carry out its mission long after the printing presses have stopped. The journal set the foundation for ongoing and future research, information dissemination, and dialogue. Projects such as this are what make nursing practice so exciting and so worthy of our lifelong commitments. We are a profession of nonstop transformation and we are demonstrating that by the major contributions we make via research and publication. We do and will ever so continue to make major contributions to the health care delivery systems of the near and far future.
Rebecca Cady, JD, RN, editor-in-chief, accomplished well the overall mission and the specific goals of the journal. Her leadership and ongoing vision were instrumental in making the journal the success that it is. I commend her for her long time commitment and her hard efforts to maintain a high quality of contributions that authors and the entire nursing profession can be very proud of. Thank you Rebecca for all that you contributed to the integrity of the journal and to nurse executive practice.
Finally, I acknowledge the editorial board of JONA's Health Care Law, Ethics, and Regulation. Most of the members remained on the board throughout the life of the journal. Most of them I worked with intimately in the first few years of the journal. They are an excellent group of high-level professionals and they have contributed so much to the editorial integrity and quality of the journal. I commend them for their high-level commitment and performance. It was an honor to work with them and I am forever grateful for their contributions.
We are now in a new time of great changes, and the world of publishing and clinical nursing practice is rushing to bring about new transformations that will meet the demands we are facing. New projects are being developed now and will materialize soon. JONA's Health Care Law, Ethics, & Regulation can be very proud that it was there to serve at a time when most needed.
Sincerely,
Dominick L. Flarey, PhD, MBA, RN, FACHE
Former Editor-in-Chief
JONA's Health Care Law, Ethics, & Regulation
President
The American Institute of Health Care Professionals, Inc
Warren, Ohio