The primary purpose of Nursing Administration Quarterly is to provide nursing administrators with practical, up-to-date information on the effective management of nursing services for modern health care systems. Nursing Administration Quarterly welcomes unsolicited manuscripts with disk prepared in accordance with this purpose and with the specific issue topics given below. Detailed instructions for manuscript preparation and submission of articles are contained in the Author's Guide, which can be obtained from the Editor, NAQ, Aspen Publishers, Inc., 200 Orchard Ridge Dr., Gaithersburg, MD 20878.
The following descriptions of projected topics include suggested themes and deadline dates for receipt of articles by the editor. Prospective authors should submit manuscripts no more than six months in advance of a deadline date but no later than the dates shown below. Manuscripts with disk should be submitted to Barbara Brown, Editor, 63430 E. Desert Mesa Ct., Tucson, AZ 85739.
Volume 27:3-Turning Around the Negative 90s. Everybody knows we have problems in health care: first, there was the IOM report on medical errors in 1999, and then IOM's most recent report on our crumbling infrastructure in 2001, not to mention all the testimony about how few nurses we'll have, and how badly our systems are screwed up. Now, it's about time we find some solutions. For one thing, there is clear and convincing evidence that the USA is going to invest some real dollars to turn health care around. Second, the National Patient Safety Committee is coming up with some very interesting suggestions for improving safety. Moreover, the nation's major employers are taking an active role in ensuring that their employees and their families get-not just safe-but really good care. And the government, nursing associations and nursing education and nurses' employers are getting together to finally do something positive about the nursing shortage. All in all, things are looking up because people-lay people, professionals, government officials, hospital administrators-have decided to do something positive. In fact, some already have. So we've invited the best to come and share their strategies in actual, honest-to-goodness case histories of success. And we asked the associations, and educators, lay activists and regulators to share what they are doing, how it can be educators, lay activists and regulators to share what they are doing, how it can be implemented, and how it is evaluated. Deadline date: October 15, 2002.
Volume 27:4-Patient's Point of View. There is a budding paradigm of health care that is guided and forged by patients and families. We are beginning to recognize that this new paradigm is centered on relationship and the basic tenets of caring. We are absorbed in being industrious and consumed with the activities demanded by the stressful times before us. The economic challenges abound within health care systems, therefore financial models of success have evolved, driving us further from the roots of our profession. Organizations market for increased volumes while bartering for more technology and market share. Nursing leaders are focusing on increased workforce shortages while bargaining with non-health care unions for working conditions and fair wages. We need to silence ourselves and heed the voices of our patients and families.
Eleanor Roosevelt has said:
We face the future fortified only with the lessons we have learned from the past. It is today that must create the world of the future. In a very real sense, tomorrow is now.
The challenges of tranformational thinking require us to learn from the past in order to create our future. By analyzing some of our outcomes today, we can conclude that the needs of our patients and our staff are not being met. Our profession is faced with dwindling nursing school enrollments and major shortages of competent professional nurses as the average age of the workforce continues to climb closer to retirement. The consumer, whether it is patient or family, is more informed and collectively demanding greater level of service. We have not listened to the imperative for caring behavior nor valued the messages that abound within our organizations. Caring behavior has become too inefficient and constitutes non-productive time. We have drifted away from caring behaviors as the basis for our practice.
This issue will explore:
* Development and implementation of a Healing Environment within an acute care setting
* The tenets of Patient Centered Care
* The fundamental issues revolving around caring and passion for our practice
* The expectations of patients, families, and health care professionals
* Potential solutions to some current challenges within health care
Deadline date: January 15, 2003.
Volume 28:1-Quality Assessment, Assurance, and Improvement. Quality assessment, assurance and improvement have always been a part of nursing practice. Florence Nightingale was our leader, mentor and role model in use of data to measure improvements. This journal will provide the field with some excellent QI work from nursing leaders who excel in Quality Management programs. Use of specific quality measurement tools will be the focus of some articles. Data analysis and use of those data in making changes and improvements will be the core information exchange gained from this journal. New practices based on the CQI process will be featured.
The journal will also honor Dr. Norma Lang, one of our current leaders in Quality Assurance who has received national and international recognition and honors in this field. You are invited to submit your world-class quality program, a specific improvement project, or an exemplar of how you applied quality measurement tools to an improvement project to be considered for this publication. Deadline date: May 1, 2003.