FIGURE
This issue begins the 5th year of this publication. I was thrilled to be asked late last fall to take over for Dominick Flarey when he stepped down as Editor-in-Chief. Dominick did a wonderful job of "birthing" this journal and getting it out of its infancy. With this new year, you will see several new features. The first is a continuing education feature. These articles will focus on legal and regulatory issues that impact nursing and will qualify for nursing continuing education credits. We hope at some point to be able to expand this feature to qualify for legal continuing education credits as well. The second is a column that will discuss new and interesting legal cases. The third is a book review column that will identify and discuss books relevant to the areas of healthcare law, ethics, and regulation. The purpose behind the new features is to provide you with information you need to function optimally in today's healthcare market in a concise format. I would appreciate your feedback as to whether we are meeting this goal. The issues we experience here in the United States' healthcare system are not unique to our country. Nurses around the world are engaged in dealing with these issues. We are pleased to be receiving submissions on a regular basis from nurses all around the world, and this issue presents one of our first international submissions.
In closing, I would like to thank the staff at Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins for their efforts at making the transition from Dominick to myself such a smooth one. I thank Dominick for leaving me a thriving and ready-to-grow publication. I thank the editorial board for its continued support and contribution to this journal. I thank the column editors for their consistently interesting and timely contributions.
I can be reached via e-mail at [email protected], and look forward to receiving your feedback and input.