Congratulations! 2018 is an important year for neuroscience nurses. We are all turning 50 this year! If you are reading this, you are part of the team. The past 50 years have seen major strides in neuroscience nursing, and you are part of the scientific team. Research and clinical care publication is a team sport-one that has required true effort, persistence, patience, and planning.
1967 was a year of beginnings. We witnessed the first Superbowl and the first heart transplant. John Barron conceptualized the first ATM, and the National Transportation Safety Board was created. Meanwhile, Barbara Therrien and Agnes Marshall conceptualized an association dedication to meeting the education and scientific needs of neuroscience nurses.
1968 was a year of turmoil. We lost Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy. The United States was divided over the war in Vietnam, and the Soviet Union invaded Czechoslovakia. Meanwhile, in Chicago, Therrien and Marshall held an organizational meeting and filed articles of incorporation for what would become the American Association of Neuroscience* Nurses (AANN).
1969 was a year for celebration. We landed a man on the moon and enjoyed the first episode of Sesame Street. We celebrated life at Woodstock, and the Beatles released their Abbey Road album. Meanwhile, the first annual AANN meeting was held in Cleveland, Ohio, and AANN nurses helped organize the World Federation of Neuroscience* Nurses. In the last months of 1969, AANN also celebrated the inaugural issue of the Journal of Neuroscience*Nursing (JNN).
The past 5 decades have seen a steady growth in neuroscience nursing as a distinct specialty. Both the organization and the journal have established a strong presence in the neuroscience community. All of the research, review, and clinical practice articles go through a peer review process. Periodically, the journal (in collaboration with AANN and Wolters Kluwer) conducts readership surveys designed to inform JNN about the topics and material of greatest interest to neuroscience nurses. Each of you are part of this success and part of the JNN team because the journal relies on volunteer peer reviewers and readership drives the journal content.
The journal has now published more than 2000 articles and is read by nurses in more than 140 countries. During the past year, members from various AANN Special Focus Groups (SFGs) have reviewed all of the JNN articles published in their subspecialty. The SFG volunteers have read hundreds of articles dating back to our first issue in 1969 and authored summary articles on their topic. Throughout 2018, the journal will publish these amazing summaries, and I am excited to share the first of these articles in this issue of JNN. As a neuro-nurse reading the SFG contributions, you can't help but be proud of who we have become over the past 50 years.
Jennifer Woods starts off the Reflections on 50 Years of Neuroscience Nursing series by summarizing the movement disorders, neuromuscular disease, and multiple sclerosis literature.1 I am proud and frankly amazed at the breadth and depth of the more than 150 articles that have been published in our journal on these topics alone! Along with taking the reader on a fascinating journey through 50 years of movement disorder research and treatment, Ms. Woods provides the most comprehensive summary of nursing care literature in movement disorders, neuromuscular disease, and multiple sclerosis that I have read.
The year will be filled with new thoughts, new facts, new data, and new ways to provide care to our patients. Just as our SFG authors provide their insight for each article in the Reflections on 50 Years of Neuroscience Nursing series, I invite you to write me with your own thoughts, ideas, and reflections. 2018 is off to a great start!
The Editor declares no conflicts of interest.
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