The current nursing shortage, aggravated by the rising average age of the working nurse, is likely to become worse as many nurses retire during the next decade. I believe that nursing will consequently become a true growth industry, and one of the most personally meaningful professions young people can enter. The demand for nurses will be great, probably painfully acute, but the numbers of those seeking to be nurses, both here and abroad, will, we hope, be unprecedented. FIGURE 1
As we prepared to publish our centennial issue, I looked through the first issue of the American Journal of Nursing. It is evident that even then the profession was concerned with more than maternal-child and medical-surgical nursing. There were nurses on the hospital ship Maine, headed to South Africa, nurses writing about hospital economics, law, and infection control-and one prescient article, "Specialties in Nursing." From its inception, AJN has been committed to promoting the diversification that keeps our profession alive.
As AJN's publisher-and an RN with 30 years' experience-I'm one of the many with a stake in nursing's future.
AJN began as a monthly venture of the J. B. Lippincott Company of Philadelphia. Periodicals were fairly new to the publishing scene back then, and one devoted to a woman's profession was by any measure risky business. From a purely economic standpoint, it was reasonable to wonder who would support this venture. Yet today AJN is the single largest asset of the Lippincott Williams & Wilkins Publishing Company, owned by Wolters Kluwer, an international publishing conglomerate that has invested considerable resources in nursing publishing and education. Nursing is a stable, healthy business.
FIGURE 2 Throughout the years, advertisers have also supported this publication, recognizing the importance of nursing to their financial success. On these pages are some of the advertisements that appeared in the first issue of AJN-for "invalid chairs," analgesics, antipyretics, uniforms, and medicinal waters. My personal favorite is a quarter-page ad for Great Western Champagne. I would love to know the company's rationale for buying this ad space.
We still publish ads for uniforms, equipment, and medicinal preparations (drugs). But travel nurse staffing agencies are now our leading advertisers, reflecting changes in our profession and in the health care system. There are also ads for long-term investment, online advanced degrees, and expensive high-tech medical equipment-ads your great-grandmothers couldn't have imagined.
Ad sales are increasing, indicating that businesses, both health-related and otherwise, recognize the strength and viability of the profession. We are grateful for the continued support of our advertisers.
AJN's editorial staff has decades of combined clinical experience gained from working in the emergency department, the ICU, home care, and other specialties, as well as respected reputations in journalism, broadcasting, and academia.
Each month, AJN reflects the new face and voice of nursing through
* original research that breaks down old barriers.
* breaking news that is pertinent to daily nursing care.
* engaging feature articles and columns that reflect and examine the profession's newest thoughts and practices.
Nursing is alive and well and will remain so. Still not sure? Stay tuned-we'll see if I'm correct when AJN publishes its bicentennial edition.
AJN, CLASSIFIED ADVERTISEMENTS, OCTOBER 1900
A NURSE, who has filled the position of Superintendent in large Training-Schools for several years, is open to an engagement.
Address F. E. W.
315 Madison Avenue, Albany, N.Y.
WANTED.-A position as Matron or Housekeeper in Hospital or Institution, by a woman who has had five years' experience in hospital work. Is competent to do the ordering and marketing for a large place, and can furnish good references.
Address A. B.
5 Swift Street, Auburn, Cayuga Co., N.Y.
A GRADUATE Nurse of six years' experience would like a position in a Hospital, Sanitarium, or Institution of some kind where professional services are required.
Apply to Miss M. E. P. Davis
4168 Washington Street, Boston, Mass.