It has been a full year since Plastic Surgical Nursing has been published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. The most obvious change has been with the colorful cover, but changes in format, art, and content can be spotted throughout the text. In 2005, our readers will note additional changes. During the past several months, the editorial board has had frequent conversations about how to best serve our readers. You will see the addition of new departments and fresh approaches to continuing departments. For example, in this issue, the Journal Club starts a series of reviews of Internet sites. The Legal Department, in which a nurse-attorney will answer our readers' questions, will be introduced in the next issue.
The editorial board has undergone some changes as well. I am pleased to be rejoining the editorial board after an absence of several years, this time in the role of editor. Jeanne Prin Wyatt, who has been steadfast in her commitment to the journal, serves as our Associate Editor. Dawn Sagrillo and Sue Kunz are responsible for the Journal Club, Joanne Gladfelter for the Management Department, Stefanie Dinman for the Pharmacy Department, and Rachelle Springer writes the Taking the OR to the Office department. We have recently welcomed Sue Mendez-Eastman to the editorial board.
Plastic Surgical Nursing has been fortunate to have more than a dozen volunteers who review manuscripts. Becoming a reviewer is one way to serve your professional organization. If you are interested in becoming a member of the manuscript review board, please forward a copy of your curriculum vitae to me. Adding new members to the manuscript review board enhances the expertise of the group and may allow some of our long-serving volunteers a much-needed break.
In taking on the editor position, I am aware of all of the work that has gone into the journal by the previous editor and the editorial board members over the past 25 years. It is like one experience I had during the past year.
Last September, I took a tour to Shipshewana, Indiana, with a busload of other quilt enthusiasts from the Detroit area. Shipshewana, an Amish community, is well known for its antique stores, hand-crafted furniture, bakeries, and quilts. In Rebecca Haarer's Antique Shop, I ogled a stack of quilt squares that were hand-pieced some time between 1890 and 1900.
The shopkeeper pulled the 17 squares out of her glass cabinet. The blocks were about 12-inch squares, looked like they had navy blue bow ties, and were diagonal on an ecru shirting fabric. Some of the light fabrics were stained with a rust color and brittle with dry rot. I carried away my treasure. On the bus ride home, the ladies played a lot of "show and tell." I gingerly unwrapped my tissue-paper bundle for everyone to see.
I was a bit intimidated by finishing a project another woman had started. This woman, of a different culture and a different time, had cut out small scraps of shirts by hand-probably after sharpening her own scissors. I pictured her rearranging the squares on the oak dining table after cleaning up from supper, gently fingering the fabric as she moved the pieces to make a pleasing arrangement. She probably sewed by firelight after the children were tucked in bed. The tiniest scraps were sewn together with even, tiny stitches.
As I laid out her blocks on my living room carpet, I wondered what arrangement she had intended. Would she have liked the fabrics I chose for the borders and binding? Not knowing how to quilt the layers of cotton and batting together by hand, I fed the layers through my machine. I still feel a bit guilty about it, but perhaps she would think I was a fool not to use technologies available to me, such as the self-threading sewing machine, polyester thread, and hypoallergenic batting!!
When the quilt was completed, I presented it to my husband to display in the back of his 1912 Flanders roadster for car shows. Despite the "oohs" and "aahs" from quilters, I could not take credit for what an Amish woman had started more than a century ago.
As we move forward with this journal, I am respectful of all of the hands that have touched this patchwork thus far. With the talents of the editorial board and the staff at Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, and with the crucial input of ASPSN members, our journal will keep growing in quality and content.
To forward your comments to me and to the Editorial Board, write to us at Plastic Surgical Nursing, American Society of Plastic Surgical Nurses, 3220 Pointe Parkway, Suite 500, Norcross, GA 30092-3346, or send an e-mail to Kathleen Walsh Spencer at [email protected]
Kathleen Walsh Spencer, MSN, MA, RN, CS, CPSN
Editor