The current coronavirus pandemic has highlighted the importance of evaluating evidence before arriving at a conclusion. Common sense tells us that when we venture into a new area, we will encounter many unknowns. For health care providers, including nurse practitioners (NPs), management of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak has been frightening and often exhausting. To nurse scientists, it is also a rare opportunity to learn about, and perhaps write about, an emerging disease. The fear and worry for patients as well as our own families is coupled with an understanding that there are many unknowns about the best way to prevent, treat, and recover from this new infectious agent. We all hope to learn from our colleagues who have the interest and the stamina to investigate and develop a body of evidence about the disease.
Recent retractions of publications about COVID treatment in Lancet and the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) are a sobering reminder that those of us involved in writing, reviewing, and reading science journals must be ever vigilant about the validity of the science presented. The retraction of a scientific paper purporting to provide important evidence is always concerning. The NEJM paper received both a peer and statistical review before publication and still resulted in a retraction. In this case, the primary data source came from a company owned by one of the physician authors and the data presented could not be verified (Piller & Servick, 2020). The situation has raised questions of error in sampling, analysis, and ethical decision making.
JAANP is already receiving manuscripts and query letters related to a wide variety of aspects of COVID-19 management. There are a number of NPs with great ideas about how to contribute to the science surrounding all aspects of this emerging disease. Here are some points to review for those considering authorship of a paper on COVID-19 or any other emerging area:
First, congratulations on taking an interest and being on the leading edge. Your experience as a provider is invaluable and it is likely that you will have some very good ideas for a potential publication.
Second, consider that in a rapidly developing field such as a new drug or device or a newly emerging disease state, it takes time to develop initial reliable knowledge that can be used to improve care. This is especially important to remember when you are discussing treatment, outcomes, or long-term impact.
Third, remember that there is typically a long lead time for publication in this and other science journals. After peer review, there are additional steps to prepare for publication. Writing about what is happening this week or this month is generally not a good fit for peer reviewed science journals.
Finally, if you are working in an emerging area, consider keeping a record or journal of your experiences, thoughts, and feelings. Taking a few minutes to write out lessons learned and your thoughts about them can be invaluable when it is time to sit down and write and can serve as a source of both recall and inspiration later on.
Many of us are scrambling to learn as much as we can during this time. When new areas of knowledge such as this are developing, life speeds up. Information and interactions fly by quickly, sometimes without the opportunity to process them. Keep in mind that with an emerging illness, diagnosis and treatment methods will be evolving for months to years. Be cautious and base your writing on existing evidence. If there is no evidential foundation for a manuscript, it may be too soon to write about it.
The year of the nurse and midwife
Each month during 2020 this space features important accomplishments by nurses in celebration of our year, as designated by the World Health Organization.
On August 6, 1848, Susan Baker, later Susie King Taylor, was born into slavery in Georgia. Taylor attended secret schools to learn to read and write. After becoming free, she served during the civil war as a volunteer nurse in the First South Carolina Volunteers, the first Black regiment in the US Army. She was never paid for her service. After the war, Taylor opened a school in Savannah, Georgia. She later moved to Boston, where she devoted much of the rest of her life to work with the Woman's Relief Corps, a national organization for female Civil War veterans. She died in 1912, 10 years after publishing her memoir of the war, Reminiscences of my Life in Camp (American Battlefield Trust, 2020, U.S. Department of the Interior, 2020).
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