This 30th anniversary year of the Journal of Infusion Nursing (JIN) celebrates the success of the Journal, illuminating our past and creating a pathway for our future. The Journal has enjoyed a distinguished history and has enabled us to position ourselves as the voice of infusion nursing.
As an infusion nursing specialist and president of the National Intravenous Therapy Association (NITA) in 1981-1982, I have always promoted the need to create the evidence base for our practice. Over the past 30 years, I have published 30 articles in the Journal. I still recall my presidential year; I was the infusion therapy coordinator at Southwest Texas Methodist Hospital, and 5 of the articles in a single issue of the Journal were written by members of our infusion team. What an exciting time that was!! My own contributions to the Journal during my presidential term included topics such as "Change Is a Challenge," "Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation," "Nursing Considerations: Flow Control," "Clotting Cascade," "Stop the Flow: I Want to Get Out," and "The IV Therapy Audit." In 1981-1982, we talked about the need to recognize a growing specialty through infusion teams, standards of practice, and more. My presidential columns reflected the same theme and included "The Year of the Professional: Reflections on 1981-82," "The First Time I Heard the Name NITA," "NITA and You: Working Together in '82," and "NITA Chapters Number 38 [horizontal ellipsis] and Still Growing." And grow we did!! The most prolific growth has been in the professional society, but our practice, the certification process, and our journal are pillars of our success.
An article that I published in Nursing Management in January 19821 highlighted the first IV Nurse Day and the significance of specialization in infusion nursing. At that time, I listed future goals as certification, continuing education, and implementation of cost-justified IV nursing teams. How far we have come [horizontal ellipsis] with certification a reality, continuing education available at our meetings and through the Journal, and a rebirth of infusion nursing teams in all settings in which care is delivered.
We have an innate responsibility to educate through publication. The Journal has always been at the forefront of developments and innovations in infusion nursing and continues to reflect the immense contribution that has been made by infusion nurses in all practice areas.
Celebrating the Past and Claiming the Future
Today, I am extremely proud of what the Journal has become. From regular editions and Standards of Practice supplements to specialty publications with a focus on critical concerns, the Journal reflects excellence in practice, process, and outcomes. Fast forward 30 years, and the focus of our practice as well as our publication has changed. We have a strong commitment to clinical research and to validating our practice. We are no longer simply "Setting the Standard" [horizontal ellipsis] we have become the gold standard. Ada Lawrence Plumer, supervisor and instructor in the Intravenous Department at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, was a cofounder of the National Intravenous Therapy Association (NITA) and author of Principles and Practice of Intravenous Therapy. Ms. Plumer wrote, "In spite of the increasing use and importance of parenteral therapy, little training is required of the average therapist to carry it out. It is considered sufficient by some that the therapist be able to perform a venipuncture. This does not contribute to the optimal care of the patient whose prognosis depends upon intravenous therapy. The purpose of this book is to present a source of practical information essential to safe and successful therapy."2 Ada Plumer was a visionary; little could she know that the knowledge base would expand to such a critical level, and that infusion nurses would advance from novice to expert, continuing to educate nurses through publication of their findings, their practices, and their research.
The Next Generation of the Journal
As we enter a new decade of publishing excellence, we acknowledge those whose contributions have made the Journal a success and the future generation of infusion nurses who will sustain our future. Our publications now extend beyond the Journal to electronic media, policies and procedures, and more. Our knowledge base continues to expand and our practice continues to grow. This issue's articles document liposomal drug delivery, current therapies for multiple myeloma, and abatacept to treat rheumatoid arthritis. This trend toward excellence will continue. May the next generation of the Journal be replete with contributions from you: documenting your practices, your methodologies, and your research. With this 30th anniversary year, we have claimed our past and we now celebrate our future-a future of commitment to creating and documenting the evidence base for infusion nursing practice.
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