A Brave New World of Partnerships

Abstract

In 2011, Creative Nursing focused on communication in its broadest sense. Our four issues, with the overarching theme of Speaking, Listening, and Beyond, addressed presence, ethics, knowledge and creativity, and unspoken messages, emphasizing the many elements of communication that comprise our professional practice. In 2012, we turn our attention to partnerships: working relationships that promote the very best care, within settings that foster mutuality and excellence in practice. We call this year's theme Partnerships in Practice, making use of the dual meaning of this phrase: We believe that these relationships are essential to providing effective, efficient, and compassionate health care. And, we will showcase exemplars of successful partnership, not just in theory, but in practice. Upcoming issues will highlight "Educating for Partnering" (our second issue, due out in May), "Partnering With Those We Serve" (the third issue, due out in August, with a manuscript submission deadline of March 15), and "Sharing Governance" (the fourth issue, due out in November, with a manuscript submission deadline of June 15). We will also include our recurring features: book reviews, reflecting on our history, and the nursing salon experience. This first issue for 2012 highlights the seismic shifts taking place in health care and in our profession: the new science of relationships, an emphasis on prevention and on population health, the advancement of evidence-based practice (EBP), a focus on settings other than inpatient acute care, a new generation of nursing students with new learning styles, the expansion of electronic health records into many care settings, and the compelling need for nurses to be informed and active in the process of health care reform. In all these new worlds, partnerships are present and vital. Guest editor JoEllen Koerner, a nurse scholar and entrepreneur, discusses new findings in neuroscience that expand our understanding of empathy and insight- key ingredients in true partnering. Then she and nursing professor Sheila Ryan describe paradigm-changing partnerships for population health. The goal of the model they describe is to "create a system to improve the health of the community, one family and one neighborhood at a time." Exemplifying excellent care in another community setting, nurse practitioner Karen Veith describes her yearlong journey with a middle school student who developed a life-threatening illness. Nursing professor Susan Rugari and her clinical colleagues Lynette Alcorn, Theresa Baird, Basnot Phillips-Williams, Wendy Spagnuolo, Mei-Yi Lee, and Pamela Berglund provide true stories of successful implementation of EBP, not just in theory, but with concrete, collegial changes in care that transformed the lives of patients. Another article on EBP, by nursing educators Kristin Schams and Jackie Kuennen, links a new "building blocks" model for teaching EBP to the mosaic thinking and collaborative learning style of the millennial generation of nursing students. Strong links also characterize the discussion of Relationship-Based Care (RBC) and the electronic personal health record (ePHR) presented by nursing educators Toni Hebda and Carol Patton. …