Extending the reach of pediatric nursing practice

Abstract

DURING THE PAST few weeks I have been involved in a number of professional activities that have converged together as the inspiration for this issue’s editorial. I have just returned from this year’s Journal of Pediatric Nursing Editorial Board meeting filled with new insights and fresh perspectives. In separate endeavors, I am working with a group of graduate students as well as an interdisciplinary team of pediatric professionals in developing clinical projects. Lastly, as a member of a judging panel, I have just finished reading essays of nurses submitted for a Nurse Week celebration. The common theme that is evident in all of these activities is the richness of the ideas and best practices that exist nationally and internationally. Regrettably, very few of these efforts ever reach others through the venues of publishing and professional presentations.There are so many areas of excellence that exist in pediatric nursing practice that are unknown to the rest of us. Everyday throughout pediatric and child health settings across this country and elsewhere, nurses are generating and implementing new approaches to care that are improving the level of care provided to children and their families. The wealth of clinical acumen evident in these many settings whether it is a regional tertiary medical center, a community clinic, or a school setting tends to be targeted solely for populations in local communities. Unfortunately, innovations in practice and resource development are not effectively disseminated or replicated in other settings. One only has to attend a national conference for pediatric and specialty nurses to hear presentations and view posters to quickly conclude our colleagues are energetically involved in improving the health care and services provided to children and their families. Just access the websites of nursing professional associations, hospital nursing departments and schools of nursing and one will find significant amounts of information generated that is not widely available to nursing and interdisciplinary colleagues and the public. The challenge is to transform the hard work and effort expended into a publishable manuscript for the larger professional audience.Generating a manuscript is an ambitious endeavor, albeit an immensely satisfying one. It might be useful to examine what could be leveraged into a publication. Many professionals have written grant proposals, internal documents and nonpublished agency reports that could be integrated into a manuscript publication. Daily, nursing colleagues are developing procedures, instructional materials and programs that would be of interest to others. These clinical products are worth sharing with colleagues to facilitate their application in other clinical settings or to be integrated as clinical evidence for practice. Nursing students are assigned papers to write on practice, policy and community topics that could be easily revised for publication.Many years ago, I spoke at a highly respected School of Nursing to share perspectives on professional development and nursing scholarship. Then, and as I believe now, too little emphasis is directed to assisting students with improving their writing skills to compose publishable papers. Some members of the audience took exception with my comments, suggesting that developing research was a more important priority and efforts should be directed to developing research evidence. For those of us who are well acquainted with writing textbooks, developing lectures for students or seeking evidence for practice, there is a paucity of nursing literature to access for developing important tools for practice such as standards of practice, protocols and clinical pathways. There is a lack of evidence in nursing for nurses to obtain for clinical purposes.One solution is to foster the development of publishable papers as requirements for course or program completion or for special study projects. I would encourage our nursing colleagues to create student assignments that include generating papers that could be submitted for publication. This is an opportune time for aspiring advanced practice nurses to have a mentored publishing experience. Under these circumstances, students will learn the process of generating a publication as an important professional skill to take into professional settings. The benefits of creating this performance expectation are many. The student learns the skills of researching and synthesizing the literature, developing a strategic plan for completing an extraprofessional project as well as applying and integrating knowledge to a clinical practice topic. Also, students are given assignments that are particularly meaningful as they learn that their work has value for other colleagues beyond the classroom.As I have suggested previously, clinical practice settings have the resources to stimulate the interest and the involvement of practicing nurses to publish. Nurses concerned with staff development can provide the leadership and resources to nurses interested in publishing. Publishing should be an advanced practice role expectation in clinical settings. For those who might be interested in submitting clinically-oriented manuscripts, you are encouraged to contact Maura MacPhee, RN, PhD who is the Clinical Editor and the Editor of Clinical Practice Column ( [email protected] ) as she will work with writers who have a clinical focus.I would like to belatedly recognize all of the wonderful people who I met last November at Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Missouri. I had the great opportunity to speak there and during my visit, I was taken on a tour of the medical center. Everyone I met was not only cordial but also really impressive in terms of their commitment to provide the highest level of care to the children and families and to enhance the level of nursing practice. It was a very pleasurable experience and I would especially like to thank Michelle R. Redfearn, PhD, RN, Clinical Research Coordinator and Karen Cox, RN, PhD, Senior Vice President, Patient Care Services for their kindnesses and generosity of time.Lastly, we plan on publishing a number of special issues. We are currently soliciting issue editors and authors for the following topical issues: FatheringMental Health IssuesBullyingIf you are interested in serving as an issue editor or contributing author, please contact me by email ( [email protected] ) or by phone (323) 442-1868. DURING THE PAST few weeks I have been involved in a number of professional activities that have converged together as the inspiration for this issue’s editorial. I have just returned from this year’s Journal of Pediatric Nursing Editorial Board meeting filled with new insights and fresh perspectives. In separate endeavors, I am working with a group of graduate students as well as an interdisciplinary team of pediatric professionals in developing clinical projects. Lastly, as a member of a judging panel, I have just finished reading essays of nurses submitted for a Nurse Week celebration. The common theme that is evident in all of these activities is the richness of the ideas and best practices that exist nationally and internationally. Regrettably, very few of these efforts ever reach others through the venues of publishing and professional presentations. There are so many areas of excellence that exist in pediatric nursing practice that are unknown to the rest of us. Everyday throughout pediatric and child health settings across this country and elsewhere, nurses are generating and implementing new approaches to care that are improving the level of care provided to children and their families. The wealth of clinical acumen evident in these many settings whether it is a regional tertiary medical center, a community clinic, or a school setting tends to be targeted solely for populations in local communities. Unfortunately, innovations in practice and resource development are not effectively disseminated or replicated in other settings. One only has to attend a national conference for pediatric and specialty nurses to hear presentations and view posters to quickly conclude our colleagues are energetically involved in improving the health care and services provided to children and their families. Just access the websites of nursing professional associations, hospital nursing departments and schools of nursing and one will find significant amounts of information generated that is not widely available to nursing and interdisciplinary colleagues and the public. The challenge is to transform the hard work and effort expended into a publishable manuscript for the larger professional audience. Generating a manuscript is an ambitious endeavor, albeit an immensely satisfying one. It might be useful to examine what could be leveraged into a publication. Many professionals have written grant proposals, internal documents and nonpublished agency reports that could be integrated into a manuscript publication. Daily, nursing colleagues are developing procedures, instructional materials and programs that would be of interest to others. These clinical products are worth sharing with colleagues to facilitate their application in other clinical settings or to be integrated as clinical evidence for practice. Nursing students are assigned papers to write on practice, policy and community topics that could be easily revised for publication. Many years ago, I spoke at a highly respected School of Nursing to share perspectives on professional development and nursing scholarship. Then, and as I believe now, too little emphasis is directed to assisting students with improving their writing skills to compose publishable papers. Some members of the audience took exception with my comments, suggesting that developing research was a more important priority and efforts should be directed to developing research evidence. For those of us who are well acquainted with writing textbooks, developing lectures for students or seeking evidence for practice, there is a paucity of nursing literature to access for developing important tools for practice such as standards of practice, protocols and clinical pathways. There is a lack of evidence in nursing for nurses to obtain for clinical purposes. One solution is to foster the development of publishable papers as requirements for course or program completion or for special study projects. I would encourage our nursing colleagues to create student assignments that include generating papers that could be submitted for publication. This is an opportune time for aspiring advanced practice nurses to have a mentored publishing experience. Under these circumstances, students will learn the process of generating a publication as an important professional skill to take into professional settings. The benefits of creating this performance expectation are many. The student learns the skills of researching and synthesizing the literature, developing a strategic plan for completing an extraprofessional project as well as applying and integrating knowledge to a clinical practice topic. Also, students are given assignments that are particularly meaningful as they learn that their work has value for other colleagues beyond the classroom. As I have suggested previously, clinical practice settings have the resources to stimulate the interest and the involvement of practicing nurses to publish. Nurses concerned with staff development can provide the leadership and resources to nurses interested in publishing. Publishing should be an advanced practice role expectation in clinical settings. For those who might be interested in submitting clinically-oriented manuscripts, you are encouraged to contact Maura MacPhee, RN, PhD who is the Clinical Editor and the Editor of Clinical Practice Column ( [email protected] ) as she will work with writers who have a clinical focus. I would like to belatedly recognize all of the wonderful people who I met last November at Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Missouri. I had the great opportunity to speak there and during my visit, I was taken on a tour of the medical center. Everyone I met was not only cordial but also really impressive in terms of their commitment to provide the highest level of care to the children and families and to enhance the level of nursing practice. It was a very pleasurable experience and I would especially like to thank Michelle R. Redfearn, PhD, RN, Clinical Research Coordinator and Karen Cox, RN, PhD, Senior Vice President, Patient Care Services for their kindnesses and generosity of time. Lastly, we plan on publishing a number of special issues. We are currently soliciting issue editors and authors for the following topical issues: FatheringMental Health IssuesBullying If you are interested in serving as an issue editor or contributing author, please contact me by email ( [email protected] ) or by phone (323) 442-1868.