A Brave New World of Partnerships

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.

We believe that partnerships are essential to providing effective, efficient, and compassionate health care.

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. Refuting the conventional depiction of the electronic health record as a distraction and a barrier to RBC, they posit that “ePHR use by consumers and health care providers embraces elements of RBC…. Consumers and providers alike share expectations that ePHR information will be readily available and that patient care and safety will be enhanced as a result.”

Nurse and Minnesota state Senator Kathy Sheran challenges nurses to educate ourselves about entities that “block needed [health] reform because it would reduce their profitability.” But she also challenges us to consider the ways in which we contribute to the problems we face in health care, and to work individually and in partnerships—in our workplaces and in the political arena—to promote true reform.

Exploring the new world of scarce job openings in the face of an impending nursing shortage, nursing educators Dori Taylor Sullivan, Kathleen Fries, and Michael Relf discuss what schools of nursing, nursing practice settings, and graduating nurses themselves can do to foster smooth transitions from the nursing education environment into the work force. In “A Tale of Two Graduates,” they depict the interpersonal relationship strategies employed by a successful job applicant— strategies that formerly would have been expected of experienced nurses wishing to advance in clinical or administrative career tracks but that now are necessary even for entry-level nursing positions.

In this year of exploring partnerships, we ask you, our readers, to partner with us. We are receiving more and more submissions from our readers—excellent articles about nursing in this new world. Our lead times are quite long, but our themes are very broad, and all the articles we receive are carefully considered for publication. Whether you have a long list of published articles on your resumé or have never written for publication before, our editors are standing by to help you prepare content that will enhance patient care and enrich the work lives of our colleagues. Suggestions for articles or topics, as well as kudos and constructive criticism, are also gratefully received. Please send all communication directly to me at mlewishunstiger@chcm.com Together we can become thought leaders within our profession and throughout the new world of health care.