The Changes Continue

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In last month's editorial, I introduced the new Associate Editor, Angela Green, PhD, RN, and other forthcoming changes as it pertained to the format and members of the editorial team. This is the inaugural issue for four new columns—“Hot Topics,” “Technology,” “Clinical Practice,” and “Research Commentary.” I would like to share information about these forthcoming additions to the Journal of Pediatric Nursing (JPN), including a brief profile of each of the new members of the editorial team and their responsibilities.

Debbie McBride, our new columnist for the JPN column “Hot Topics” is an award-winning journalist with more than a decade of experience writing for nursing publications. The “Hot Topics” column will highlight current clinical trends of interest to pediatric nurses.

Debbie is a former journalist and has published more than 100 research articles, reviews, editorials, and book chapters pertaining to pediatric nursing. She publishes regularly in the APHON Counts, Connect, and Advance for Nurses. Debbie joined the editorial board of the Oncology Nursing Society's magazine, Connect, in 2005, where she writes the “Just In” column on new research. For the last 3 years, she has been Assistant Editor of the Association of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Nurses newsletter, APHON Counts, where she edits a column on childhood cancer research. Debbie is currently working on a book on oral cancer. She is a Certified Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Nurse and Certified Pediatric Critical Care Nurse. Her research includes the rapid desensitization for carboplatin hypersensitivity reactions, medication errors involving chemotherapy, the H1N1 influenza, and infusion safety technology. She brings to her new column an extensive background in nursing, working as a pediatric nurse at the Kaiser Permanente's Oakland Medical Center. She is a practicing clinician and mentors and instructs nursing students in inpatient and ambulatory settings. She teaches pediatric nursing, nursing research, and community nursing at Samuel Merritt University. She is responsible for her department's pediatric program in San Francisco. Her subspecialty training is in oncology and pediatric infectious diseases.

Mary D. Gordon, PhD, RN, CNS-BC, is an acute care clinical nurse specialist at Texas Children's Hospital in Houston, TX, and the new editor of the “Clinical Practice” column. As Mary states, “My vision for the ‘Clinical Practice’ column is to share good, solid ideas in nursing practice. The ideas may or may not have much evidence to support them currently, but with improved outcomes they may be very helpful to other nurses who are struggling with the same practice issues. Research to support these ideas may come later, but one thing is for sure, sharing the ideas and generating interest and discussion is how practice begins to change.”

Mary has worked as a Clinical Nurse Specialist in burn care for 34 years and now works in acute care. She is adjunct pediatric nursing faculty at University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston and University of Texas at Houston. Mary has published numerous peer-reviewed nursing articles and book chapters. She has been an Associate/Forum Editor of The Journal of Burn Care and Research since 1981. Awards and honors have been received from the American Burn Association and Sigma Theta Tau for her work in burn care. In addition, she has received research funding from Shriners Hospitals and International Firefighters Association to study pressure ulcers in pediatric burn patients and pain assessment scales in adult burn patients.

Karen Goldschmidt MSN, RNC, the new editor of the “Technology” column, has practiced as a high-risk neonatal nurse for 19 years both at St. Christopher's Hospital for Children and The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Karen is Assistant Clinical Professor at Drexel University, College of Nursing and Health Professions. In that role, she teaches in a virtual environment and interacts with nurses from across the country. As Karen states, “Within a virtual platform, I believe instructors have the ability to influence nurses in a unique way. Online, barriers built by institutional walls are removed. Students convey words of inspiration and often times voice a renewed sense of commitment to the profession.” Karen teaches Nursing of Children in the undergraduate program integrating the technology of an iPod Touch handheld device loaded with Skyscape.com e-books as an instructional method with students. Karen plans on bringing this enthusiasm for integrating technology in her teaching and clinical practice to her new column. As Karen states, “I am looking forward to further exploring how technology can enhance the practice environment, the care we give to patients and families and our own professional development.”

Becky J. Christian, PhD, RN, will provide the research commentary for one of the research articles published in each issue. This commentary will demonstrate the clinical relevance and applicability of the particular research article chosen. Dr. Christian is Professor and Associate Director for Scholarship Development, Center for Nursing Research at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, School of Nursing. Becky is a well-known pediatric nursing researcher with a long history of National Institutes of Health and private foundation funding for her research. She has published extensively, and her national reputation is evident by the many presentations she gives to national audiences and the awards of recognition she has received for her contribution to pediatric nursing. Her program of research has focused on how children and adolescents with chronic illness understand and manage their conditions, as well as integrate chronic illness into their everyday lives. In addition, she has explored how families manage their child's chronic illness to improve their quality of life.

Becky is passionate about promoting the interrelationships between pediatric nursing specialty practice, scholarship, and health policy. As she states:

To promote best practices in caring for children, adolescents, and their families, it is imperative for clinical practice to be scholarly and based on evidence generated through developmentally appropriate nursing research. Yet, research must also be informed by expert pediatric nursing practice. This dynamic interface between scholarship, specialty clinical practice and health policy represents a continuous process. Ultimately, research findings are translated as evidence that is useful for improving practice, as well as influencing health policy. To that end, it is critical to disseminate cutting-edge scholarship designed to generate evidence and change practice to improve the care of children, adolescents and their families, as well as the quality of their lives.

I am very excited about the prospects of working with this new team of outstanding pediatric nursing clinicians and scholars. I am confident that you, the reader, will be impressed by their regularly featured columns in JPN. I want to encourage all of you contact these new columnists to share your ideas, exchange information, and submit column manuscripts.