Editorial: Issues in Comprehensive Pediatric Nursing spreads its wings

Who would have believed that an aspiring nursing journal launched in 1976 would still be in existence today in 2013? Now one of the oldest children’s nursing journals in the world ICPN seeks to expand the frontiers of its influence further to promote the art and science of children’s and young people’s nursing world-wide. As we say farewell to former editor in chief Dr Jane Bliss-Holtz who has stepped down after 15 years of service we should remind ourselves that behind every successful editor in chief (EIC) there lies an army of people who make journals such as ICPN the success that they are.

I am very pleased that Dr Bliss –Holtz has graciously agreed to remain a member of the editorial board and I am very privileged as the incoming EIC to lead a new and expanded editorial board comprising of some of the best known senior clinical and academic children’s nurses in the world. Additionally Jordan Schilling and I (Jordan is the dynamic managing editor of the Journal based at HQ in New York) are having weekly telephone conference meetings to steer the journal through this new stage in its evolutionally development. Jordan is very keen to capitalise on new and emerging technology and he has some exciting plans for the journal including a special section for master’s degree submissions, so watch this space!

With editorial board representation from the USA, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland (both North and South), England, Scotland, Wales, The Netherlands and Italy, the journal will continue to strive to influence and promote the acquisition of an expanded evidence base to underpin the delivery of health care to children world-wide.

One of the themes raised in this issue of the journal is the issue of Children’s and young people’s nurse education. Twistington-Higgins (1952) in his book written to commemorate the first 100 years of The Hospital For Sick Children, Great Ormond Street London England provides little detail on the education of children’s nurses but does reiterate one of the original aims of the hospital written in 1852, which was: ‘To disseminate among all classes of the community but chiefly among the poor a better acquaintance with the management of infants and children during illness by employing it [The Hospital] as a school for the education of women in the special duties of children’s nursing’.

Of interest is that this emphasis on the training of nurses to care for sick children predates Nightingale who was yet to enter legend through her activities for injured and sick service men during the Crimean war (1853-6). The Florence Nightingale Training School based at St. Thomas’s Hospital London England did not open until 1860

Catherine Jane Wood, one of the early matrons of The Great Ormond Street children’s hospital has left a tangible legacy of the importance of educating children’s and young people’s nurses in stating that ‘Sick Children require special nursing and sick children’s nurses require special training’ (Wood, 1888). However Glasper & Charles Edwards (2002) have highlighted the dangers facing the longevity of the children’s nurse in the UK and elsewhere. Where the status of the children’s nurse was once assured, on closer examination the trend towards educating nurses to give them a generic qualification which legally allows them to work more seamlessly across fields of practice with no impediment to their state registration, might actually undermine the cohesiveness of children’s nursing. It is important to highlight that in some countries such as the USA nursing regulators do not have a separate register of qualified children’s nurses and have only one level of nurse, this being the Registered Nurse (RN). In such countries the experience of caring for sick children is gained through post registration experience. Despite this, all share a single “espirt de corps” which unites them with their fellow children’s nurses worldwide. We do of course accept that the language we use and the nomenclature of children’s and young people’s nursing will differ widely and for example in the USA it is known as pediatric nursing. As an expanded editorial board we will be vigilant in asking our contributors to be les colloquial in their use of jargon which might not be understood by readers in other countries.

Journals such as ICPN exist not only to illuminate the evidence base for children’s and young people’s nursing but also to highlight the necessity of sick children receiving care from suitably qualified and prepared nurses. Professor Festini through his paper in this edition of the journal discusses some of the trials and tribulations facing children’s and young people’s nursing in contemporary Italy and later in the year the journal will be reporting on a symposium being held in Florence Italy to investigate the commissioning of children’s nursing education in Europe.

As the journal spreads its wings further across the globe we will endeavor to capture the very best of children’s and young people’s health care practice to inform practice delivery. We intend to focus some of the activities of the journal towards frontline service delivery and we will publish papers which will help these frontline nurses deliver care based on best evidence. In this issue for example Coles and Glasper report on attempts to make the English National Health Service more young person friendly and readers will be interested to ascertain if their own institutions experience similar difficulties.

To help in the solicitation of papers that are directly related to frontline clinical practice, the editorial board has established an expanded data base of expert critical reviewers who are charged with maintaining the high quality of the journal and in helping to drive up its impact factor.

Although a prime focus of the journal will be to expedite innovation in clinical practice we will still publish papers which are more philosophical in nature and where we seek to expand the boundaries of our pedagogical and scholastic heritage. In this way we aspire to become a repository for literature on all aspects of children’s and young people’s nursing. To a achieve this we plan to spread our wings far and wide and to help novice writers we have prepared a paper for which will feature on the journal website simply entitled "Writing a paper for publication in Issues in Comprehensive Pediatric Nursing". We hope it will inspire potential contributors to publish their work and be cherished by our global community which is children’s and young people’s nursing.

Declaration of Interest

The author declares no conflict of interest. The author alone is responsible for the writing of this paper.