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Abstract 

J Vasc Nurs 2003;21:1

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• Cindy Lewis, MSN, RN

Spring is approaching … hopefully … and it is time to shake the cobwebs out of our closets, offices, and start new projects. My suggestion this spring is to turn over a new leaf, get the pen to the paper, and write for publication!

Why? The answers can be limitless. Some reasons that immediately come to mind are to advance our profession, share new perspectives and experiences, report research, improve health care, enhance nursing's image, increase your chance for promotion or recognition and, last but not least, grow professionally.

What are the common barriers to writing? They may include location issues, time, priority, writing style, perfectionism, fear of risk, or fear of rejection. To deal with these barriers, try to determine what is blocking your writing. If it is lack of confidence, read articles on topics that interest you. Talk with colleagues about the topics on which you want to write. Solicit the editor's feedback on your idea. This will help to clarify your thoughts, which will help you to see the merit of your ideas. Seek out resources, ask for help, and set a target date.

Nursing, as it is practiced, is the foundation for professional knowledge and is also the means by which nursing evolves as a profession. Only when nurses share with others what is happening in the field can the profession grow and develop. You can help in that process by writing about what you are doing, by sharing information and exploring possibilities with other nurses. The very nurses who are advancing the profession through practice, promoting better patient care, inspiring students and colleagues—the very nurses who are doing nursing—have the most to share through published writing. Through writing, you, as a practicing nurse, may offer new ideas about approaches to old situations, make suggestions for innovative directions in nursing, or present a unique perspective on current health care issues.

You can share your experiences with other nurses by explaining new and useful clinical procedures, share helpful nursing care plans, suggest methods for cost containment, or educate colleagues in nursing applications and adaptations to new technologies. You may challenge or support the usefulness of some nursing models, concepts, and theories; report research you have completed; or describe a solution you found to a problem with a difficult patient.

This month's issue offers a variety of articles and columns. Our guest editorial emphasizes the holistic management of patient wounds in developing a successful plan of care. If each person had to learn by his or her own experience, never benefitting from or building on the accounts of others as recorded in the literature, the profession would certainly progress slowly, if at all. The future of our profession depends on it. The saying “publish or perish” is true not only for individuals, but also for disciplines. Writing for publication is the avenue for scholarly communication to grow and further develop the nursing profession.

We, as nurses, have a wealth of information and knowledge to share. We need to share our successes and our failures with our peers by writing. In addition, a personal benefit from writing is the process involved in sorting out your ideas and organizing your thoughts. As you write, you will critique the practice of nursing, ask questions, and affect future practice. Seeing your ideas in print can also give you satisfaction that you are contributing to the practice of others and perhaps improving patient care. Your writing can address human experiences with compassionate realism and clinical expertise. It is not enough to improve only 1 patient's care when the potential to improve another is possible through writing! Writing is a skill; anyone can learn it. Remember, you have the information Journal of Vascular Nursing editors are seeking. Within your scope of practice are many topics, and you are qualified to write about them. You can write about situations, problems, solutions, and patient cases in your current work setting. Writing about what is familiar to you brings a fresh, reality-based approach to your articles that appeals to the readership. Contact me with your ideas. We can help you through the process.