Why Printed, Peer-Reviewed Nursing Journals Will Go Away and 10 Leadership Tips for Nurses (Random thoughts for a March afternoon)

Hello nursing gang! I know you all were anticipating my next blog post with utter excitement! I have been working on so many things and have missed you all, but I wanted to share a couple of things that have been on my mind with you. So read on and be amused, outraged, informed, or simply entertained.

Why I think print peer-reviewed nursing journals are and will go away. It has been my observation over the last several months that more nursing journals have moved to an online format. The ANA and Sigma Theta Tau International have both greenly placed their journals online and such a move brings cheers from their members, however these journals remain available only to membership (see my brief list of online nursing journals below). Say good-bye to paper and hello to open access, if you want to be hip and with-it in the information age.

The future and present of nursing publication is web-based; saving time, cost, and trees. One can only hope that the months that it takes for articles to be reviewed for publication will also be diminished. This great span of time, from submission- to review- to revision- to resubmission of an article, is one of the greatest hindrances to rapid publication of vital nursing information and while peer review and editing are an important part of integrity in the nursing science information process, speed is much needed. In my humble opinion the time factor in peer-review may be holding things up a bit, that’s where our nurse bloggers will come in. My greatest hope is that more journals will consider opening up guest blogging and journal spots to students, both graduate and undergraduate, to make more nurses part of the process of publishing. Nursing students, in my opinion, carry some of the most up-to-date nursing science information by nature of their constant work in libraries and on projects, having much to lend to the discussion of nursing science.

Further, I would like to challenge nursing organizations who publish ground-breaking nursing work, such as the new scope and standards of nursing practice that the ANA is working on, to begin to open such documents up in availability to the entire world and not just their membership. For example, I find it ridiculous that a copy of the nursing code of ethics from the ANA cannot be downloaded by anyone interested in what nursing ethics should be (this would include government officials, patients, physicians, and nurses around the world). Let’s be more transparent and accessible to nurses and patients; in that we will find our relevance for putting such information on the web.

Either way the publication world, nursing, education, and technology are changing rapidly and nursing science must change with it. Leaders in publication, communication, social technology, and blogging like Phil Baumann, Rob Fraser, Barbara Olsen and others will help lead us in the right directions. Perhaps, blogging will lead the way and organizations who are actively transmitting information will follow in good nurse bloggers’ footsteps. Some organizations are ahead here and should receive big Kudos, such as the INQIR. Below is a list of online nursing journals and nurse bloggers to check out.

10 Tips for ANY nurse about leadership. I teach administration and leadership to RN-BSN completion students. Having a strong clinical background, when I was assigned this class I was quite challenged by the material in it. Finding mostly very dry information about staffing ratios, budgeting, and time management, I wondered if many of my students would really take interest in the information I was presenting? While such information is vital to a nurse manager, as my husband would say, textbooks  rarely end up on the best seller list and there are obvious reasons why. My observation of dry text and dry subject matter leads to disinterested students who are simply trying to get through a class and get a degree. This is not the atmosphere I want for my students. On the contrary, I want them to love nursing as much as I do. This goal led me on a quest to begin investigating nursing administration and leadership from a perspective of personal interviews and reading outside of the discipline of nursing. (Yes nurses, did you know that business gurus write much more interesting and applicable text on administration and leadership than we do?) While observing and learning, I realized that any nurse, whether bedside or boardroom, could utilize some basic tips.

1. LISTEN with an open ear to all parties. Listening without bias or preconceived ideas, really listening, is an art form. For those of us who’s brains and mouths go 100 miles an hour, and who are used to having to fight for any progress we make in a discipline, workplace, or for our patients, find difficulty in really listening. In a 2007 article in Business Week writer Carmine Gallo says that this is a key trait of good leaders. Often as nurses we pride ourselves on truly listening to and advocating for patients, but how often do we do this for each other?

2. Be a good follower. Any leader is only as good as their followers, and the best leaders are sometimes the best followers. Think about the outstanding leaders you know who are integral team players, who show humility, letting others take they lead when necessary, listening openly to others’ visions and ideas, and supporting other leaders constructively. Honestly observe a good leader and often you will note good follower characteristics. Does this mean be a blind sell-out follower? No, but a good follower knows how to be a constructive part of a team, how to remove roadblocks to get their leader and team to the ultimate goal, and how to act instead of just waiting for someone else to do so (sounds like the description of a good leader doesn’t it?).

3. Take chances and risks, even if it might mean failure. Good leaders take risks. Do they gamble with followers? Sometimes, but I would venture to say not much. Taking risks does not necessarily mean endangering people, it means moving out of the entrenched. Let me give you an example. A recent dean I worked for had an issue with the size of employee e-mail storage, finding no resolution with IT, she moved forward with public e-mail sites for all of her faculty. The idea worked out beautifully and although she risked the scorn of her peers and the IT department, she did what was best for her faculty. She promised the IT department that when they came up with a better solution than hers, she would gladly change to their solution. Her quick action helped not only faculty, but students as well. Risk taking does not have to exactly look like this, but it could. Maybe for you it is going out and writing a patient information handbook for your unit that you have been thinking is badly needed (even if gets rejected how much will you learn and inspire others?), or maybe its a simple patient care change. Come on nurses….. take a risk!

4. Stay focused on a few projects/causes and do not get roped into everything. Good leaders usually have enormous amounts of energy, they are the nurse who volunteers to teach CPR, help with new nurses orientation, and bake cookies for the staff meeting etc…. You know to whom I am referring. Often, these good leaders get roped into too many good causes. There are more than a million good nursing causes out there and a million more projects to be involved with. I urge all nurses to pick only a few, no more than three, and keep focused. When you conquer those projects or causes then move on to a new one, but do not take on more than 3 projects at a time. Too much of a good thing tends to burn out our brightest stars quickly.

5. Share your vision clearly and frequently. The good old elevator speech works best, but honestly share your cause and ideas often and with everyone, even if your cause is as simple as moving the trash cans to a different position in the patient room. Tell your boss, your colleagues, people who work in different departments, the janitor, your twitter friends, whoever will listen. Casting your vision and energy wide and repeating it often is how you get people to buy in. Likewise, sharing performs a second important function… it helps others refine or edit your vision/idea to make it more workable. Keep it brief though, no one wants to hear you go on and on.

6. When you are sharing vision or leading with a specific project, clearly lay out your values with the team. Too often we assume, as nurses and humans, that others buy into our value system simply because they signed onto our project. It is important in the beginning of any project/meeting/organization to clearly layout what the values of the team will be. A good leader might even let the team decide what values will be cherished. Clear values help a team with vision and progression to the goal. If you see a group doing cool things odds are they have a team approach to mission and values… not some organizational top-down, printed on a website, fake mission…. you nurses out there know what I’m talking about .

7. Cultivate new leaders. Good leaders take others under their wing and mentor them to greatness without an official program or direction. I have observed that the best leaders grow new leaders under them, from the beginning. They take their mentees to board meetings, involve them in heading up projects, and simply interact with them through daily duties. Often times, the best leaders build something critical that is the only way to build new leaders…. RELATIONSHIP. It is not succession planning and it is not all business, but something deeper entirely. Think back to the best nurses who precepted you in your first days as a nurse, they were generally the best unit leaders even without rank or title. Didn’t they inspire you on to more? Now go and do likewise.

8. Network. Anytime, anywhere, try to meet new nurses in your field who are doing new things and pick their brain. This means you are going to need to join at least one nursing organization and be ACTIVE (don’t just put it on your resume as a way to get hired at the next job interview). You also may need to learn how to use technology to socially network with other nurses. Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook are offering boundless opportunities for this. However, your local nursing organization is a good place to start. Six Pixels of Separation, a great blog on leadership and business recently advised that to build a good community (read in here vision/project/cause) you have to be an active community member first, the same goes for leadership.

9. Keep Learning. The best nursing leaders are always on ‘learn’ mode. Does this mean continue on in school? Maybe, but more than schooling good leaders do journal or blog reading, go to specialty conference every few years, or simply read a book. Hint, disciplines outside of nursing have much to teach us… try reading in science, business, communication, journalism, and even leadership to give your practice an exciting new charge.

10. Write things down. I know this sounds silly, but the best leaders I have seen are constantly writing down thoughts. They either jot them down in a notebook, twitter, blog, etc… They also do cool things like plus and minus lists, writing down both short and long-term goals, and they generally like lists. Famous chef Rachel Ray stays up late into the night to write down recipes. Famed leader Bill Hybels in his book Axiom even encourages journaling, plus-minus lists, and a cool short-term organizational method called the six-by-six. Whatever your take on leadership, good leaders, write things down.

On a final note about leadership it has been my experience that the best leaders are often not in administration, but in the trenches. They mobilize and inspire colleagues. One thing I tell my students is that to be the best leader you don’t need a title. Simply being a nurse means leadership.

Online Nursing Journals and Great Nursing Blogs

ARHQ Morbidity and Mortality Rounds on the web – http://www.webmm.ahrq.gov/

Evidenced Based Nursing online at the BMJ (60 day free trial) – http://ebn.bmj.com/

The Journal of Undergraduate Nursing Scholarship – http://www.juns.nursing.arizona.edu/

The American Journal of Nursing Online (MY FAVORITE ) – http://journals.lww.com/ajnonline/pages/default.aspx

Online Journal of Rural Nursing and Health Care – http://www.rno.org/journal/index.php/online-journal

Lippincott’s Nursing Center on the Web (another favorite) – http://www.nursingcenter.com/home/index.asp

STTI’s Journal of Nursing Scholarship (have to be a member to get the goods) – http://www.nursingsociety.org/Publications/Journals/Pages/JNS_main.aspx

ANA’s Online Journal of Issues in Nursing (again membership =’s goods) – http://nursingworld.org/MainMenuCategories/ANAMarketplace/ANAPeriodicals/OJIN.aspx

*remember you can search almost any journal online to see what is in their journal, but again article access is problematic (I guess that’s another reason to be a student all of your life – online library access)

Bloggers I love!!!

Blog of the Interdisciplinary Nursing Quality Research Initiative from RWJF – http://inqri.blogspot.com/

Tech and Nursing talk from Phil Baumann – http://philbaumann.com/

Nursing ideas and nurse leaders speak at Nursing Ideas by Rob Fraser - http://www.nursingideas.ca/

Safety nurse leader Barbara Olsen keeps us all safe at Florencedotcom – http://florencedotcom.blogspot.com/

Great and funny nurse writer Mother Jones at Nurse Ratched – http://nurse-ratcheds.blogspot.com/

Nursing Jobs keeps a great blog with discussion on important national nursing issues - http://www.nursingjobs.org/blog/

Dr. Lorry Schoenly teaches us about correctional nursing at her blog – http://lorryschoenly.wordpress.com/

There are more great nursing resources out there on the big WWW, but these are a few of the best.