English Language Refinement and Editing in Family Scholarship

As the editor of the Journal of Family Nursing, I have frequently offered authors, for whom is English is a second language, developmental editing which focuses on conceptual strengthening as well as English language refinement. It is a labor of love that is very time-consuming!  I have experimented with engaging the help of several professional English language refinement services but did not find them particularly helpful for the content of Nursing, and particularly not for Family Nursing/Family Health. I recently asked my colleagues who belong to the International Academy of Nursing Editors for their recommendations.

I learned there are several nurses with doctoral degrees who offer English language refinement services in the USA and UK. Here are some recommended resources. I hope this list might be helpful to you as you prepare to publish your family scholarship in English language journals. Read More >>

Family Nursing Research Instruments Developed by Family Nurses

“Everything that can be counted does not necessarily count; everything that counts cannot necessarily be counted”
 ~Albert Einstein

Measuring how families function in health and illness has been explored in several scholarly books and journal articles.  I would like to highlight the important work that several of my family nursing colleagues are doing to develop research instruments that measure family variables and still others who have developed  instruments that measure family nurse variables. Several of these colleagues will present updated information about their instruments at the 10th International Family Nursing Conference in Kyoto, Japan–details about further psychometric development, the populations the instrument has been used with, and the translations that are available for the instrument.   I am so proud of my colleagues and their pioneering work. I only hope that more of them will develop and maintain a current website about their instrument so new developments can be quickly posted.

These instruments have the potential to be used in descriptive research as well as in studies which examine the outcomes of an intervention. I long for the day when we have an instrument that examines the relationship between families and nurses–or maybe that’s what Einstein was referring to when he said, “…everything that counts cannot neccessarily be counted”! Read More >>

TRANSFORMING PRACTICE with Families in Health Care: My Vision

I have a burning desire as a family nurse to increase the capacity of nurses to practice with families. How can we help new and experienced health care professionals learn how to address illness suffering and family healing?

My dream for our community of family nursing is that we create, share, and disseminate knowledge about family nursing practice: what practice models are being used around the world? what knowledge exists about family assessment? what family interventions are being used and by whom? how do we differentiate between generalist and advanced family nursing practice? what family nursing knowledge transfer projects are being conducted in what practice settings? where are the Centers of Excellence in family nursing practice? etc.

One of the greatest urgencies is to have more family nurses join the “tribe” and use social media to share resources (see my recent Journal of Family Nursing editorial: Social Media and Family Nursing: Where is my tribe?).  If you have used a creative intervention with a particular population of families, or have program of research about family intervention, or have a research instrument that examines practice with families, I encourage you to build a URL address for sharing these resources.

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My 10 Favorite Relationship Books

It’s all about relationships! Relationships between people who matter most are core to health and well-being.

I just finished writing a Journal of Family Nursing editorial for the Feb 2011 issue about the importance of relationships in family nursing. Whether you are a health care professional who focuses on healing relationships, a researcher who studies relationships, or an individual or couple who wants to improve your intimate relationship, these 10 books offer a wealth of information for both clinical and personal application.

My 10 favorite relationship books are a step beyond the usual genre of self-help books about relationships.  The authors are skilled clinicians, therapists, researchers, and teachers. I’ve attended their conference presentations, workshops, and training events.  I’ve recommended their books to couples and families.  I’ve given their books as wedding gifts, shower gifts, and baby gifts. The core belief of these books is that the skills needed to sustain and improve intimate, long-term relationships can be learned. Isn’t that great news? Read More >>

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