Just So You Know

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Anxiety. Excitement. Fear. Enthusiasm. Being named the third editor of the Journal of the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care is fraught with emotions. I am humbled by the honor as well as by the prospect of the hard work I have promised to undertake. I do it because I think this organization and this journal are worth the efforts of nurses who care about people with HIV, the epidemic that has affected the lives of every individual around the globe, and the nurses who work to make a difference. And I do it to encourage each of you to get involved in JANAC—as a reader, an author, a critic, and as a contributor to the best known and most respected journal for nursing and HIV infection.

In this first editorial, I want to share some of the things I was asked to consider when I applied for the editorial position. The search committee asked for my personal philosophies about nursing and HIV; they also asked about my vision for JANAC.

Nursing is not easy. It requires a lot of effort. Over the years, I have come to believe that nursing is the process of helping people prepare for, control, avoid, cope with, respond to, accept, and/or thrive on change. I believe that nurses, with their unique constellation of practice, research, and scholarship skills, are well suited to this task for the following reasons:

The HIV epidemic moved me out of my comfort zone of inpatient pediatric and medical-surgical nursing. I began to question my conceptualizations of stigma, discrimination, poverty, ignorance, and chronic disease. And I found out that racism, sexism, heterosexism, and classism affect health. I learned that the context and complexity of problems were important components of community and culture. I had to consider the ethics of limited resources and forced choices between prevention and care, between children and the elderly, and between HIV and cancer. And I remain frustrated by the lack of political will to support interventions with demonstrated abilities to improve health.

I—like many of my colleagues—am a child of clashing perspectives: a nurse before HIV emerged, a health care provider during the entire history of this devastating epidemic, and a citizen of a world that has not yet dealt with HIV infection much less the social and political problems that moved it forward.

And so I have landed where I am today, in a place that includes a new position as JANAC editor. My first and most important need in processing this editorial change is to acknowledge the amazing strengths of the journal. JANAC has a history of excellence and a stellar reputation. It has served the Association well. We have a right to be proud of its accomplishments. It would not be where it is today without the innumerable contributions of Richard Sowell, the out-going editor who has served with distinction for the last decade, and his editorial staff, Demetrius Porche, associate editor, and Lee Person, editorial manager. These dedicated members of ANAC have taken JANAC to levels of excellence that could not have been imagined 17 years ago by the farsighted ANAC board that decided to publish an association journal.

That being said, I am well aware that JANAC cannot maintain this level of excellence without forward movement, without changing, and without paying attention to the needs of the readers and the members of the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care. My first goal is to assure a vibrant and committed editorial board. An editorial board is responsible for bringing reality to the editorial process, for keeping the editor grounded, and for assuring that the content of the journal is accurate, cutting-edge, and valuable. I will depend heavily on the members of the board.

My goal for the journal is to maintain a strong focus on all aspects of nursing in the HIV epidemic as well as on related issues such as emerging epidemics, social contributions to and consequences of disease, political advocacy, and nursing care standards for epidemics, chronic disease, and co-occurring illnesses. I expect to publish articles and columns that cut across the critical clinical, research, prevention, policy, and education requirements of excellent nursing practice in the HIV epidemic. Most important, I expect JANAC to evolve with the changes that will inevitably occur.