EDITORIAL
Vol 17 No 2 July 2001
This year marks 100 years of nursing registration. For that reason alone it is an occasion for New Zealand nurses to celebrate. However 2001 is important also because of the formal endorsement given to nursing having come of age. By recommending that an additional title, Nurse Practitioner, should have the same protection in law as is afforded to Registered Nurse, the Nursing Council of New Zealand is publicly acknowledging nursing’s development as having entered a new phase - one characterised by greater maturity and autonomy. A milestone year, certainly, and therefore like all such events a time for reflection as well as celebration.
As subscribers and readers will be aware, over the last two decades, Nursing Praxis in New Zealand has contributed to the profession’s emerging maturity. As a tribute to the significance of this year the Editorial Board invited one of its members Elaine Papps (ideally qualified by experience and scholarship) to submit an historically oriented article. ‘(Re)positioning nursing: Watch this space’ is the result. At the same time the other members of the Board have collaborated to write a collective commentary on the content in this issue of the journal, viewed as both a reflection of nursing’s evolutionary journey and a statement about the current situation of nursing in New Zealand.
Comparison of the table of contents for the inaugural issue of Nursing Praxis and that of July 2001 highlights both how much, and how little, the face of nursing has changed over the past two decades. In 1985 Judith Perry, the founding editor, called for a sharing of ideas and concerns so as to “make manifest the richness and diversity of nursing” (p.2). Both those qualities are demonstrated by the range of topics addressed and the approaches adopted in the present five articles. Regrettably this time there is no nursing voice from the secondary health services, not because of editorial policy - which remains inclusive - but due to few manuscripts being received from nurses in this sector. By contrast news and anecdotal accounts of hospital staff shortages and cuts abound in other sources.
Three of the present articles are focused on clinical issues, each with a topic highly pertinent to the times. The primary health care emphasis reflects a trend that continues to gain momentum. Clendon and McBride speak for Public Health Nurses who are alarmed at the seeming invisibility of key aspects
of their practice. Invisibility is an age old concern for nurses across the board.
However the message in this paper is salutary and urgent. Today visibility and funding go hand in hand. Caring and compassion are unchanged as core to nursing but, more than ever, are under threat. This poses a serious dilemma for nurses who know that there are aspects of their work which, although low profile, contribute immeasurably to the wellbeing of individuals and communities.
The subjects of two of the other articles, concern with cannabis use and abuse (Woodbridge) and the information needs of women with respect to hormone therapy replacement (Stephens, Carryer, & Budge), offer confirmation of the heard in public debate. As well as social and clinical relevance the HRT article is significant in another way. It represents the first occasion on which this journal had published a paper with a non-nurse as lead author, a development consistent with the increasing interdisciplinary nature of health service delivery and research.
The maturity referred to above is especially evident in the research article, one of a continuing series by Giddings and Wood. In 1985 New Zealand had few, if any, nurses who could have written so confidently and comfortably about such a wide spectrum of research methods and methodologies. One that has already stretched from radical hermeneutics to survey. Clearly we have moved beyond the qualitative/quantitative divide. Research as a basis for practice is widely accepted and, most importantly, we are now telling our own research stories and learning from New Zealand experience rather than believing the answers are always with overseas experts. Another sign of maturity is the ability to articulate our professional history, along with skill to examine it critically for clues as to how to deal more effectively with the future. Papps’ account of the first 100 years of nursing registration is more than a tale of survival. It challenges nurses to respect what is good in their legacy by building on it.
Although writing for publication is just one of the fronts on which the battle must continue it is a crucial one. Therefore we thank contributors and reviewers for their past support and look forward to a stronger and even more extensive partnership. That statement is not to suggest that we believe all the problems of nursing can be wished or written away. In a period of severe fiscal constraint and nursing shortages problems such as quality assurance, very resistant to remedy. Nevertheless (re)positioned nursing must resolve to reshape itself into a form that is more true to the core values of nursing, and hold steadfastly to that purpose. The alternative (unthinkable) is that the new ‘space’ could become a blank space.
Reference
Perry, J. (1985). Editorial. Nursing Praxis in New Zealand, 1(1), 2.
