Nursing: Education, Research, and Practice

In the early planning stages, we conceived of this issue of ATHM as “shining a spotlight on nursing.” Now, especially since the passage of health care reform, that metaphor seems obsolete. In our current fast-moving health care environment, nursing no longer needs an external light source—it is shining on its own, with an even brighter future ahead.The facts speak for themselves: Nurses are the largest group of health care providers in the United States. In all health care settings, including acute care hospitals and community care centers, nurses often provide the initial health contact, up to 50% of primary care, with significant impact on the quality of patient care and medical outcomes. Within the last decade, research on nursing has strengthened the scientific validations of clinical practice in disease prevention, symptoms management, holistic caring systems development, and end-of-life and palliative care. The profession itself is consolidating; an immediate example is ATHM’s collaboration with the journal Holistic Nursing Practice to make our combined content freely available to readers of both journals as well as to the nursing community in general. This article is protected by copyright. To share or copy this article, visit copyright.com. use ISSN#10786791. To subscribe, visit alternative-therapies.com.