By Shawn Kennedy, AJN editorial director/interim editor-in-chief
I know some people think it’s crass and self-serving to announce awards. Sometimes I agree, especially if it’s the “I” award – I did this, I did that, I’ve been named to this or that commission.
But I have to announce these awards because not to do it is unfair to the many people who work very hard behind the scenes to get each issue of AJN out the door and in your hands. Every reference and every fact is checked; articles are edited, second-edited, copyedited, and then proofread multiple times. There’s a pre-edit meeting with the author; there’s an art meeting; there are weekly editorial meetings. It takes editors, freelancers, clinical editors, knowledgeable authors with great stories, copyeditors, a librarian, our talented design and production teams, and our editorial and department coordinators to work together to develop each article, each issue. Some of the people who took part in working on these pieces are no longer here and I will be sure they learn about these awards, as it is truly a team effort.
So it’s with pride and thanks to those who made it happen that I share our news about the six (count ‘em – six!) awards to AJN announced by the American Society of Healthcare Publication Editors (ASHPE):
GOLD award – Feature Article
Vietnam Women's Memorial, Washington, DC. Courtesy of Kay Schwebke.
The Vietnam Women’s Memorial: Better Late Than Never
Kay E. Schwebke; May 2009;
SILVER award – Signed Editorial
Who’s Watching?
Diana J. Mason; March 2009
SILVER award – Cover Photo
Street Nurse
Nettie Wild; July 2009
SILVER award – Opening Page, Computer Generated
Stopping Eating and Drinking
Judith K. Schwarz; September 2009
BRONZE award – Blog Post [!]
Is it Ethical for a Nurse to Decline the H1N1 Vaccine?
Douglas Olsen; August 2009
SILVER award – Special Supplement
Transforming Care at the Bedside: Paving the Wave for Change
November 2009
Click on the links and check out our award winners. Don’t forget to listen to podcasts that may be associated with the articles (my favorite: the poems written by nurses who served in Vietnam). And you can see all the winners of ASHPE awards here. Or maybe just browse our current issue, entirely free until May 15, after which time only certain departments and selected articles will be free (as they usually are).
If the above excerpt sounds like it’s lifted from the intimate memoirs of a torturer, it’s not. It’s from the May Reflections essay, “The Soul on the Head of a Pin,” which is written by Marcy Phipps (for the nicest version, click through to the PDF once you’ve reached the article at our Website). Marcy is a nurse who uses a simple, elegantly rendered childhood story to explore the sometimes unnerving gap inside every nurse between the roles of objective scientist and compassionate healer. -JM
