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Publishing in journals is an important responsibility of academics, researchers and practitioners. It helps us to share information about innovative and effective nursing practice.
Emergency Nurse. 31, 5, 15-15. doi: 10.7748/en.31.5.15.s9
Published: 05 September 2023
Evidence-based practice is vital to nursing, and health and social care, but research suggests it is less widespread than it should be. One reason may be that front-line practitioners do not always have the support, time and knowledge to search for and review evidence.
There is a need for the latest evidence to be provided in an accessible format and this is where the role of journals such as those published by RCNi becomes significant.
Articles in RCNi journals tend to be shorter in length and are written in accessible language so that practitioners working in specific clinical fields recognise their relevance to practice immediately. As a result, they can keep themselves updated about current evidence on relevant practices so they can improve care provision.
A glance over recent issues of Emergency Nurse, where I published an article with my colleagues, shows the breadth of topics covered in the journal, from perceptions of the nurse practitioner’s role to managing hypopituitarism in emergency departments. These articles provide nurses with an opportunity to reflect on their understanding of such issues, and help them develop their knowledge further.
Another example is our article, which was aimed to help nurses identify signs of intimate partner violence in emergency and urgent care settings.
There is evidence to suggest that healthcare professionals, including nurses, are poorly prepared to identify and manage patients experiencing domestic violence. However, there are few resources for them to refer to and articles such as ours provide a much needed accessible resource that helps them review the salient issues.
There are many other sections of the RCNi journals that provide readers with a wealth of information, for example about clinical and policy updates, practitioners’ opinions and news.
Publishing in RCNi journals has provided my colleagues, Julie McGarry and Katie Dhingra, and me with a great opportunity to share our work. This will help my colleagues in academic or clinical settings, as well as nursing students, to disseminate the findings of their research and scholarly work to front-line practitioners, thereby increasing the impact of their work more quickly.
For a comprehensive range of free author resources go to rcni.com/publish-article-with-rcni
