The meetings brought together our four RN editors, who collectively bring more than a century of nursing wisdom and leadership experience to our growing network of regional publications. D., RN, editor of our South Central edition. Our single most important task was to determine our editorial goals for the rest of the year. As you might have guessed from our cover story this issue, we have identified coverage of the worsening national nursing shortage as our top editorial priority. For some of you, news about the shortage may be as tiresome as the TV commercial where the bunny keeps beating the drum, and beating it and beating it.
Nurses keep getting older.
Fewer young people are enrolling in nursing schools. Nurses do not get enough respect in a rapidly changing health care system. They are overworked. And, of course, they are underpaid. But, consistent with our mission to serve as a voice for nurses and the nursing profession, and as an advocate for public policy decisions that recognize the critical role of nurses in the delivery of health care, we simply cannot afford to ignore the bad news.