President's message

Wingate, Sue

doi:10.1016/j.hrtlng.2009.03.032

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Volume 38, Issue 3 , Page 173, May 2009

President's message

Sue Wingate RN, PhD, CRNP Sue is a nurse practitioner in the Heart Failure Treatment Program with Kaiser Permanente Mid-Atlantic States. She is an Associate Editor for The Journal of Cardiac Failure and is active in the American Heart Association, the Heart Failure Society of America, and the American College of Cardiology

published online 21 May 2009.

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Welcome to the inaugural collaboration between AAHFN and Heart & Lung!! I can't think of a better way to kick off the celebration of our 5^th annual meeting than to establish a partnership with this prestigious journal. It is a marker of how far we've come in just five short years to be able to collaborate on this venture and give AAHFN a strong editorial presence in the heart failure arena.

I remember reading Heart & Lung as a new critical care nurse in the late 70s and early 80s. I then published my first research article from my master's thesis in Heart & Lung in 1986 and I was on top of the world (side note: my proud husband went to the local drugstore to purchase Heart & Lung with my article in it, and I had to explain to my non-medical spouse that these types of journals aren't bought in drugstores….). Now in its 37^th year, Heart & Lung continues to be a highly successful and respected scholarly journal that is indexed by all major services and has a solid impact factor.

The development of our new relationship with Heart & Lung is right in line with several aspects of AAHFN's updated strategic plan. One of our priorities is membership retention and recruitment—and a fundamental way to retain and recruit members is by having this journal as a member benefit. Not only will members receive cutting-edge, clinically-focused research and clinical articles in each issue, they will also receive timely information on AAHFN initiatives and projects. We also hope to capitalize on Elsevier's (the publisher of Heart & Lung) stature in the publishing community and develop innovative methods of getting real-time key information on patient management out to our members.

Another strategic priority is to establish AAHFN as a key player in the heart failure community by increasing our national recognition and by branding our products. Partnering with Heart & Lung furthers the reach of AAHFN and highlights our commitment to the role of the nurse in research and to the power of evidence-based practice. Even the name, “Heart & Lung”, epitomizes what heart failure is about—both cardiac and pulmonary alterations. Having this new voice in the field will allow us to not only highlight new data that is important to our members (and our patients!) but also will allow us to engage in a dialogue on a national and international level about the current and future state of heart failure care and heart failure nursing.

Look soon for an announcement about a new Associate Editor for Heart & Lung to represent the interests of AAHFN. This individual will work closely with Kathleen Stone to develop the heart failure focus of the journal. Both the Associate Editor and I want to hear from you, the membership, about how to blaze our new trail in the publishing world.