EDITORIAL BOARD OUTLOOK A Few Minutes With Cathy Kleiner PhD, RN, CNS
BIOGRAPHY Nursing has always been a part of my life. My grandmother and mother were both nurses who influenced my career choice by the way they cared for people at work, at home, and in the community. Nursing becomes a part of who we are and it influences how we see the world and react to situations. Giving my best to patients and hoping that the health care system is providing the best for patients is important to me. I am passionate about increasing knowledge of nursing care. In the past few years, I have worked on quality and research projects focused on improving teamwork and communication to improve the quality of care delivered to patients. Currently, I am the National Director, Nursing Research, at Catholic Health Initiatives. In this role, I am helping to develop an infrastructure within our health care system that supports and conducts nursing research to answer pressing questions about nursing practice. Having evidencedknowledge created through researchdto support nursing interventions is necessary to create and support evidence-based practice. Question: What was your first writing experience and what keeps you going? Answer: My first publication did not occur until I was in my doctoral program, which is when I had
the mentorship I needed to make this happen. Now, I look to not only publish my work but help to mentor others to publish the work happening throughout our health care system. It is important to me to help nurses see the work and projects they are doing as helping to identify nursing’s contribution to patient care. Question: If you could give advice to an aspiring author, what would you say? Answer: I would say find someone who has published and who is willing to mentor you through the process. If you don’t have someone or can’t find someone, contact the AORN Journal editor to see whether she has contacts or resources available to support a new author. If neither of those work, find someone to coauthor with you, because two nurses together can usually figure anything out. Question: What is your most significant contribution to the Editorial Board? Answer: As an Editorial Board member, I need to be listening to OR staff members to better understand their knowledge needs and then to make sure that the AORN Journal meets these needs. But, finding, encouraging, and mentoring new authors is probably my most important role and my most significant contribution.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.aorn.2014.02.010
564 j AORN Journal
May 2014
Vol 99
No 5
Ó AORN, Inc, 2014
BIOGRAPHY Nursing has always been a part of my life. My grandmother and mother were both nurses who influenced my career choice by the way they cared for people at work, at home, and in the community. Nursing becomes a part of who we are and it influences how we see the world and react to situations. Giving my best to patients and hoping that the health care system is providing the best for patients is important to me. I am passionate about increasing knowledge of nursing care. In the past few years, I have worked on quality and research projects focused on improving teamwork and communication to improve the quality of care delivered to patients. Currently, I am the National Director, Nursing Research, at Catholic Health Initiatives. In this role, I am helping to develop an infrastructure within our health care system that supports and conducts nursing research to answer pressing questions about nursing practice. Having evidencedknowledge created through researchdto support nursing interventions is necessary to create and support evidence-based practice. Question: What was your first writing experience and what keeps you going? Answer: My first publication did not occur until I was in my doctoral program, which is when I had
the mentorship I needed to make this happen. Now, I look to not only publish my work but help to mentor others to publish the work happening throughout our health care system. It is important to me to help nurses see the work and projects they are doing as helping to identify nursing’s contribution to patient care. Question: If you could give advice to an aspiring author, what would you say? Answer: I would say find someone who has published and who is willing to mentor you through the process. If you don’t have someone or can’t find someone, contact the AORN Journal editor to see whether she has contacts or resources available to support a new author. If neither of those work, find someone to coauthor with you, because two nurses together can usually figure anything out. Question: What is your most significant contribution to the Editorial Board? Answer: As an Editorial Board member, I need to be listening to OR staff members to better understand their knowledge needs and then to make sure that the AORN Journal meets these needs. But, finding, encouraging, and mentoring new authors is probably my most important role and my most significant contribution.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.aorn.2014.02.010
564 j AORN Journal
May 2014
Vol 99
No 5
Ó AORN, Inc, 2014
