As I sat on the jet on my way to New York City from Chico, California, late in the winter of 1982, I felt thrilled at the prospect of meeting with Ken Simms and his executive assistant, Pam, to discuss the possibility of getting the first home healthcare professional nursing journal out of the think tank and on to the press. My mind was racing about what the journal would mean to the nurses and home healthcare professional staff who would seek it out. I also wondered what my role as Editor would be and how I could best serve the professionals who would be reading it.
I found myself in a lovely hotel in Manhattan across from Central Park and the Tavern on the Green, after what seemed like a very quick journey across the United States. I met that very evening with Ken and Pam. We were people on an important mission and wasted no time. Over a great New York dinner and subsequent dessert, Ken and Pam outlined the parameters of their vision for this new home healthcare journal. They asked me many questions about home healthcare and asked about my thoughts of serving as an Editor. They shared their belief that I would be a great first choice for the editor post of this new journal.
Throughout the second day, we cemented our concepts for the purpose of the journal and I agreed to be the new and first Editor. It was going to be a ground breaking event, the first journal of its specialty-home healthcare! All this planning overlapped into the very year, 1983, where new home healthcare agencies were springing forth seemingly everywhere in the United States. I was one of those "more seasoned" home healthcare nurses.
Within a few months after my trip to New York, I found myself in New Orleans promoting the forthcoming first issue of the Home Healthcare Nurse journal at a home healthcare convention. The convention goers that stopped at the booth were really excited that a professional journal was underway-and "none too soon," in their opinions.
When that first issue of Volume 1 of Home Healthcare Nurse came out and in what seemed like a very short time after first meeting with my publisher. Ken, Pam, the small publishing staff, and I were all elated.
The subscription numbers climbed significantly that first year. However, we found that many home healthcare providers did not know about the journal's existence after its first year passed. Demographic studies were conducted and Ken decided that more marketing was needed.
Who would have ever predicted that in 2012, the journal would still be in print and alive and well?
Looking back, I guess Ken, Pam, and I did it right to begin with. It is my great desire to see Tina and the current publisher thrive in the forthcoming years. I was then and am still very blessed and proud to have been chosen to get the first issue off the press! What a long, challenging but successful road Home Healthcare Nurse and all its practitioners have traveled together these many years.