In the end, the pull of nursing could not be denied. Although Diane Angelini began her college life at Fitchburg State College in Massachusetts as a history major, intending to mbecome a teacher, her part-time work as a nursing assistant became the impetus for her to change majors and enter nursing. History's loss is surely nursing's gain, for Dr Diane Angelini has become one of the country's foremost nurses, and has used her career not only to help untold women give birth safely but also to become an important leader and mentor for nurses and nurse scholars. Diane Angelini has now been the Perinatal Editor of The Journal of Perinatal and Neonatal Nursing (JPNN) for an astounding 20 years, making her among the nurse editors with the longest tenure. How did she get there?
Diane loved Labor and Delivery from her first day there as a student nurse. She attempted to secure her first job in that specialty, but was told that new nurses had to start in postpartum. Foreshadowing her future as a nurse who would not let barriers stand in her way, Diane would not take that response as the final one. She searched for an institution that would allow a new graduate to work with laboring families, and secured such a job at Yale New Haven Hospital, despite the fact that in order to do so, she had to move. She loved her work so much that she knew she needed more education. Reva Rubin, the guru of maternity nursing and the developer of the theory of maternal role attainment, was then teaching at the University of Pittsburgh, and so Diane once again embarked on a major move to advance as a nurse. Reva Rubin became an influential mentor in Diane's life, serving the essential role of inspiring Diane to become a first-rate writer, an indispensable skill for her future work in teaching, research, and editing.
Diane's next move was to obtain more education by becoming a certified nurse midwife (at Downstate Medical Center, in Brooklyn, NY). Once she began working as a midwife, she traveled west to Los Angeles, to work at LA County-USC Medical Center, the busiest obstetric hospital at that time. Diane stayed there for 5 years, working and teaching midwifery, and ultimately becoming the director of both the midwifery service and the education program.
After several years away from family, Diane finally traveled east again, and became a nursing director at Danbury Hospital in order to further sharpen her administrative skills and then returned again to Yale to work as a midwife in private practice. Love and marriage led to her next move to Rhode Island, and her position in Boston at the Brigham and Women's Hospital as a nursing administrator. When the opportunity came to stop commuting and work at Women and Infants Hospital/Brown University with a former colleague, Dr Donald Coustan, she could not resist the opportunity. She served as both the director of nursing education and development and the director of nurse midwifery during the first 5 years and has been in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology during her entire time. Diane is still there, 16 years later, working both clinically and administratively as clinical associate professor and director of nurse midwifery.
During her many years as a nurse, Diane has been recognized often for her contributions to nursing, and has received numerous honors, including being selected for Fellowship in the American College of Nurse Midwives and in the American Academy of Nursing.
While Diane was at Brigham and Women's Hospital, she was privileged to work with Rita Gibes Grossman, a nursing colleague. Both Rita and Diane were involved with a textbook named Perinatal and Neonatal Nursing, and when a different publisher (Aspen) asked about developing a nursing journal that would combine both perinatal and neonatal nursing content, they both were excited at the idea. They became the founding editors of JPNN. Their joint vision for the journal was to make sure it had a clinical base and was topic-focused so that nurses in both subspecialties would learn the maximum amount about one topic from each issue of the journal.
Twenty years later, Diane Angelini remains the Perinatal Editor of JPNN. The journal is still quarterly. However, it has undergone many changes, including moving to Lippincott Williams and Wilkins several years ago, when that company purchased the Aspen nursing journals. Diane has been thrilled with the additional opportunities that have come with Lippincott. Chief among them, she says, are expanding features in the journal, a future "back page," additional editorial content, and the upcoming change to a larger format. She feels that the support from the publishers for JPNN has been wonderful throughout the transition.
How did the journal come to be called "The Pink Journal"? Aside from the obvious pink cover, Diane remembers that members of her editorial board once mentioned that they had overheard nurses calling JPNN the Pink Journal. Since the convention had been for medical obstetric journals to call themselves "the grey" (American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology) and "the green" (Obstetrics and Gynecology), someone said, "Well, then, we're the pink journal!!" And the name has stuck.
Diane says that being a nurse editor has been a rewarding experience, and has taught her a great deal. She especially enjoys helping new writers blossom just as Reva Rubin once did for her. She also takes pleasure in helping the issue editors learn about editing, and about scholarly review of journal articles. What does she see as the future of JPNN? She would like to encourage more research-based practice in the journal, and hopes that someday the journal will be published more often than quarterly. Diane says there are many people she wants to thank for their mentorship and support throughout the years: Reva Rubin; Rita Gibes Grossman; Dr Donald Coustan; Lenda Hill, formerly with Aspen publishers; Beth Guthy, her current publisher at Lippincott; all the neonatal editors of JPNN; the many editorial board members; and especially all the readers of JPNN who have been so loyal to the journal for 20 years. Another 20 years? She does not know about that, but she does know that being the editor of JPNN has been a blessing and a privilege.
Margaret Comerford Freda, EdD, RN, CHES, FAAN
Professor, Obstetrics & Gynecology and Women's Health
Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Montefiore Medicine Center, Yeshiva University, Bronx, NY
Editor, MCN: The American Journal of Maternal/Child Nursing