Authors

  1. Alexander, Mary CRNI

Article Content

FIGURE Welcome to the Intravenous Nurses Society's first-ever International Special Focus Issue! This issue literally pushes our Journal's boundaries, reaching all the way around the globe to feature colleagues' research from Russia, Japan, Turkey, Australia, Sweden, Canada, and England. There's a whole world of IV-related research out there. Our patients and our specialty stand to gain from a well-developed global perspective on intravenous therapy.

  
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Our global perspective must take into consideration the differences in healthcare resources, patient concerns, publishing experience, and even basic issues of language that inform the works contained in these pages. Academic and practical preparation and healthcare practices vary from country to country; healthcare professionals in some nations look to INS for advanced information on topics such as peripherally inserted central catheter use, whereas some seek information on intermittent devices or other IV issues that may be second nature to American nurses. As difficult as it may be for those of us in progressive, developed nations to imagine, we have healthcare colleagues in many nations who still desperately need basic information about infection control practices and venipuncture techniques. For this issue, we tried to compile manuscripts reflective of where our colleagues stand today, wherever they practice.

 

The roots of this special focus issue were planted over the last few years. A noticeable influx of manuscripts from foreign authors and increasing international participation in the INS Annual Meeting and Industrial Exhibition keyed us in to the potential value of an international issue of the Journal. I attended the International Council of Nurses Centennial Conference last summer in London, where more than 4000 nurses convened to share nursing and healthcare issues from all over the world. I learned so much from our colleagues from other nations! It was at that conference that I met our Guest Editor, Jane Salvage, Editor-in-Chief of Nursing Times, a weekly British nursing publication. Instantly, I knew we had to partner with international nurses somehow, and soon.

 

All of these factors dovetailed when I returned from London. I realized what an incredible opportunity INS has to make a difference on a global scale. In the years ahead, we can translate Intravenous Nursing Standards of Practice into foreign languages, provide educational programs and resources, assist with international colleagues' research. We should share our experiences with colleagues and encourage dialogue between nurses whose lives are drastically different and those whose lives seem so familiar. With minimal effort and tremendous rewards for all involved, we can start the dialogue right here.

 

Enjoy-and let us know what you think!