Karen Farchaus Stein, PhD, RN, FAAN
APNA is grateful to Dr. Stein for her leadership and expertise as Editor-in-Chief of our journal. The incredible success and continued advancement of all aspects of the journal is a credit to her hard work and dedication.
Falls Church, VA (PRWEB) May 13, 2014
As the official journal of the American Psychiatric Nurses Association (APNA), the Journal of the American Psychiatric Nurses Association (JAPNA) facilitates the dissemination of scholarly, peer-reviewed research related to the science, education, and practice of psychiatric-mental health nursing. JAPNA has the largest readership of psychiatric nurse academicians and scientists, advanced practice and registered nurses of any nursing specialty journal. Since 2006, leading nurse researcher and Brody Endowed Professor at the University of Rochester Medical Center Karen Farchaus Stein, PhD, RN, FAAN has served as Editor-in-Chief of the journal. The APNA Board of Directors credits her leadership to the publication’s unprecedented advancement and growth during this period. At the conclusion of her recent 2-year extension on December 31, 2015, Dr. Stein will have completed 10 years in the position. The Board seeks to assure a successful transition for the Journal at that time, and therefore a search is underway to identify a candidate who will ensure that the excellence and momentum established under Dr. Stein’s guidance endures.
With Dr. Stein at the helm, the peer reviewed JAPNA has consistently published bi-monthly issues of high quality content addressing the most current and pressing issues in the psychiatric-mental health nursing field. Dr. Stein coordinated the publication of several “focus issues”, which featured content dedicated to high-priority issues for psychiatric-mental health nursing such as recovery and suicide prevention. She introduced columns dedicated to specific psychiatric-mental health nursing topics, such as education and informatics. To help link current scholarly research to clinical practice, she integrated clinical translation research articles into JAPNA content. Dr. Stein also instituted a Board of Directors column, the annual publication of abstracts from the APNA Annual Conference, and the inclusion of a Letters to the Editor section, in order to provide a variety of avenues in the journal for APNA constituents to be heard.
As the circulation of the journal has expanded across the globe and continued to grow, so too have the number of manuscript submissions received from interdisciplinary authors, manuscript citations in high impact journals, and the diversity and quality of manuscripts. This growth in submissions can be credited in large part to the outreach efforts of Dr. Stein and the JAPNA Editorial Board. Operational improvements instituted by Dr. Stein have contributed to the timely and successful printing of the journal, from shorter manuscript response times, to the implementation of an electronic submission and manuscript management system. Notably, in 2011 Dr. Stein oversaw the acceptance of JAPNA for indexing in MEDLINE, a prestigious bibliographic database of medical journal literature.
“The American Psychiatric Nurses Association is grateful to Dr. Stein for her leadership and expertise as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of the American Psychiatric Nurses Association,” says APNA President Pat Cunningham, DNSc, APRN-BC. “The incredible success and continued advancement of all aspects of the journal is a credit to her hard-work and dedication, which cannot be emphasized enough. The Board of Directors’ search for the next Editor-in-Chief will be a difficult one.”
The American Psychiatric Nurses Association is a national professional membership organization committed to the specialty practice of psychiatric-mental health nursing and wellness promotion, prevention of mental health problems and the care and treatment of persons with psychiatric disorders. APNA’s membership is inclusive of all psychiatric mental health registered nurses including associate degree, baccalaureate, advanced practice (comprised of clinical nurse specialists and psychiatric nurse practitioners), and nurse scientists and academicians (PhD). APNA serves as a resource for psychiatric mental health nurses to engage in networking, education, and the dissemination of research.