February | March 2005 AWHONN Lifelines 11

For the past few months, I have been

consumed with thoughts about

change. There is a saying that change

is opportunity. There is a proverb

that states that “four things do not

come back: The spoken word, the

sped arrow, the past life, and the neg-

lected opportunity.” And then there is

the soon-to-be classic, “Change is

good, donkey” from the movie,

Shrek 2!

So why all these thoughts about

change? Like many of you, I have

been wrestling with some personal

demons about my work life and its

daily challenges and frustrations. I

am blessed that for the past seven

years, I have worked within an aca-

demic setting. I have been granted the

unique opportunity of working in an

environment where individuality is

encouraged, initiative is valued and

most of the time I get to do what I

want, how I want. Take on the editor-

ship of the women’s health and child-

bearing neonatal nursing clinical journal? No

problem. Travel to interesting cities to present

to fellow nurses? No problem. Submit research

proposals on topics of great personal and pro-

fessional interest? Once again, no problem. So

why have I been frustrated at times, dissatisfied

at others? And why have I decided to leave the

university when I am one year away from

tenure and a sabbatical?

The simplest and truest answer is that I

have missed clinical practice more than I can

stand and despite efforts to incorporate part-

time clinical hours into my work week, the one

day a week just whet my appetite for more.

And then the perfect opportunity appeared,

and it was almost as if a small voice in my ear

kept repeating, “This is it. This is what you

have been waiting for!” So without too much

Dr. Anne Katz, PhD,RN, is a clinical nursespecialist at theProstate Centre ofCancerCare Manitobain Winnipeg.

on ChangeSome Thoughts

f

12 AWHONN Lifelines Volume 9 Issue 1

angst and reflection, one day before I left for

the AWHONN convention in Tampa Bay, I

wrote a letter of application and attached my

resume and sent it off. An interview followed

that went really well, and later that day I

received the call with a job offer. Negotiations

followed in short order (I was leaving for

another conference two days later), and I felt

welcome and needed and appreciated.

As I packed up my office, throwing away

piles of documents I thought I would no

longer need, and started saying my farewells to

graduate students and colleagues, I found

myself both excited and yet at the same time

on the verge of tears almost every day. I did not

expect that this change would be so bitter-

sweet. I had been considering other career

moves that I have made through the years. In

my memory, they were all positive and led to

greater job satisfaction. The truth is likely more

complex; however, I know that I grew profes-

sionally and personally and made new and true

friends in each place. I can honestly say the

same about this move. I have learned so much

about myself, and perhaps the most valued les-

son is that I am a practice-based nurse first and

foremost. I need to be in clinical practice and I

need the daily challenges in caring for patients

and their families, and the stimulation of

working within a multidisciplinary team.

In my new role, I will be working as a clini-

cal nurse specialist at our local cancer institute

and I will be the first doctorally prepared nurse

to work there. I will have the freedom to create

this role within the institution with the sup-

port of a visionary nurse leader and her team

of managers. I hope that other nurses will see

me as an ally, mentor and champion of their

daily challenges and successes.

Many of you have faced change in your

work lives, and some of you may have done so

under duress and with far less choice. That is

the reality of a stressed health care environ-

ment. Many of you have left valued positions

because a spouse or partner had to relocate or

because you were called to military service.

Change can be frightening and stressful and

unwanted or unpleasant. Change forces us to

reevaluate what is important in our work lives

and highlights what we like most or least. And

sometimes change means that we have to settle

for something less than we hoped for and make

compromises in the short term in the hope

that things will improve.

As I moved through the final weeks in my

university office, I was acutely aware that I was

leaving the known for the heart-stopping

hopes of the unknown. I became a nurse those

many years ago because I wanted to make a

difference in the lives of others. I wanted to go

home at the end of the day knowing that in

some way, I had touched the life of another

human being in a meaningful way. As I con-

template the future, an old Hebrew proverb

speaks loudly to me: “A change of name or

place may sometimes save a person.” I am not

changing my name, but in changing my place

perhaps in some way the truth of who I am

will be saved.

Lifelines Launches WWWManuscript Submissions &Review!

It seems that 2005 is really going to be a year

of change for AWHONN Lifelines. In addi-

tion to the many new departments we are

rolling out this year, 2005 marks the beginning

of an exciting new process for the management

of manuscripts that are submitted to our pub-

lication. Our goal in launching this new system

is to provide the optimal manuscript review

and knowledge-sharing environment for

authors, reviewers and the editorial staff of

Lifelines.

In January, we quietly launched a Web-

based system called Editorial Manager that

tracks manuscripts from submission through

the review process and on to publication. This

is an exciting event that is also targeted to

move cutting-edge information that you can

incorporate into your practice even more

quickly to you.

Editorial Manager helps authors (and you

are all potential authors, so please don’t stop

reading this!) to submit their manuscripts to

our journal through the World Wide Web and

then allows you to track that submission with

real-time data regarding the status of your sub-

mission from anywhere in the world—as long

as you have Internet access. Along the way,

there is extensive help documentation to guide

you through each step of the process.

In January, we

quietly launched a

Web-based system

called Editorial

Manager that tracks

manuscripts from

submission through

the review process

and on to

publication

As an author submitting a paper to

Lifelines, the system prompts you

through all the steps and builds a

Portable Document File (commonly

known as a PDF file) so that you can

preview your manuscript and all of its

very important parts before it goes on

to our publication reviewers. You will

receive an e-mail that tells you that

your submission has been received,

and from then on, you can track what

is happening to it and where it is in

the process. At each step in the

process, from the completion of the

review process to my publication deci-

sion regarding your submission, the

system sends e-mail notifications so

that you’re alerted to each change in

status for your manuscript.

Reviewers receive the manuscript

and are encouraged by the system to

read, review and comment in a timely

manner. Once these hard-working

individuals have done their work and

my decision is made regarding your

work, our reviewers will also be able to

read what other reviewers have sug-

gested for the manuscript. As editor, I

will be able to track what is happening

to the many manuscripts for which I

make a publishing decision and can

plan my work knowing what is in

process at all times.

So what does this mean in practical

terms? For one thing, no more mailing

multiple copies of your manuscripts to

our editorial office after printing it out

in quadruplicate on reams and reams

of paper. In fact, no more paper to be

printed on, faxed, stored and, yes,

sometimes lost or damaged by coffee

mugs, small children or pets. Authors

can follow the progress of their work

in real time without phone calls and

e-mails to me or the editorial office,

which saves us all time and energy.

Additionally, authors can return

to their submission long after a

decision has been made to re-read

comments from me and from our

reviewers.

This new system also allows review-

ers and editorial staff to read and

review manuscripts from anywhere at

any time (vacation, conferences, the

coffee shop!) This is a dynamic system,

and we will work hard to make sure

that it works for all of us—the

authors, reviewers, editorial staff, our

publisher and, ultimately, you the

reader. Please join me at the conven-

tion in June 2005 for a session on

Writing for AWHONN Lifelines and

other scholarly publications where you

can see what working with Editorial

Manager is all about in greater detail.

Then, once inspired, you too can take

the plunge, write an article for us and

submit it with the click of the mouse.

Welcome to the 21st Century!

Meantime, we are now waiting to

receive your important work through

this new system. Please go to

www.editorialmanager.com/Lifelines

where you can follow the easy prompts

to submit your paper today! You can

also find links to Editorial Manager

from www.awhonn.org (under publi-

cations) and from our website:

http://awhonnlifelines. awhonn.org.

February | March 2005 AWHONN Lifelines 13

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