Dear Colleagues,
Thank you to everyone who completed our recent Women’s Healthcare: A Clinical Journal for NPs (WH) reader survey. We received 481 responses. The information you provided is very helpful to us as we continue to strive to bring you articles on topics of the utmost importance and interest. As a team, the WH editing and publishing staff, the WH editorial advisory board, NPWH CEO Gay Johnson, and I do listen to what you, our readers, tell us as we plan content and format.
We are pleased to see that we are on target in terms of including the categories of articles you prefer (Table 1). WH has always had a strong clinical focus, which we maintain as our goal. We hear you when you say you want articles that provide information that you can apply in practice immediately. Along this line, we are not surprised to learn that you also want the most up-to-date information about the medications you prescribe and/or those your patients may be taking. We will broaden our provision of in-depth pharmacotherapy information in featured articles and in our Clinical resources and Assessment & management departments. Likewise, we will expand patient education tips by providing information about resources that can help you teach your patients and engage them in shared decision making about their care.
Because you have identified the more specific topics that you would like to see covered in the journal, we can then reach out to experts in these areas and invite them to write an article for us. Table 2 lists the highest ranked topic areas represented in your responses. Your suggestions were more specific, but, for reporting purposes. we grouped them into more general topics. The survey results indicate that you have a broad variety of interests. As such, we will continue to address your needs by including a diversity of topics in each issue.
This is an opportune time for me to once again extend a call for manuscripts to those of you who have experience writing or are ready to begin your writing journey. Click here or visit our journal website to access our complete Guidelines for Authors. You will find information on a variety of writing formats—feature-length articles, as well as short-form articles for our departments: Assessment & management, Clinical resources, DNP projects, On the case, and Professional development.
Here are just a few of the specific topics for which survey respondents indicated an interest: abnormal uterine bleeding, autoimmune disorders, back pain, follow-up after gynecologic cancers, hepatitis, headaches in pregnancy, high-risk obstetrics, contraceptive side effect management, menopause symptom management, pelvic pain, PrEP for women, recurrent vaginal infections, survivorship after cancer, STI updates, and transgender healthcare. We welcome query letters about any topic and article format you are considering. You can reach Dory Greene, our managing editor, at dgreene@healthcommedia.com or me at info@healthcommedia.com.
If you are a new author, I strongly recommend that you work with a mentor/co-author with successful writing experience. And if you are attending the 20th Annual NPWH Premier Women’s Healthcare Conference on October 11-14 in Seattle, Washington, you might want to join Dory and me at our presentation, All the Write Stuff: Planning for Success in Writing Manuscripts and Abstracts. This presentation is specifically designed to help novice writers develop a personal plan for success.
If you are not ready to write but are attending the conference, you can still help us with journal topic ideas. Let us know if you attend a presentation that you find particularly interesting and that you think could be transformed into a good article. We will follow up with the presenter. Or, simply introduce yourself to me and tell me your thoughts about writing and/or topics. I look forward to meeting you!
Beth Kelsey, EdD, APRN, WHNP-BC, FAANP