The Transformational Registered Nurses Journal

https://trnurses.com

© Copyright 2024

Welcome to The Transformational Registered Nurses Journal (TNJ)

The mission of this Journal is to showcase examples of creativity and innovation of nurses at all levels. Emphasis is placed on showcasing success stories of both nurses and their advocates who possess a vision for positively changing their communities. We believe that all members of the healthcare team should be included in the decision-making process. This process must be based on a foundation of dignity, respect, privacy and safety. Come join us as we make these aspirations a reality.

"Do not just be dreamers, be visionaries as well."

The Transformational Registered Nurses, 2024

Sincerely,
Richard G. Morfopoulos Ph.D., M.S. with distinction
Founder & Co-CEO of the Transformational Registered Nurses
Mobile: (302) 416-0629
E-mail: richardmorfopoulosphd@gmail.com
Web: https://trnurses.com
Member of the Nursing & Education Advisory Committee for Meridian West Central College
Web: https://meridianwestcentral.college

Introduction:

Creativity can be defined as "novel and new." It involves the combining, recombining and rearrangement of existing ideas into different, emerging patterns and relationships (Morfopoulos et al, 2019). Creativity is a key ingredient to the development of innovation. Innovation involves forming new and useful solutions to existing problems. The twelve (12) essential healthcare-related Challenge Categories ("CCs") below represent topics that are significantly related to nurses at all levels (See below a summary of the twelve (12) topics.

Innovation is an essential strength that nurses at all levels provide to the field of healthcare. With this-in-mind, not only practitioners in the field of nursing, but nursing students and nursing faculty benefit from the growth of innovation in the healthcare field as well. Through inventions, gained insights, continuous learning and knowledge transfer generated from innovative practices of nurses, our world is arguably a much healthier place (Sessa and London¸2006). Since there are "about as many definitions of both the term nurses as there are authors of nurse practices," we provide our Journal’s version of the definitions of these two terms at the outset of this Journal here for the reader to critique and share:

Nurses Defined:

The American Nurses Association defines the Field of nursing as follows:

Nursing integrates the art and science of caring and focuses on the protection, promotion, and optimization of health and human functioning; prevention of illness and injury; facilitation of healing; and alleviation of suffering through compassionate presence. Nursing is the diagnosis and treatment of human responses and advocacy in the care of individuals, families, groups, communities, and populations in recognition of the connection of all humanity.
ANA (2021). Nursing: Scope and Standards of Practice, Fourth Edition, p. 1.

Broadly, this definition refers to a range from Certified Nursing Assistants (CNAs), Licensed Professional Nurses (LPNs), Registered Nurses (RNs), and Doctors of Nursing Practice (DNPs). The field of nursing either directly and/or indirectly provides the foundational purpose from which all the other twelve (12) monthly essential healthcare subcategories included below are anchored. By continuously revising and building upon our mutually agreed upon, defined understandings of that which is innovative and transformational in the nursing field, we can work towards building an-open source (freely used) "incubator" that we can all share (Wallas, 1926). In other words, we can develop our own "customized think-tank in cyberspace that includes the innovative ideas and practices at all levels of nurses."
"Come join us…"

Specific Goals:

1.) To Redefine the Field of Nursing:
We believe it is not only practicing nurses, but nursing students and teachers of nursing who are in a position to share their unique and valued knowledge of their own creative processes at this time. In addition, they could be allowed to do so in an open, progressive, and inclusive setting. We expect and invite such contributions from nursing students, nursing faculty, and/or practicing nurses to "fill in the blanks." We consider this continuous teacher/student relationship as necessary for the process of "Creativity Reimagined": Creativity based on synergy and open-minded combinations of productive ideas, thoughts and imagery in a diverse and multicultural world.

2.) Develop and Extend "The Nurses and Innovation Incubator"
By forming and recombining new and useful relationships between networks of different types of nurses within and between different areas or "Challenge Categories," we hope and expect to generate the "prototype" or beginnings of "The Ocean." The Ocean is a metaphor here for the organization that will be based on the collaborations of all the participants that take part in this initiative. With a focus on additional entrepreneurial opportunities for nurses, this Journal will be designed with the purpose of providing the initial blueprint of this proposed organization for creative and innovative collaborations over the Web in twelve (12) key "Challenge Categories" to the field of nursing. The emphasis will be on how each category relates to innovation and the field of nursing at all levels. We believe this list of categories of nursing provides an ideal framework for integrating collaborative efforts to enhance a well-structured, readily understood, measurable and replicable foundation.

3.) To Establish and Maintain Academic Integrity
As Academic Editors, we seek to solidify the Academic Reputation (e.g., Cabell’s ranking) of the Journal. This third (3rd), final goal can be broken down into a specific strategy that follows:

Aside from articles invited for submission, this primarily open-source journal has three levels of peer review:

General Description:

The Journal will specifically provide documentable nurses, free-of-charge over the Web, with a quarterly, peer-reviewed Journal. This Journal will provide a forum for considering scholarly ideas, perspectives and policies that should be relevant to nurses at all levels.

Topics Relevant to the Field of Nursing:

• Career Pathways for Nurses at all levels:
  Consideration(s) pertaining to Career Pathways for Nurses at all levels includes but is not necessarily limited to licensing requirements, and worker rights issues that pertain directly to dignified and financially equitable treatments in the field of nursing. Such issues as required education, training and/or credentials needed for the job positions of nurses at all levels mark this fundamental employment-related concern of the nurses Other issues (e.g., workers safety, training and/or promotional opportunities) are typically covered as well.
• Career Pathways for Certified Nurse Assistants (CNAs):
  Consideration(s) pertaining to Career Pathways for Certified Nurse Assistants (CNAs) includes but is not necessarily limited to licensing requirements, worker rights issues that pertain directly to dignified and financially equitable treatments in the field(s) of Certified Nurse Assistants (CNAs). Such issues as required education, training and/or credentials needed for the job position(s) of Certified Nurse Assistants (CNAs) are included. Other issues (e.g., workers safety, training and/or promotional opportunities) are typically covered as well.
• Career Pathways for Nurses at Multiple Levels:
  Consideration(s) pertaining to Career Pathways for Nurses at Multiple Levels includes but is not necessarily limited to licensing requirements, worker rights issues that pertain directly to dignified and financially equitable treatments in the multiple fields of nursing. Such issues as required education, training and/or credentials needed for the job position(s) of Nurses at Multiple Levels mark the initial concerns of this topic area. Other issues (e.g., workers safety, training and/or promotional opportunities) are traditionally covered as well.
• Contemporary Healthcare Challenges:
  Addressing both special topics that are shared by New York nurses and those special topics that are unique to the region(s). Special topics include but are not limited to safety issues of nurses, mental wellness issues of essential healthcare workers and issues related to both nurses and their patients. Great efforts will be made to favor publication entries whose jurisdiction in terms of significance extends beyond the boundaries of the United States of America.
• Creative Nurses Recruitment Issues:
  This topic includes but is not limited to such issues as effectively, ethically and certainly legally both devising and implementing recruiting strategies that are both deliberately and emergent in nature (Mintzberg, 1985- Mintzberg, H, 1985, Strategic Management Journal. 6 pp 257-272.pdf (sjsu.edu)) . These strategies preferably include market research based on both established and developing recruitment and selection policies and activities related to the field of nurses. Recruitment and selection of nurse be based on a thorough understanding of both job analysis, job design and job redesign of the job position(s) that relate to nurses. These nursing positions can range from Certified Nursing Assistants (CNAs) to Licensed Professional Nurses {LPNs}), Registered Nurses (RNs), to Doctor of Nursing Practices (DNPs).
• Creative Strategies & Practices in the Telehealth Field:
  This category represents, at the least, a valuable and significant augmentation of "in-person" healthcare treatment. Telehealth promises to be an expanding field that will only be growing in this "virtualizing" world that is based more-and-more on activities that are remote (e.g., zoom meetings) in many areas of our lives. Creative strategies include those that are both deliberate and emergent in their nature (Mintzberg, 1985- Mintzberg, H, 1985, Strategic Management Journal. 6 pp 257-272.pdf (sjsu.edu)). Deliberate strategies include those that are designed in advance to address such issues as the safeguarding of patient privacy and determining the strengths and weaknesses that can plausibly be associated with the field of telehealth. Emergent strategies include reactive strategies to unanticipated outcomes that derivate from the initial, deliberate strategies.
• Creative, Transformational Approaches in the Field of Nursing:
  This section includes but is not limited to those approaches grounded in accepted and/or emerging conceptual frameworks as the the Creativity and Innovation Theory, (see Morfopoulos et al., 2019) and/or established theories of creativity such as Graham Wallas’ theory of creativity will be explored and built upon (Wallas, 1926). Such conceptual approaches as scenario planning ("what if") and other strategies to uncover serendipitous employment/entrepreneurial/educational opportunities for nurses will seek to aid discovery of innovative problem-solving solutions to modern-day challenges in the nursing field.
• Critical Review of Institutional Healthcare:
  This topic area includes nurses’ rights, preventing the harassment of nurses at all levels in institutional settings from not only superiors, but from colleagues and patients as well, prospective challenges based on inequities of healthcare treatment. Of special note are assessments of orientational guidelines that are designed to promote and ensure nurses’ right to work in a work setting that is not only dignified, but respectful, private and safe in nature as well.
• Nurses and Innovation:
  This section includes but is not limited to issues of equitable distribution of needed effectively addressing and dealing with bureaucratic challenges related to the greater inclusion of the expertise and innovative capacities that can readily be attributable to nurses, especially at the levels of Registered Nurses (RNs) and beyond. This can, at least largely in part, be accomplished by more fully including nurses’ creative abilities in order to solve problems that are caused by specific, significant dilemmas that affect the healthcare field. Techniques that encourage collective brainstorming (e.g., quality circles that include all levels of the healthcare system’s organizational structure- see Quality Circles (Q.C): Meaning, Objectives and Benefits (businessmanagementideas.com)) will be explored and evaluated.
• Contemporary Issues and Challenges:
  This area for consideration relates to reviewing and safeguarding the rights of nurses, the exploration of career options for nurses at all levels, and the preferences and needs of nurses from "their own prospective." This can include safety and vocational opportunities for nurses as well as more equitable access to forming policies related to healthcare strategies and practices. Issues such as the prevention of harassment will also be considered.
• Ethical Issues and Challenges Facing the Nursing Profession:
  This category includes but is not necessarily limited to issues of equitable distribution of educational, training/retraining and/or promotional and/or a range of other related ethical issues related to the ethical and equitable treatment of nurses. The focus will be upon prospectively improving nurses’ levels of employability. Other ethical issues related to the ethical treatment of essential healthcare workers will also be considered.
• Mental Wellness & Nursing:
  The category of Mental Wellness covers a wide variety of issues including proactive and progressive psychological and/or psychiatric approaches. Holistic health strategies to alternative approaches for dealing with such issues as nurses’ burnout and/or levels of anxiety related to workplace challenges are featured this month. Issues related to therapies based on dealing with the stresses and challenges that can adversely affect the mental wellness of nurses at all levels will also be addressed.