Nurses rock! Scopus CSAB Subject Chair Karen Holland on Nursing

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In honor of National Nurses Week in the US and International Nurses Day on May 12, we bring you a guest post from Karen Holland, Scopus Content Selection & Advisory Board Chair for Nursing, Health Professions and Education.

ElsevierConnect has developed a dedicated page to celebrate Nurses where you can find regular content for and by nurses; opportunities such as the upcoming Superheroes of Nursing contest, and special features just for this Nurses Week such as the below video and free access to top-cited research in Elsevier's nursing journals.

What does International Nurses Day mean to me? I began my nurse education and training course in 1967 when we still had individual hospital uniforms, belts, buckles and hospital badges! We were proud of the traditions handed down to us and I am grateful for those wonderful qualified nurses who introduced me to the caring and expert professional practice that is nursing. This initial experience has remained with me throughout my career and was in part responsible for why I decided to enter the field of nursing education -- in order to ensure that future qualified nurses were in possession of the best evidence-based knowledge and skills to transfer into the best care.

In my career, I have been blessed to be in positions of responsibility that support student nurses in their learning and also qualified nurses who need to ensure that their practice is evidenced-based. To enable this knowledge transfer requires a large body of evidence across the various areas of specialist practice now required to deliver health care. Nursing is an international profession and as such requires international evidence to ensure best practice and care delivery even at the local level. 

I am Editor-in-Chief of Nursing Education in Practice, an Elsevier journal that aims to ensure inclusivity of nursing education internationally. Since its launch in 2000 the journal has expanded its authorship to include many countries now in a position to share what they are doing in relation to nursing education and practice in a common language – that is both English and nursing. I am fortunate to be working towards ensuring that this evidence is made available to nurses and midwives all over the world. It is an honor and a privilege to support new and established authors worldwide to communicate and celebrate, through their articles, their experience of nursing education and practice in their country.

In my role as Subject Chair for the Scopus Content Selection & Advisory Board, I help ensure that the evidence base of nursing in all its fields that enters the Scopus database is the best quality that can be. Nurses rely on this best evidence to carry out their work to deliver the best possible care to patients and their families. Journals are the vehicle for hosting this evidence. Our responsibility as Subject Chairs is to ensure that this meets the quality criteria for Scopus.

We are now celebrating Nursing as an established profession internationally. All countries that submit journals to be considered in Scopus are at different stages in their evolution as a nursing profession and in their dissemination of nursing practice. It is essential that we accord these professionals an opportunity to be heard but also the opportunity to be supported to celebrate their nursing practice and education. The number of quality nursing journals and articles now available in the Scopus database is clearly evidence that we are getting this shared responsibility right!