All Together Now: Collaboration

“These are the teammates and collaborators we all want and … many more of them are in the pipeline.”

The best ideas come in threes—and fours, and fives, and … you get the idea. Collaboration and teamwork are everything here at the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing, on the JHU medical campus, in the hospital, in community health care centers—wherever we can create it across Baltimore, America, and the world.

For this issue of Johns Hopkins Nursing, we decided to feature a representative look at home-grown collaborative efforts that are changing lives and, often, the very ways we think about nursing and health care in general (“Cross-Pollination”). It will be fascinating in the years to come as we watch more of our junior researchers—raised on interprofessional cooperation—enter significant and impactful collaborations that pull us with them into the future. And of course established and celebrated researchers like Phyllis Sharps, PhD, RN, FAAN, and Kelly Bower, PhD, MPH, RN, have been leading the way for some time now.

Recently we graduated—proudly—our first cohort of MSN: Entry into Nursing Practice students (“First Class”). This program was such a labor of love … and a necessity. The graduates we’ve sent forward into the nursing profession are many of our best prepared yet. Trained within an interdisciplinary approach, these are the teammates and collaborators we all want and, with the Master’s Entry program now fully established, many more of them are in the pipeline.

We’re also thrilled to be launching a dual-degree Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP)/Doctor of Philosophy in Nursing (PhD) program that is quite literally a game changer, the first of its kind (“NSPII Grants Expand Educational Opportunities” ). Imagine a nurse with the combined caregiving tools, research skills, compassion, insight, and experience to take a bright idea from inception through data collection to evidence-based breakthrough to implementation in the community and in health care policy.

We did. And that nurse will soon be here. Stay tuned.

The Fondest of Farewells

Martha Hill, PhD, RN, FAAN, so long a global leader in the nursing profession and a fixture at Johns Hopkins for decades, recently retired to much deserved fanfare (“Exclamation Point”). After one more opportunity to urge on a class of graduates, Martha left our faculty … but not nursing. We stand on the shoulders of giants around here, and Martha’s have been as sturdy as any. She will continue to be a mentor, an inspiration, and a friend to nursing.

This magazine owes its existence to her vision and drive to establish excellence and a stronger voice for nurses, to trumpet nursing science and show the world why a Johns Hopkins education is such a precious commodity. We will strive to maintain these inspiring goals. Meanwhile, we hope you enjoy the rest of the Summer 2017 issue.