Dr. Lorraine Wright and I are pleased to announce that we have accepted an invitation to offer a 4-day Family Externship workshop at Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW) from July 5-8, 2022. This will be the 6th time we have been invited to offer a Family Externship at ZHAW. (We were able to virtually offer…
“The days are long, but the years are short.” ~ Gretchen Rubin "The first issue of the Journal of Family Nursing (JFN), owned SAGE Publishing, was launched in February 1995. This year marks the 25th anniversary of the founding of this journal dedicated to extending knowledge about family nursing and transforming practice with families. There is no other nursing…
I'm currently doing some writing about the importance of family interventions in illness. I would like to offer some new integrative reviews and my favorite references (the oldies but goodies) that provide a convincing argument for family-level relational interventions that involve the whole family unit or part of the family unit experiencing illness (as opposed…
What is clinical scholarship, you ask? It is a form of knowledge creation that focuses on being immersed in clinical practice, observing practice, analyzing practice, and synthesizing what you have learned from practice (Bell, 2003; Diers, 1995). It is not formal research per se, but a distant cousin; recognized as a form of scholarship but…
Photo credit: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/398076054549131026/ There are a number of voices across several disciplines who are actively participating in the growing scholarly conversation about family focused health care in North America and beyond (Bell, 2017). In a Journal of Family Nursing Special Focus Issue on Social Media and Family Nursing, February 2017, Isaacson and Looman (2017) discuss…
"May this be a house of courage, Where healing and growth are loved, Where dignity and forgiveness prevail; A home where patience of spirit is prized, And the sight of the destination is never lost Though the journey be difficult and slow." ~ Adapted from John O'Donahue, To Bless the Space Between Us This…
Text chosen by Janice M. Bell - Design by Bryce Mee What's in a name? I've been doing a lot thinking lately about what to call practice with families that addresses experiences of health and illness. Some call it family focused practice, family friendly practice, family centered practice, family health and healing, relational practice, family nursing,…
“Advanced nursing practice is an umbrella term describing an advanced level of clinical nursing practice that maximizes the use of graduate educational preparation, in-depth nursing knowledge and expertise in meeting the health needs of individuals, families, groups, communities and populations” (Canadian Nurses Association, 2008, p. 9). Advanced practice competencies of Family Systems Nursing related to…
I have a burning desire as a family nurse to increase the capacity of nurses to practice with families. How can we help new and experienced health care professionals learn how to address illness suffering and family healing? Photo compliments of the International Family Nursing Association My dream for our community of family nursing is that we…
I was in a meeting today and a colleague remarked that she wanted to know more about what was happening in family nursing in other countries (outside of the USA). I thought it might be useful to provide a brief snapshot of the published documents that highlight major family nursing developments within countries around the…