The Rehabilitation Nursing Journal (RNJ) contains educational content that focuses on contemporary rehabilitation nursing practice across the continuum of care and the lifespan. The journal is published every other month and provides opportunities for professional development, as well as a forum for the dissemination of information pertinent to practice, education, research, and administration. RNJ strives to provide a journal that disseminates timely information and new trends in practice each issue.
In this issue, RNJ Editor-in-Chief Pamala D. Larsen, PhD MS RN, explains what type of content RNJ is looking for and provides tips on how to have your manuscript selected for a future issue.
Call for Manuscripts!
The pandemic has placed an extraordinary burden on health care institutions and personnel, the like we have never seen before. This month, the U.S. surpassed 500,000 deaths due to COVID, a tremendous loss. Our clinicians are worn out physically and emotionally, and most often working short-staffed. However, through all of this, you, our members, have a story to tell. What have been best practices in your facility? What are the 'lessons learned' that might help facilities? Is there a QI project in your facility particularly targeting patients with COVID? Are you caring for active COVID patients or recovery COVID patients, how was that decision made, and how has it been implemented? How has the strategy for staffing worked during this time? There are many more questions that I could ask, but only you, our readers, have the answers. As you know, each article goes through the journal's peer review process. If accepted, though, because of its relevancy, it would be published in the next issue of RNJ. Let the journal hear from you!
The best way for the journal to know about a potential article (COVID related or not) is to email a query letter to us. In my early days of publishing in the 1980s (yes, the Dark Ages), query letters were encouraged for some journals; however, that thinking seems to have been a thing of the past. However, this is a perfect opportunity to resurrect that bygone era. To save both you and the journal time and effort, I encourage you to write a query letter to RNJ asking about a potential manuscript you may have in progress or may be thinking about writing. For authors, this is a quick way to get feedback. The idea is to see if RNJ has interest in the paper (so you would go ahead and write it) or not. Also, as the journal's editor, I often give suggestions to the author of a proposed manuscript. Please email the journal at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. I look forward to hearing from you!
Pamala D. Larsen
Editor-in-Chief
Rehabilitation Nursing