With great pleasure I welcome you to this first issue of the new Emory Nursing magazine. Within these pages, you will find examples of how the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing is carrying out its mission in preparing nurse leaders for the 21st century.

This is an exciting time in nursing! The impact of the profession is being felt nationally as we work to define nursing's role for the next century. Our role is evolving; nurses are not merely case managers, a concept of the 1990s. Nurses will be the front-line leaders in patient care and managing the clinical care environments. We will bring innovations to collaborative practice models that activate the best of nursing and medicine in caring for and improving the lives of the public.

We are pleased that our faculty have been recognized for teaching excellence at Emory University. They are in the forefront of nursing education, exploring issues ranging from active learning to ethical questions. We are especially pleased with the Senior Innovative Projects our creative students have developed to benefit the community. We are also committed to innovative health care programs designed in partnership with the communities we serveŇas exemplified by the Booker T. Washington Adolescent Health Station in Atlanta and the Malama program in Hawaii.

We in nursing are learning that people are in a constant movement on the continuum between health and disease. Nurses can detect that movement through symptom-distress markers. The dominant American medical system processes symptomatology primarily to determine diagnosis and treatment. However, that is no longer good enough. Our goal is to interrupt the trajectory toward clinical disorders early through practice models that target symptom assessment and management (such as those used in the Booker T. Washington Health Station). Skyrocketing medical costs loom over both health professionals and patients. Nothing is free in health care. The nursing approach is to pay up front for quality care and preventive services that a symptom-distress model of clinical practice provides.

My sincere gratitude to our faculty, alumni, staff, friends, and students for their enthusiasm, hard work, and creativity in planning and implementing this new publication. We hope you enjoy the first in a series that will profile our school's response to health care reforms through nursing scholarship and creativity. We would be delighted to hear about your work, your goals, your adventures. We welcome your ideas. To that end, we hope that you fill out and return the enclosed postage-paid card entitled "Keep In Touch" (print version).

Emory Nursing is our way to communicate with you and build a sense of community among our constituents. Please, let us hear from you in return.

Dyanne D. Affonso, PhD, FAAN

Reprinted from Emory Nursing, Spring 1997

For more general information on The Robert W. Woodruff Health Sciences Center, call Health Sciences News and Information at 404-727-5686, or send e-mail to hsnews@emory.edu.