Retirement Tribute to Kathleen S. Stone, PhD, RN, FAAN

EDITORIAL FAREWELL Retirement Tribute to Kathleen S. Stone, PhD, RN, FAAN At the end of 2010, Dr. Kathleen S. Stone will conclude her tenure as the editor of Heart & Lung, The Journal of Acute and Critical Care. In light of this, I would like to pay tribute to her innumerable contributions. Theodore Roosevelt said ‘‘Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.’’ I believe that Kathy has received this ‘‘best prize’’ throughout her life. At the beginning of her nursing career, she worked hard to bring sorely needed nursing care to rural Appalachian Kentucky residents, where she was often the only health care provider available, particularly at the wee hours of the morning. She also had to work hard to continue her education and obtain a PhD in physiology, an atypical choice at the time for a nurse. Over her career, she worked hard to develop research proposals and perform critical, physiologic research that would influence the care of vulnerable, critically ill patients and improve their outcomes. In addition, she has toiled tirelessly to support the research efforts of many hundreds of nurses through her service to the National Institute of Nursing Research study section as chair and member, by her appointments as a visiting professor, and by her multitude of research presentations and publications. This has all been ‘‘work worth doing,’’ and she has performed it in an exemplary fashion. My first personal encounter with Kathy was as a new and very anxious adult graduate student, sitting in a pathophysiology class and being amazed by her incredible teaching skills. Her ability to inspire students to be excited about learning and to be successful in learning difficult material was a true revelation. What a role model! This was the kind of teacher I wanted to be! I was honored to be present when Gordon Gee, the president of The Ohio State University, presented her with the University Distinguished Teaching Award, a well-deserved honor for her hard work in teaching. As editor of Heart & Lung since 1991, Kathy has provided an important forum for the presentation of multidisciplinary, cutting-edge research intended to improve our understanding of the complexities of acute and critical illness and to provide evidence on which to support best practice. Kathy has always provided support and encouragement to reviewers, authors, and potential authors, and patiently worked with them to ensure their manuscripts were a high-quality product. Because of her conscientious efforts, Heart & Lung is one of the preeminent journals with a focus on acute and critical illness. Although she is retiring as editor, Kathy will not sit quietly and let others do the hard work. Since 1998, Kathy has led a group of health care providers to Choluteca, Honduras,

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annually to provide health care and health education and to improve the environment through the provision of new wells and clean drinking water. Clearly this is hard work, but even more clearly, this is work worth doing. For all of your hard work in education, practice, research, scholarship, editorial leadership, and outreach, we thank you Kathy for all you have done and all you continue to do! Susan K. Frazier, PhD, RN Associate Professor University of Kentucky College of Nursing, Co-director RICH Heart Program, Web Editor The Journal of Cardiovascular Nursing doi:10.1016/j.hrtlng.2010.10.002

Kathy Stone, RN, PhD, FAAN: A remarkable nurse, scientist, editor, and friend The retirement of Kathy Stone as editor of Heart & Lung is significant for benchmarking an era of publishing of nursing and interdisciplinary science. The articles published by Heart & Lung during Dr. Stone’s 16 years as editor reflect her stellar adherence to strong and sensitive scientific and literary principles—advancing the dissemination of both qualitative and quantitative research and clinical evidence. Critical care, cardiovascular, and thoracic specialties are indebted to Dr. Stone for increasing access to an excellent knowledge base that grew and changed exponentially during the time of her tenure. Heart & Lung flourished under her leadership, as reflected by the growth of its readership and organizational adoption. Dr. Stone sensitively guided many a young author toward submission, revision, and final publication of their work, and was kind in reframing thorny but relevant reviewer remarks or helping to dismiss the irrelevant comments. She made reviewing for and publishing in the Journal an extremely rewarding and smooth process. I think the whole nursing profession is grateful to Dr. Stone for her contribution of knowledge, expertise, and leadership to the evolutionary process of nursing science, which has led to growth of interdisciplinary collaborations. We will miss her influence, but we know she leaves things in great order for the next generation of editors. Congratulations on all your accomplishments Kathy, and all the best for a wonderful next chapter! Sandra B. Dunbar, RN, DSN, FAAN, FAHA Charles Howard Candler Professor of Cardiovascular Nursing Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia doi:10.1016/j.hrtlng.2010.10.006

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2010

HEART & LUNG