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Editorial

Year: 2017
Type: editorial
Abstract: 2017 is proving to be a tricky year.Not only are we seeing ever more unexpected political events, humanitarian crises and natural or man-made disasters, but we are also becoming increasingly sceptical about whom and what to believe.It is becoming harder not only to distinguish what is real from what is fake, but also to decide whom to trust and whom to align with.We need to continually question what we are told, who is telling it to us and why.Normally a questioning attitude is to be encouraged, but once a pervasively cynical level of doubt seeps into our thinking it is hard to stop it infiltrating our daily professional lives, and we become weakened and potentially isolated.Although a healthy dose of scepticism can be beneficial in helping people to think through the benefits and disadvantages of any course of action, it can also be insidiously paralysing.Nurses, however, cannot allow themselves to be paralysed in such a way; we need to act and think deftly, sometimes instantaneously, if we are to craft care, collaboratively, to suit each person's requirements.Collaborating with each other, with other clinicians and disciplines, with patients and their carers, and with researchers, managers, educators and policy-makers can be the difference between success and failure.But to do this we need to know how to collaborate, with whom and to what purpose.Our skills in doing so must never be undermined by the current zeitgeist of fake news, misleading evidence, expert-bashing and the cynicism and isolationism that follows.Our last issue of JRN focused on compassion in care and the complexities that underpin this concept; in this issue we bring insights into another essential component of successful care, collaboration.Here we have gathered four papers, their associated reviews and the 2016 European Academy of Nursing Sciences' summer-school debate to show how critical collaboration is in knitting together practice, policy and research.These contributions showcase people's ability to close gaps.The papers demonstrate how clinical academic careers can be used to connect what we know and what we do; how the need to be clear about nursing's special contribution can promote collaborations within nursing and across the spectrum of health and social care; and how essential senior nurses are in establishing and sustaining collaborations that commission and deliver the best services possible.Last week I heard Lyse Doucet, the BBC's Chief International Correspondent, give the final lecture in this year's Darwin College Lecture Series on Extremes (http://www.darwin. cam.ac.uk/lectures).She spoke about her job 'Reporting from Extreme Environments' and focused largely on the human cost of conflict.As I listened I felt compassion and
DOI: 10.1177/1744987117703874
Language: English
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W4234682299
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