Georgetown Nursing Chair, Professor to Serve as Editor of Psychiatric Nursing Journal

December 9, 2021 – Dr. Edilma L. Yearwood, who leads the Department of Professional Nursing Practice at the School of Nursing & Health Studies, has been named the new editor of the Archives of Psychiatric Nursing. She will begin in January while continuing in her current leadership role at Georgetown.

The peer-reviewed journal – the International Society of Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurses’ (ISPN) official publication – has been edited for many years by distinguished nurse leader and Georgetown alumna Dr. Joyce J. Fitzpatrick (BSN 1966, Honorary 1990).

“I am so pleased to turn over the leadership of the premier journal . . . to Dr. Edilma Yearwood, an esteemed colleague with global expertise in psychiatric mental health nursing,” Fitzpatrick said. “. . . Having served as associate editor of the journal for the past several years, Dr. Yearwood is well positioned for this new leadership role and, no doubt, will take the journal to new heights in the discipline.”

‘A Wonderful Opportunity’

The journal looks at the field “in its broadest perspective, including theory, practice, and research applications related to all ages, special populations, settings, and interdisciplinary collaborations in both the public and private sectors,” according to its website. “Through critical study, expositions, and review of practice, Archives of Psychiatric Nursing is a medium for clinical scholarship to provide theoretical linkages among diverse areas of practice.”

Yearwood, a tenured associate professor of professional nursing practice, is past president of ISPN and has served as an associate editor of Archives since 2015. In February, she and colleague Dr. Vicki P. Hines-Martin of the University of Louisville School of Nursing co-edited a special issue of the journal on the social determinants of health and mental health.

“This is a wonderful opportunity, and I am humbled and touched by the faith placed in me by both Dr. Joyce Fitzpatrick and Elsevier Publishing,” Yearwood said. “The journal serves as a vehicle for disseminating data aimed at improving care and well-being for all across the lifespan.”

She noted that she looks forward to working with the editorial team, including new associate editors Dr. Victoria Soltis-Jarrett of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Nursing, Professor Emerita Sally Raphel of the University of Maryland School of Nursing and Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing, and Dr. Emily Hauenstein of the University of Delaware School of Nursing.

A Leading Journal

Yearwood, a fellow of the American Academy of Nursing, is also co-editor of the Routledge Handbook of Global Mental Health Nursing Evidence, Practice and Empowerment (2016) and Child and Adolescent Behavioral Health: A Resource for Advanced Practice Psychiatric and Primary Care Practitioners in Nursing (Wiley-Blackwell, 2012 and 2021).

“I will continue to work with the editorial board to develop and enrich the journal to maintain the status it holds as a leader in psychiatric-mental health nursing research, inclusive of the work of local, national, and global scholars and nurse scientists,” Yearwood said.

By Bill Cessato