Volume 40 Number 4

Celebrating 40 years of the WCET^® Journal and more

Happy 40th anniversary to the WCET^® Journal. It began as a desire by the pioneers of the Executive Board to share information with nurses in our emerging specialty; it has grown from 12 pages and is now a 48-page quarterly publication with its own ISSN number (0819-4610) for the English (print) version and other languages (electronic) versions. You can find out more about this history by reading pages 28–32 in the WCET^® 40th anniversary commemorative magazine posted on our website at https://wocet.memberclicks.net/assets/Publications/WCET™%2040th%20Anniversary%20
Commemorative%20Magazine.pdf

The WCET^® Journal is one of the few journals that is published in five languages – English, Chinese, French, Portuguese and Spanish. Thank you to our Sustaining Journal Partners (in alphabetical order) Calmoseptine, Coloplast, Dansac, Hollister and Welland whose support helps continue to make the WCET^® Journal possible. A journal requires a team to make it a reality. This of course includes authors, an editorial board, peer reviewers, a professional editor (Dr Jenny Prentice) and a publisher (Greg Paull and his team at Cambridge Media). Thank you all for your efforts to produce this great source of educational information and, as written in the Journal history, “a voice of communication” for WCET^® nurses throughout the world.

We wonder if Norma N Gill, who was editor when the journal became the official journal of the WCET^® and who wrote the first editorial, would have thought that 40 years later the WCET^® Journal would be the official journal for not one but two associations, the WCET^® and the International Interprofessional Wound Care Group (IIWCG). We are pleased to have this partnership with IIWCG President Gulnaz Tariq and associate section editor, Hiske Smart. The next step to come will be to apply for MEDLINE indexing which will be another great step forward for the Journal; we have been working hard over the last 2 years to meet its requirements. Stay tuned as you will be notified when it occurs.

By the time you receive this issue of the Journal in December, the first ever WCET^® Worldwide Education Day will have occurred. Thank you to Denise Hibbert, WCET^® Education Committee Chair and her taskforce that included Alison Crawshaw, Dee Waugh, Greg Paull, Laurent Chabal, Elizabeth Ayello, Jen Wood and Graham Hauck who have worked to provide a tri-specialty webinar. We want to warmly thank the 18 international speakers – Ms Aihua (Alice) Chen from China, Dr R Gary Sibbald from Canada, Mr Laurent Chabal from Switzerland, Dr Kerlyn Carville, Dr Vicki Patton and Dr Jenny Prentice from Australia, Dr Gregory Schultz, Dr Mikel Gray and Dr Elizabeth A Ayello from the USA, Ms Gulnaz Tariq from the United Arab Emirates, Dr Dimitri Beeckman from Belgium, Ms Denise Hibbert from Saudi Arabia, Dr Vera Santos from Brazil, Ms Zarah Perry-Woodford, Ms Alison Crawshaw and Ms Sharon Fillingham from the United Kingdom, and Ms Briony Chisholm and Ms Dee Waugh from South Africa. Their presentations enlighten the many challenges we, as ET nurses, have to deal with and we do hope their input has been useful and can improve your daily practice.

Many thanks to our five webinar sponsors, in alphabetical order, Calmoseptine, Coloplast, ConvaTec, Eakin and Hollister. We hope that you also enjoyed the special e-supplement and electronic NNGF^® commemorative book available to all webinar participants.

WCET^® had its first ever virtual general business meeting. Many thanks to all participants for your comments back and evaluation forms completed as they will help us to improve for any upcoming virtual event. At the end of this meeting the officers elected last June began their terms. Welcome to the following new Board Members:

• Diana Gallagher, MS, RN, CWOCN, CFCN (Arkansas, USA): Treasurer 2020–2024.
• Yajuan (Julie) Weng, RN, ET, MN, MBA (Changzhou, People’s Republic of China): Education Committee Chairperson 2020–2024.
• Aihua (Alice) Chen, RN, ET, Nurse Manager, ETNEP Director (Wenzhou, People’s Republic of China): NNGF^® Committee Chairperson 2020–2024.
• Dee Waugh has been reappointed as Congress and Meeting Coordinator 2020–2022.

We also say goodbye to the following Board Members:

• Alison Crawshaw, BSc, RGN, ENB216: Treasurer 2014–2020.
• Denise Hibbert, RGN, MSc(WHTR), BSc, DipHE, ONC, STN, FSSCRS: Education Committee Chairperson 2016–2020.
• Arum Ratna Pratiwi, RN, ET: NNGF^® Committee Chairperson.
• Karen Bruton, RN, BScN, MCISc-WH, CETN(C): Publications & Communications Committee Chairperson 2018–2020.

These volunteers have done an amazing job and we look forward to more formally thanking and celebrating them at the next WCET^® Congress.

As you know, Jen Wood left Hauck & Associates on 23 October and we once again take the opportunity to warmly thank her for her great support over the last 6 years. Many thanks to all your emails received back which echo our feelings.

It is true that the year 2020 brought WCET^® many challenges imposed by COVID-19 but, as nurses, we have continued to move forward and show the resiliency that nurses have. Let’s mark all the special milestones for WCET^® that were good occasions for us to celebrate, including the world’s appreciation for what WCET^® nurses do every day. May the year 2021 make it possible for us to celebrate together in person. That is our wish for the new year. 

Sincerely,

Elizabeth A Ayello and Laurent O Chabal

Author(s)

Elizabeth A Ayello
PhD, RN, ETN, CWON, MAPWCA, FAAN
WCET^® President 2018–2022

Laurent O Chabal
BSc (CBP), RN, OncPall (Cert), Dip (WH), ET, EAWT
WCET^® President Elect 2020–2022