When the Registered Nurse published Volume 1, No. 1 in 1989, its cover feature was a Q&A with then health minister Elinor Caplan about the nursing shortage. When asked specifically about enhancing the role of nurses in health-care decision making, Caplan responded that she wants to "...make sure nurses have a stronger voice, that they are seen, and in fact mandated, as an important and respected voice within the hospital system." The health-care landscape - and nursing - has changed considerably since 1989, but that vision for nurses - not only in hospitals but across all sectors of the health system - has remained constant.

Technological changes - and the onset of the computer age - made the cover in the spring of 1989, with a very clear call on nurses to embrace the benefits of technology to nursing practice rather than fear the change. Who could have guessed that, 30 years later, technology would be so vital to our lives in so many ways? Rounding out the cover features in 1989 were stories about the appeal of bedside nursing as a life-long career, and a series of profiles on a new breed of nurses conducting scientific research.

The mix of stories that made the covers of this first incarnation of a revitalized and updated Journal was diverse and varied. From focusing on greening hospitals and the movements to save the environment in small ways, to Ontario's new nursing co-ordinator at Queen's Park, health system transformation, self employment in nursing, racism and discrimination in health care, community supports for mental health patients, nursing education, and a series of profiles on controversial and sometimes misunderstood RN trailblazers who were referred to as "renegades". 

In 1992 (Volume 4), RNAO enlisted the services of a new publishing company to produce The Registered Nurse. Not only would the look change once again, but so would the frequency. These and other decisions about communication with members were not made lightly. With the shift from a quarterly to a bi-monthly publication, then executive director Lynda Parks wrote a full-age article about the process of envisioning a new look and feel, and new expectations of an advisory board and members who would be called upon to submit more stories. You can read this article and more online at RNAO.ca/RNJhistory.

Watch our May/June issue for part three in this series, and our look at The Registered Nurse of the early 1990s. 

And don't forget to contact us at editor@RNAO.ca if you have a story to share about the association's flagship publication.