No. 1 – A Letter from the Editors: Why a New Journal?

Authors:  Martin Huecker, MD (1) and Brian Ferguson, DO, MPH (1,2) – Editors-in-Chief

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Abstract

Introduction:  Welcome to the Journal of Wellness, an open access, peer-reviewed journal dedicated to the scholarly pursuit of wellness for all healthcare professionals. JWellness will publish research and editorials to enhance resilience, physical strength, nutritional completeness, disease prevention, and mental health.

Wellness:  Paradigms for wellness have been elegantly described across medical and social science journals. Most models in healthcare recommend optimization of system factors, individual resilience, and promoting a “culture of wellness”. Physicians in different specialties operate in silos; and even when doctors converge, they frequently exclude professionals in nursing, dentistry, education, pharmacy, and administration.

Call for a New Journal:  Recognizing the diversity of valuable scholarly work, we identified the need for a new journal devoted to this topic. We sought to create a central repository solely dedicated to quality research on healthcare professional wellness.

Open Access: Because of the large scope and diverse audience, it is crucial that we ensure no article processing fees for authors or readers. Operating within the University of Louisville Libraries will allow this to continue indefinitely. We envision healthcare professionals across all practice settings benefiting from research conducted. We invite anyone with quality data, regardless of funding, to freely submit their work for uninhibited distribution of content.

Conclusions:  The Journal of Wellness welcomes healthcare professionals to submit manuscripts relevant to all (equally important) domains of wellness. Let’s collect in one place our experiences, triumphs, and failures. Why should each discipline in medicine reinvent the wheel? We can work together to enhance our own wellness, ultimately improving the health of our patients.

Affiliation:

1 Department of Emergency Medicine, University of Louisville

2 Emergency Department, Keesler Air Force Base