I completed a research study on the religious background of nurses. I found a larger number of nurses were Roman Catholic than is found in the general US population. So far, none of the nursing journals are willing to publish these results.
Madeline - difficult to say really. I'm not aware of any nursing-specific journasl (at least with an international readership) that encourage religion-specific manuscripts. It would depend on the context of your study as well. For instance, if your study had international relevence (as religion impacts nursing practice globally) - then a journal like International Nursing Review would be a good one. If you were exploring 'philosophical' aspects of religion, for instance, then Nursing Philosophy would be a good one.
One the other hand - you say that a number of journals have rejected your article. Did you carefully target those journals, knowing that they had previously accepted studies on religious topics? If so - it may be something to do with the nature of the study itself - rather than the potentially 'emotive' topic area
Thanks for your response. You are helping me clarify the point I was trying to make with the study. I am making two points: 1. with almost 50% of our surveyed nurses being Catholic, the Catholic philosophy continues to influence the development of the nursing profession and 2. religious sisters were strong influences on woman going into nursing. The nuns were the perfect role model, a major influence for young girls who later became nurses. Now that there is an enormous decline in religious nuns, we can expect a decline in those choosing nursing with that type of religious and sociological framework. Nuns, for example, were self-sacrificing and altruistic within a male dominated hierarchical organization. Nurses traditionally have those approaches to work but that is, in my opinion based on this research, destined to change.
No problem on the response Madeline. This puts it more into perspective. Your study is interesting on two counts. The historical perspective, and the fact that it still prevails, albeit probably implicit - rather than excplicitly. A journal such as Nursing History Review may well assist - although it's not a high-imapct journal and would probably be more interested in the past context more than the current. Then there is the 'workforce' issue ad, in your case, aligned to an eroding of certain values in nursing. In times of demographic global shortages of nurses in the work-force - then this is another consideration - especially perhaps in Catholic-dominant countries. From that perspective - a number of management and 'generic' nursing journals might be interested i.e. Journal of Nursing Mangement, Journal of Clinical Nursing, Journal of Advanced Nursing. I lean far more to publication in European-based journals - so you may know the US-equivalent of these types of journals as an alternative - particularly if your study is US-centric.
Please try with any of these publishers, who publish on Religion
Perhaps it would be useful to know whether people take care for other people because of convictions versus financial needs, or not? What is the health/mental status of people working in (professionals), or taken care of (e.g. patients), in religion-inspired organisations versus other organisations?
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