School of Nursing launches online open-access journal

An innovative online open-access journal at York University that was collaboratively developed by members of the Faculty of Health’s School of Nursing, as well as critical nurse scholars across the country, will launch on Nov. 20.

Witness: The Canadian Journal of Critical Nursing Discourse

The journal Witness: The Canadian Journal of Critical Nursing Discourse is rooted in an ethos of social justice and advocacy, according to the journal’s co-managing editors, Professors Cheryl van Daalen-Smith and Simon Adam.

The journal is being launched with the release of the journal’s inaugural call for papers with the theme “See it …. Speak it….. Write it….. Change it….”

There is a rich history of critical discourse and practice in Canada; discourse and practice gleaned from what Canadian nurses witness regarding health, health care and the quality of life of individuals, groups and populations. This journal addresses the need to formalize a scholarly space for critical nursing discourse that is rooted in such ideas as social justice, intersectionality, advocacy and critical social theory.

Witness is a collective of critical nurses in Canada and beyond who strive to ameliorate inequities in the health and quality of life of all. By virtue of the nurse’s privileged societal position, nurses witness a wide array of inequities that require them to take action.

In embracing the open-access movement, Witness creates a space in Canada and in nursing for barrier-free access and dissemination of rigorous and critical nursing discourse rooted in an ethos of social justice, critical pluralism and health equity.

The journal includes 20 critical nurse scholars that form the national founding editorial advisory collective.

“Our inaugural issue offers space for a wide cross-section of submissions that critically reflect on current and historical nursing concerns and/or examples of advocacy efforts across Canada that seek to dismantle inequities, oppressive practices and achieve social justice,” said the co-managing editors. “In this important time of truth and reconciliation, we especially welcome submissions from Indigenous nurses and/or Indigenous scholarship.”