Nursing Consult LLC

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To the Editor:

I am writing for clarification of your December 2006 editorial, “Is There Anyone Out There?” I, for one, always read the editorials in my professional journals, and—if available—I also read all the letters to the editor.

In this case, I was unable to locate Margo McCaffery and Chris Pasero’s letter in the publication, so I can only infer from your editorial some of their concerns. My question relates to the implication that an editorial is “published research.” My work from 1996 until 2005 was devoted almost entirely to active participation in research. I have never seen a reference that makes that assumption; I have never heard that assumption asserted at any of the many nursing research conferences I have attended; and I question the reasoning behind it. I have always considered an editorial to be the opinion of one person only, the writer.

In any case, just as most nurses support McCaffery’s definition of pain as “whatever the experiencing person says it is, existing whenever he says it does,” I believe that most nurses respect the right of any patient (even a patient with a nursing background) to truthfully describe her or his personal response to any pain medication or treatment and to take the description at face value. Being the editor of a major nursing journal devoted to pain and its alleviation does not strip you of that right.

I look forward to further clarification of McCaffery and Pasero’s concerns regarding the December editorial and am interested to know whether any other readers consider editorials to be “published research.” I know that I do not.