A history of discrimination against racial and religious minorities at the University of Minnesota, maintained by powerful administrators who were subsequently honored with named buildings, was reflected in acts and patterns of racism in admissions and housing, within the School of Nursing. This article recounts well-documented examples of racial bias, particularly the story of Frances Mchie Rains, the first nurse of color to graduate from the University of Minnesota School of Nursing and a pioneer in overcoming racial barriers.

This essay speaks to the legacy value of nurses' caring for all people, no matter how they feel about the person's values or lifestyle, including the current issues around gender identity and sexual orientation. This legacy is deeply imbedded in the moral ethics of nursing and supports the proposition that if there isn't caring, it isn't nursing.

The compendium of extraordinary operational skills required, the lack of recognition about the exact nature of nursing work, and deeply imbedded negative mind-sets result in staff nurses experiencing guilt and anger rather than the satisfaction of knowing they made a difference in someone’s life because of the nursing care they gave. A change of mind-set from entitlement thinking to entrepreneurial thinking, with an emphasis on maximizing available resources, will empower nurses to understand that they have the right and the responsibility to decide what to do and what not to do when there is more work to do than time available.

Substance use disorder is a serious problem in nursing that is often invisible and not well understood or well handled. It tears at the social contract between nursing and society and disrupts the trust so essential to that contract. The American Nurses Association Code of Ethics contains clear language about a nurse’s duty to take action to protect patients and to ensure the impaired nurse gets assistance. Specific interpretive statements provide useful guidance in dealing with this problem.

Marie Manthey, founder of Creative Health Care Management, interviews Parmeeth “Par” Atwal, whose first career included representing the National Association of Community Health Centers as an attorney, editor of a major health policy journal, and a senior position in the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. He then became an active participant in the health care system, earning a bachelor of science in nursing, working in cardiac critical care, and now becoming a family nurse practitioner. He shares his perspective on the divide between health care policy and regulation, and the delivery of direct patient care.

Marie Manthey, founder of Creative Nursing, reviews the history of the publication and announces its new status as a peer-reviewed journal.

Communication and collaboration skills are important now among health professionals and are likely to become absolutely vital in the future. Health care team efficiency will be the hallmark of clinical and financial success as care delivery systems continue to evolve. Teaching these skills to beginning health professions students, with reinforcement throughout their education, is an exciting development in academia.

Richard Olding Beard, founder of the University of Minnesota School of Nursing, was a passionate and eloquent champion of educating rather than simply training nurses and of the contributions professional nurses make to social justice by improving the health care of society. The issues he wrote and spoke about are the same issues raised in contemporary discussions of entry-level preparation for nursing.

In regularly scheduled, informal gatherings of nurses and others who care about the nursing profession, participants find support, encouragement, enlightenment, and hope.