A Prescription for Success

“Perseverance is failing 19 times and succeeding the 20th.”— Julie Andrews, actress

  Julie Andrews must have had Wounds in mind when she made the statement above. As you probably know by now, we are proud to announce that the National Library of Medicine’s Literature Selection Technical Review Committee (LSTRC) has approved Wounds to be indexed in Medline, the National Library of Medicine’s database of biomedical literature.   The process requires a formal application, which is rigorously reviewed by the LSTRC. Only approximately 25% of journals applying are selected for indexing. Having the journal’s articles listed in Medline will give our journal more visibility and will allow health care professionals and interested people worldwide to access the articles published in Wounds. Collaboration among our publisher, HMP Communications, the journal’s editorial staff, the journal’s Editorial Advisory Board, and many others working diligently enabled us to meet the requirements for indexing.

  When working to get a journal indexed, we found that it was uncommon for success to be achieved on the first attempt. Perseverance and a plan were going to be critical. Fortunately, we had both.

  We also found that we needed to be flexible. Even though we had a plan, we found new information and circumstances required adjustments and even major changes in that plan. We had to adjust to current situations to make the project successful. This reminded me of another time when flexibility was required.

  Several years ago I was invited to Quito, Ecuador, to teach a wound care seminar. I got all the information about what was wanted from my presentations and how much time I had to give the lectures. I worked long and hard to get the information in the 4-hour allotted time period. I know 4 hours sounds like a long time, but when one is trying to cover the basics of wound care and treatment of various chronic and acute wounds, it goes by very quickly.

  I arrived at the site for the program; the audience was in place; I was ready to go. The professor in charge introduced me, but before he sat down, he confided to me, “Today is the day Ecuador is playing in the Soccer World Cup event. We have to be through and out of this hall in an hour and a half, at the latest, so everyone can watch the soccer game.” He stressed “at the latest.”

  As I walked to the podium, I had no idea how I could squeeze 4 hours of lecture into an hour and a half. My first thought was that I would just keep talking and see if they all left! Fortunately, I had second thoughts about that.

  Well, after the first hour of the program covering the basics of wound care, I could see that people were looking at their watches and a few had already left. In the few minutes I had left, I quickly summarized what they would have heard during the rest of the lecture. Obviously, they did not care, because the room was completely empty except for my wife, our driver, and me with 5 minutes to spare on my hour and a half. That group never heard the end of that wound course, but Ecuador won that particular World Cup match.

  It was critical not to be discouraged when things did not come together as planned, both with my wound care talk and with indexing the journal.

   “Our greatest weakness lies in giving up,” said American inventor Thomas Edison. “The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.”

  Giving up was not an option for this project. Perseverance is critical for anything worthwhile to be successful—a business venture, caring for a particularly stubborn wound, or getting a wound care journal indexed.