My six year-old daughter's summertime boredom has finally been assuaged with a steady stream of creative activities and crafts. The month of July carries magic for my family that promises fireworks and sparklers, decorations and festivities, the joy of eating a cold watermelon in the park and playing in lawn sprinklers.

In the same spirit of exploring things that are fun and new, I'm excited about our stories this month. The first is our cover story on Cook Children's Transport Team. These nurses work on helicopters and airplanes and conduct around 2,000 transports per year over a 110-county area.

If the heat and stress of the summertime-rush on hospitals is too much to bear, you'll enjoy our feature on managing nursing stress. You'll see how many hospitals and facilities are becoming aware of the effects stress has on nurses and patient care and learn what they are doing to help nurses relax and clear their heads.

This month's Career Spotlight is written by special guest author, Judy Denison, MSN, RN, FACHE, CNAA-BC, Chief Nursing Officer and Associate Administrator of the world-renowned Texas Scottish Rite Hospital. She examines orthopedic nursing as a career choice in DFW and offers fascinating insight into pediatric orthopedics.

Finally, our CE article is a fascinating exploration of the growing need for genetic competencies in nursing and how advances in gene technology are changing nurse interactions with patients and their families.

I hope you find this month's issue as fun and interesting as I did. Remember that we are here for you, so feel free to send me a note if there is something you would like to see in the lounge, or just to let us know how we are doing: editor@nurseslounge.com.

 See you in the lounge!