My final editorial. It’s been an amazing opportunity and my sincere thanks go to Theresa Shaw and Kate Sanders at the Foundation of Nursing Studies and their board of trustees. Between us, we have turned our shared vision for the journal into a reality that is really starting to thrive ‘out there’. Not many people can say they’ve had a similar experience to mine, of being an academic editor launching a new journal, and one that sits outside a publishing house. The IPDJ’s unique funding and management arrangements have presented the editorial team with some unusual challenges; but the opportunities have been immense. Since its launch, and over the nine years of my stewardship as academic editor, the journal has established itself and grown into a reputable international open-access publication. Significantly, this has all been achieved in the most economical way, meaning our costs are far below those of many other established journals. Our metrics tell us readership is growing steadily, that the online viewing of articles is growing and that readers are also downloading more articles more frequently. We have seen more than a tenfold increase in figures as a whole. Kate and her colleagues on the editorial team, Debbie Warren and Jon Lalljee, deserve recognition for their contributions to making the IPDJ a success.

As I plan my exit and dream about how I will use the ‘free’ time no longer dedicated to the journal, I am excited to be able to announce that the IPDJ now has a second international network signed up to support it. Alongside the International Practice Development Collaborative, the International Community of Practice for Person-centred Practice (PcP-ICoP) is now a joint partner of the journal. This will see changes to the editorial board and a broadening of content to feature more on person-centred practice and its associated research and scholarship. The PcP-ICoP is hosted by the Centre for Person-centred Practice Research at Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh and has a growing number of organisations as full members and individuals as associate members. So it is timely (and personally gratifying to me) to see the publication in this issue of an article on the topic of developing the person-centred curriculum. With the growing significance of person-centred cultures and care, it is vital that higher education organisations redesign their curricula for healthcare professionals, rather than having elements of person-centredness dotted around the curriculum. A radical approach is now needed, and the article in this issue helps to set out the rationale and an implementation pathway.