Abstract: This article is presented in two parts. In the first, an outline of Heidegger's approach to phenomenology is offered. A basic premise of hermeneutic phenomenology is that people make sense of the world through the narratives they tell to themselves and to others. When the researcher uses this philosophical approach, persons communicate their experiences; the researcher interprets the experience and communicates that understanding in writing. In the second part of the paper, the experiences of four people whose partners were hospitalised out of town is described.

Abstract: A paper presented as one of the four “Winter Lecture Series” hosted by the Nursing Studies unit of the Department of Education, Victoria University of Wellington. It is a critique of “ The Nursing Process” referred to commonly in nursing education programmes. It challenges the usefulness for nursing of the linear sequence of steps of assessment, diagnosis, planning, intervention and evaluation.

Abstract: Draws on the author's doctoral thesis to examine the prejudices, paradoxes and possibilities inherent in nursing a person from a culture other than one's own.

Abstract: A paper following on from the paper “Between the idea and reality” (Nursing Praxis in New Zealand 1(2), 17-29) proposing the focus for the discipline of nursing – practice and research – is diagnosis. For nursing practice, diagnosis is a practice that collapses “The Nursing Process”; for research to develop nursing practice, diagnosis is one continuous relational process that merges and makes the separate tasks od assessment, intervention and evaluation redundant.

Abstract: This inquiry is an in-depth exploration of one middle aged woman's experience of strife in chronic illness and her nursing care involving four nurses (including the author) in a community context over a three-year period. The study is praxiological in that the understanding achieved is derived from practice within a 'research as praxis' methodology positioned in the disciplinary perspective of nursing as a practical human science. Five methodological premises inform the research processes: reflexivity, dialogue, moral comportment, re-presentation in narrative and critique. They emanate from an eclectic ontological praxiology based on the research framework constructed from Gadamerian philosophical hermeneutics, components of other philosophical praxiologies evolved from an exploration of the practical discourse in philosophy and my preferred health and nursing assumptions. The research processes include researcher journalling, a summary of Sarah's nursing record and dialogical meetings with Sarah and the nurse co-participants. Using the research material a narrative is then co-constructed. The narrative is structured around what Sarah viewed as the overall nursing contribution to her care; the 'sharing of her burden of illness'. This, she maintained, enabled her to live safely in the community. Finally there occurs a critique of the narrative within a discursive framework. Three themes, embedded in particular discourses, emerged from the narrative both in Sarah's and the nurses' experience; paradox, moral meaning and metaphor. Sarah's experience is interpreted as taking place in the 'in-between space' of the disease and health-illness discourses. Two main concepts which depict the tension experienced in this space are the 'the ontological assault of illness' and 'entrapment in the disease discourse'. The nurses, in this instance, 'pushed the boundaries' to create a space for the nursing as a caring practice discourse on the margins of nursing as a functional service discourse. The author notes that, within the nursing as a caring practice space, many 'fine lines' were walked with Sarah. Walking the 'fine line' of an 'intense relationship' was seen as advanced nursing practice. The research highlights important implications for a person and/or families who live with chronic illness and practice and educational issues for advanced nurse practitioners. Further, it promotes praxiological methodologies as advantageous for expanding nursing knowledge.

Abstract: This systematic review was conducted by the New Zealand Centre for Evidence Based Nursing, a collaborating centre of The Joanna Briggs Institute for Evidence Based Nursing and Midwifery. The aim was to present the best available evidence on interventions, which are effective in preventing or reducing the prevalence of complications associated with suctioning, in hospitalised adult patients with an artificial airway who are breathing spontaneously or are artificially ventilated and who require suctioning. The specific questions addressed were as follows: Which methods of suctioning reduce the prevalence of mucosal trauma or mucosal dysfunction, and promote the removal of respiratory secretions? Which techniques or methods are effective in reducing the occurrence of suctioning -induced hypoxaemia, during or following the suctioning procedure? Which techniques or methods are effective in minimising the haemodynamic or pulmonary complications associated with the suctioning procedure?

Abstract: This study originates from the author's practice experience working for the New Zealand Fire Service back in the late 1980's and early 1990's as an Occupational Health Nurse where she piloted a Critical Incident Stress Peer Support programme in the No.4 Region. The author identified work-related stress and related it to Critical Incident Stress (CIS) from firefighters exposure to critical incidents. This study explores four firefighters experience of Critical Incident Stress Debriefing (CISD) within a Region of the New Zealand Fire Service. It explores the application of CISD as one component of Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM), and the Nurse Researcher's philosophy of Clinical Nurse practice in relation to the application of CISD. The knowledge gained from the analysis of the data has the potential to influence professionals understanding of their experience and affect future practice and that of others working in the field of CISM. Much of the literature that supported CISD appeared to offer a rather superficial understanding of the firefighters experience in relation to CISD. A narrative approache was chosed as the methodology, utilising four individual case studies as a method of social inquiry in order to explore the experience of CISD. The narratives were able to creatively capture the complexity and the dynamic practice of CISD. An overall pattern of the formalised process was uncovered through the participants' narratives. Eight dominant themes were highlighted from the narratives which included safe environment; ventilating the stress reaction; similar feelings; getting the whole picture; peer support; bonding and resolution. While these themes were common to all the participants, each participant had a particular theme/s which was unique to their experience.