Abstract: The purpose of this project was to explore the experience of nurses related to incident reporting. The reporting of incidents is important as it identifies professional risks for nurses. A descriptive qualitative approach was the methodology used and individual interviews of five senior nurses was the method of data collection. Attention was given to finding out about the supports for and barriers against nurses in reporting incidents; the outcomes for nurses of incident reporting; and the organisational culture and scope of 'professional' behaviour of nurses around incident reporting. The findings revealed that nurses identified themselves as the major reporters of incidents. They considered there was not 'a level playing field' for all professionals around who, how and why incidents were reported, investigated and within the post incident processes. The nurses reported that they made daily decisions about what was an incident, and whether to report events as incidents. They identified aids and supports to the decisions they made such as the medium for reporting and fear of what happened when the incident form left the nurse and went to management. A number of significant implications were identified for nursing, management and organisations in this research. Nurses need to feel they work in organisations which have a culture of safety around incident reporting. Management need to clearly communicate policies, processes and organisational expectations related to incident reporting. This should include how incidents will be reported, investigated and the purposes for which management use incident reporting information. It is also important that adequate structures are in place to support nurses when an incident occurs as thay can have stressful consequences for the nurses involved.

Abstract: The author performs a literature search on the topics of risk assessment, dangerousness, aggression, and violence in order to determine an evidence-based approach to risk assessment of patient violence towards others. This is set in the context of possible expansion in the scope of practice of mental health nurses, and the prevalence of nurses being assaulted by patients. In the absence of reliable and valid nursing risk assessment measures, the approach suggested here focuses on the use of observation skills to detect behaviour antecedent to physical assault, and the ability to adapt evidence to specific clinical settings.

Abstract: Over the last century the nursing profession has drawn from numerous theories and disciplines to construct its own theoretical foundations. While this diversity and flexibility may be one of the nursing profession's strengths it may have contributed to nurses' difficulty in explaining the complexities of their every day clinical work. This is a particular challenge for the domain of mental health nursing. This dissertation discusses how nursing models that have credibility at a clinical level can contribute to informing and advancing nursing practice. Models can achieve this by assisting nurses to conceptualise and articulate what it is they do that makes a difference to patient outcomes. Through this process nurses can maintain a distinct professional identity and establish themselves as effective members of multidisciplinary health team. Specifically, the application and limitations of Godkin's (2001) proposed model of a 'healing presence' to the author's own practice in a one-to-one nurse-adolescent client relationship in the mental health nursing is examined. It is claimed that a 'healing presence' provides a meaningful way to understanding the author's own practice. The proposed model of a 'healing presence' embraces the diversity of her background, and allows the author to maintain a nursing identity by providing a nursing framework to critique her practice, furthering her understanding of what it is that 'expert' nurses do and how this impacts on patient outcomes. Also suggested is that a 'healing presence' can contribute to the author's own and other nurses advanced nursing practice by making nursing visible to the multidisciplinary health team and to articulate “what it is that I do 'when I am nursing'”. Through presenting this dissertation, the author wishes to inspire other nurses to examine and understand their own practice.

Abstract: This research explores why and how nurse educators teach for social change. Critical feminist educators provide a useful framework for theorising about teaching for change that addresses issues of hegemony, agency, praxis, individual voice, difference, justice and equity. Six women Pakeha/Tauiwi nurse educators from throughout New Zealand volunteered to participate in this research and share their lived experiences of teaching for social change. In-depth conversations over two years unfolded new and rich material about how and why these six women continue to teach the evaded subjects, like mental health, women's health, community development and cultural safety. All teach in counter-hegemonic ways, opening students' eyes to the unseen and unspoken. Among the significant things to emerge during the research was the metaphorical construct of shape-shifting as an active process in teaching for social change. It revealed the connectedness and integrity between life as lived and the moral imperative that motivates the participants to teach for difference. Shape-shifting was also reflected in other key findings of the study. As change agents, the participants have had significant shape-shifting experiences in their lives; they live and work as shape-shifters within complex social and political structures and processes to achieve social justice; and, they deal with areas of health practice where clients are socially and politically displaced. The research also generated new methods for gathering life-stories and new processes for analysis and interpretation of life-stories. It is hoped that this research will open pathways for other nurse educators to become shape-shifters teaching for social change.

Abstract: This article looks at the research on the benefits of massage for alleviating the anxiety of patients in critical care. The author draws on her own experiences with cardiac patients and affirms the lasting psychological benefit of massage. She provides advice on which parts of the body to massage on patients in critical care, which to avoid and how to know when it is contraindicated.