Abstract: This thesis provides a reflexive critique of the power structures which constrain nursing actions in the practice setting, an abortion clinic, of the registered nurses who participated in this study. The development of abortion services, like other health services for women, has been based on a medical ideology of health which has created many ethical dilemmas for nurses. One of the most complex of these is the extent to which nurses should fulfil the role of client advocate. While the literature on nursing advocacy has been prolific, published research in this area is scant.The theoretical assumptions of critical social science, provide the basis for the methodological approach of action research adapted in this study. In depth, unstructured interviews involving exchange of dialogue amongst the participants with the researcher focused on the participants' experiences of their own nursing practice, with a view to uncoveing and removing restrasints, which had prevented them fulfililng an advocacy role. Diaries were also kept and used as supplementary research tools.The analysis of the data demonstrates the ways in which nurses interpret their own practice world as a system independent of their own actions. It shows how the shared understandings of the participants were 'ideologically frozen' and power relations inherent in the health care system are deep rooted and subtle, coming to be treated as natural by the nurses, and so denying them their own ability to make changes.It is suggested that opportunities for nurses coming together and engaging in such critically reflexive dialogue may provide a basis for future emancipation from traditional power structures. In this way effective and satisfying nursing practice dependent on emancipatory knowledge and a reinterpretation of power structures may result in an advocacy role for nurses

Abstract: This phenomenological study describes the lived experience of mothering a child hospitalised with acute illness or injury. Seven mothers who had experienced this crisis within twelve months of our first interview agreed to share their stories with me. The resulting data were analysed and interpreted using van Manen's interpretation of Heideggerian phenomenology.Four phenomenological themes emerged from this study. Mothers have a special kind of knowing. They have a need to do with and for their child. Handing over to or leaving their child in the care of strangers and waiting for their child to be returned to their care are very difficult things for mothers to do. Their constant vigilance is enabled by their special kind of knowing and their need to do. The difficulty of handing over, leaving and waiting is emphasised by mothers' constant vigilance.Personal experiences during the course of my study presented significant challenges to my ability to offer an effective phenomenological description of the phenomenon under study. Continuous reflection aided by dialogue with fellow phenomenological researchers has resulted in a meaningful narrative.This description of mothering in a context of crisis is useful in the potential contribution it makes to nurses' understanding of mothers' experience of the hospitalisation of their children. It supports the philosophy of family-centered care and highlights the ability of individual nurses to make a positive difference to a very stressful experience