Abstract: This thesis concerns an investigation of the tripartite arrangements between the government, the nursing and the medical sectors in New Zealand over the period 1984 to 2001 with a particular focus on primary health care. The start point is the commencement of the health reforms instituted by the Fourth New Zealand Labour Government of 1984. The thesis falls within a framework of critical inquiry, specifically, the methodology of depth hermeneutics (Thompson, 1990), a development of critical theory. The effects of political and economic policies and the methodologies of neo-liberal market reform are examined together with the concept of collaboration as an ideological symbolic form, typical of enterprise culture. The limitations of economic models such as public choice theory, agency theory and managerialism are examined from the point of view of government strategies and their effects on the relationships between the nursing and medical professions. The influence of American health care policies and their partial introduction into primary health care in New Zealand is traversed in some detail, together with the experiences of health reform in several other countries. Post election 1999, the thesis considers the effect of change of political direction consequent upon the election of a Labour Coalition government and concludes that the removal of the neo-liberal ethic by Labour may terminate entrepreneurial opportunities in the nursing profession. The thesis considers the effects of a change to Third Way political direction on national health care policy and on the medical and nursing professions. The data is derived from various texts and transcripts of interviews with 12 health professionals and health commentators. The histories and current relationships between the nursing and medical professions are examined in relation to their claims to be scientific discourses and it is argued that the issue of lack of recognition as a scientific discourse is at the root of nursing's perceived inferiority to medicine. This is further expanded in a discussion at the end of the thesis where the structure of the two professions is compared and critiqued. A conclusion is drawn that a potential for action exists to remedy the deficient structure of nursing. The thesis argues that this is the major issue which maintains nursing in the primary sector in a perceived position of inferiority to medicine. The thesis also concludes that the role of government in this triangular relationship is one of manipulation to bring about necessary fundamental change in the delivery of health services at the lowest possible cost without materially strengthening the autonomy of the nursing or the medical professions.

Abstract: The original aim of the study was to find out through a questionnaire what child health/paediatric nurses in New Zealand/Aotearoa saw as their needs for post-registration education. Nurses were completing courses in the United Kingdom and returning to New Zealand/Aotearoa and realising that their nursing capabilities had improved. They became senior nurses with education responsibilities and exhibited political leadership among their colleagues in the field of child health/paediatric nursing. They were becoming increasingly concerned at the lack of any clinical courses in the specialty of child health/paediatric nursing to promote an appropriate standard of practice. It was intended that a research project about post-registration child health/paediatric education would assist concerned nurses to develop a programme. The time needed for such a project did not fit with a limited research paper. It was decided to reduce the project to a review of the literature on competence in nursing, with some comment on the specialty of child health/paediatric nursing. In order for nurses to find what they need to learn and know, an understanding of competence in nursing practice is required. Competence is defined as the ability of the nurse to carry out specific work in a designated area at a predetermined standard. Issues around competence, defining a scope of practice, development and assessment of competence, and regulation of nursing, are part of the context in which accountability for the practice of nurses sits.

Abstract: A clinical research practicum.

Abstract: A qualitative framework was used to explore the nature and the quality of interactions between sole on-call primary health care rural nurses and secondary care doctors as a component of rural nursing practice and representative of the primary-secondary care interface. Crucial to patient centred care, the premise was that the quality of this interface would be variable due to multiple influences such as: the historical nurse/doctor relationship that has perpetuated medical dominance and nursing subordination; current policy direction encouraging greater inter-professional collaboration; and changing role boundaries threatening traditional professional positioning. A total of 11 nurses representing 10 separate rural areas participated in semi-structured interviews. Rural nurses typically interact with secondary care doctors for acute clinical presentations with two tiers of interaction identified. The first tier was presented as a default to secondary care doctors for assistance with managing primary care level clinical presentations in the absence of access to a general practitioner or an appropriate Standing Order enabling appropriate management. The second tier presented itself as situations where, in the professional judgement of the nurse, the client status indicated a need for secondary level expertise and/or referral to secondary care. The needs of the rural nurse in these interactions were identified as access to expertise in diagnosis, therapy and management, authorisation to act when intervention would exceed the nurse's scope of practice; the need to refer clients to secondary care; and the need for reassurance, encompassing emotional and professional issues. The quality of the interactions was found to be variable but predominantly positive. Professional outcomes of positive interactions included professional acknowledgement, support and continuing professional development. For the patient, the outcomes included appropriate, timely, safe intervention and patient centred care. The infrequent but less than ideal interactions between the participants and secondary care doctors led to professional outcomes of intraprofessional discord, a sense of invisibility for the nurse, increased professional risk and professional dissatisfaction; and for the client an increased potential for deleterious outcome and suffering. Instead of the proposition of variability arising from interprofessional discord and the current policy direction, the data suggested that variability arose from three interlinking factors; appropriate or inappropriate utilisation of secondary care doctors; familiarity among individuals with professional roles and issues of rurality; and acceptance by the primary care doctor of the sole on-call primary health care rural nurse role and the responsibility to assist with the provision of primary health care. Recommendations for improving interactions at the interface include national, regional and individual professional actions.