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Thomson, M. (1974). A study of the position of staff-sister in a New Zealand public hospital with special focus on supervision. Ph.D. thesis, , .
Abstract: This study examines demographic data on the primary subject, the staff sister. Data on trainee nurses was also used to give meaning by comparing the two positions and to describe both sides of the staff-sister; trainee nurse relationship. Data on the staff sister's job, her present and future orientations, satisfaction and problems are included
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Thomson, S. C. (1971). A study of the position of supervising sister in a New Zealand hospital. Ph.D. thesis, , .
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Townley, C. J. (1997). Dynamics: a new approach to organisational forms. Ph.D. thesis, , .
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Tuitea, I. (2006). Solution focused nursing: An alternative model for assessing psychosis and mai aitu in mental health.
Abstract: The objective of this paper is to establish if there is any documented research and literature evidence that describe what the presenting clinical symptoms of Mai Aitu is, and also to explore an alternative frame-work to assess Pacific Islanders who present to mental health in crisis. As a community mental health nurse in the Crisis Assessment and Treatment Team (CATT), the author reports being confronted almost every day with an increasing number of Pacific Islanders presenting in crisis with symptoms consistent with the well documented signs of psychosis. For instance, symptoms like hallucinations, delusion and paranoid ideation which are also well known for describing schizophrenia. Her concern is that mental health nurses may be compromising their practice, the safety of the Pacific Island population and possibly the credibility of the profession with what appears like a lack of knowledge and awareness regarding the clinical symptoms of some Pacific Island mental illness. In Tonga it is called Avea Avanga, in Fiji it is referred to as Lialia, in Samoa it is known as Mai Aitu. The author notes that the issue becomes apparent when Samoan clients present in crisis with what appears to be psychosis but the fanau believe their love one is not mentally unwell, that he or she is simply suffering a traditional Samoan illness. Therefore they insist he or she be treated at home, instead of through admission to the psychiatric hospital, and also that they be seen by a Samoan healer instead of a psychiatrist.
Keywords: Pacific peoples; Mental health; Psychiatric Nursing; Culture
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Uren, M. (2001). Nursing: A model for management: Why nurses are well equipped to be leaders of the future?.
Abstract: The subject of nursing leadership is approached by reviewing the literature of two prominent nursing theorists, Patricia Benner and Jean Watson, and the literature of transformational leadership. Common themes are identified. An exhortation is offered to nurses to consider that the caring characteristics of nurses are what is required in the corporate world of management. Chapter 1, questions whether nursing and management are different worlds or shared realities. It outlines the author's experience of practising as a manager in a complex organisation and the seeming barriers that exist between managers and nurses and management and nursing. A questioning of those barriers became the impetus for the review. Chapter 2, outlines the work of Patricia Benner and Jean Watson. Caring is identified as a core concept which is said to differ significantly from a conventional understanding of helping and is inextricably linked to a profound understanding of what it means to be human. Chapter 3, reviews the literature of contemporary managers who are exploring a transformed approach to leadership and management. Six themes are identified that are common to nursing theory and transformational leadership theory. Chapter 4, acknowledges that despite the similarities between nursing and contemporary management thought, there remains a gap between nurses and management. Rather than feeling optimistic about the future, and confident in assuming leadership roles, many nurses feel defeated and fearful about the future. It is suggested that this may be a consequence of bad experience of leadership, of loss of joy of caring and of failure to value the strength residing in the collective community of nurses. Nurses are encouraged to recognise that their knowledge and experience of caring and wholeness, healing, sharing and enabling, are the attributes that equip them to be leaders of the future health and corporate world.
Keywords: Nurse managers; Nursing; Leadership
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Vermeulen, J. (2002). “And there's the likes of me”: A phenomenological study of the experience of four women inpatients at a mental health unit. Ph.D. thesis, , .
Abstract: This research draws on the experiences of four women whilst they were inpatients at the Mental Health Unit in Southland. The Husserlian path of phenomenology was followed and in-depth interviewing used to collect data. Colaizzi's method of analysis enabled accurate interpretation of transcripts. The overall goal of this research was to provide health professionals with an opportunity to inform their practice, based on what consumers were saying about their experience of hospitalisation. Themes emerged through participants relating their experience by using comparisons with either their outside world or previous episodes of hospitalisation. Through analysis, two fundamental structures became evident within the findings. These were 'the environment as containment' and 'the road to recovery'. The author concludes that this study raises significant issues surrounding the experience of hospitalisation at the Mental Health Unit that have implications for future research and for future service delivery.
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Voice, D. M. (2006). Everyday district nurses' experiences revealed through distillation: Palliative care in the community. Ph.D. thesis, , .
Abstract: This modified action research inquiry focused on the everyday, palliative care practice experiences of a group of district nurses. The intent was to develop an understanding of common issues of concern for this group of district nurses when providing palliative home care in a specific community context and to implement practical, achievable strategies in response to these local issues. Five district nurses identified four broad areas for action through four praxis group meetings and comprising one full cycle. These four areas have been named as methods of enhancing support for people and families, possibilities for creatively managing workloads, mechanisms to enrich working partnership with other palliative care providers and possible vehicles for supporting nurses' self care. Implementation of action from this action research project focused on enhancing care and outcomes for people and family served by this group of district nurses in their local community. This study illuminates everyday essences of the district nurse role and the elements articulated by this group in supporting their practice in one New Zealand community. This study also reveals some of the tensions and messiness when employing an action research methodology with nurses in the workplace. The author notes that this research focused on a little known area (palliative care delivered by district nurses in New Zealand) in a local community (a culturally vibrant and ethnically diverse yet with poor health and socioeconomic statistics). She goes on to say that it has resonance with other nurses, particularly those working in community settings who may experience similar issues and concerns. This research also offers important insights for nurses working in any practice setting.
Keywords: District nursing; Palliative care; Community health nursing; Nursing
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Walsh, C. (1995). Psychiatric nursing: a feminist perspective on nursing practice. Ph.D. thesis, , .
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Ward, C. R. (2005). Children matter: What is important to the child living with a life-threatening illness.
Abstract: When a child lives with a life-threatening illness there is a range of emotions that affect the child, family and people close to the child. This study utilises a narrative approach to explore what the child puts emphasis on in what is important to them as they live with serious illness. The study incorporates the nurse as narrator with the 'narratives' of the children integrated into her reflections to gain a broader understanding. The focus is on listening intently to the spoken needs of children, their story and the meaning they make of their situation when they live with their illness. 'Children' in this study are between the ages of six years to 15 years. The aim of this research is to provide a clear understanding of the lived experience, which may illuminate the needs of the child and what is required throughout the time of illness; therefore informing health professionals of a culture of care that may support these needs. A broader understanding and deeper insight into the complexity of children living with life-threatening illnesses provides a basis for the development of sensitive, humanistic quality nursing care for both the child and his/her family, this then enhances the potential for best practice for children living with a life-threatening illness.
Keywords: Children; Nurse-patient relations; Nursing; Chronically ill
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Watkins, B. E. (2006). Making meaning of a personal experience of discrimination in relation to a disability: An exploration of the literature.
Abstract: This paper explores the reaction of the author's colleagues when she returned to work disabled after recovering from an injury. In order to understand the new experience of disability and discrimination and to help answer what changed the behaviour of colleagues, the author considered evidence from the published literature. After considering many different models of disability, the social model of disability helped clarify and frame her own experience. Reflecting on this literature and personal experience, she suggests that there is acknowledgement that society's attitudes are changing slowly through governmental action and the activism of the disabled. However, she goes on to say, it is only through progressing education, experiencing disability, and continuing emancipatory research that progress will be made to release people with disabilities from their bonds of prejudice and oppression.
Keywords: People with disabilities; Nursing
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Wells, C. C. (1998). Our dreams. Ph.D. thesis, , .
Abstract: There has been a great deal written about the efforts of the nursing profession to achieve full professional status but little about individual nurses' aspirations in seeking this goal. A group of 6 co-researchers, myself included, looked at this perceived gap in nurses' dreams for the profession.The philosophical underpinnings of the research were feminist and reflected postmodern feminist and some radical feminist concepts. This philosophical positions guided our research to uncover the knowledge of how we actively construct ourselves into dominant social values. This means we were searching for how our dreams were constructed and how we reflected the values of society in the way we produced our dreams. Peace and Power (Chinn & Wheeler, 1989) was used to guide the group interaction and Memory-Work (Hague, 1987) for data collecting and analysis. The co-researchers wrote individual stories about their dreams for the nursing profession. Collective analysis of the stories occurred in order to uncover the was in which the dreams were constructed. From this collective analysis the individual co-researchers redrafted their stories. Each redraft contained new insights, motives and actions of ourselves and others, forgotten experiences and inconsistencies, as a means of identifying and questioning dominant ideologies. The aim was to move towards empowerment through making the unconscious conscious.Four common dreams emerged from analysis of the stories: the first was that individual nurses want full professional status and autonomy; the second asked the nurses to care and support each other; a high standard of patient and nursing-focussed care was the third dream; and the fourth was for continuing education and knowledge to be shared between nurses. Although the dreams were common across the group it was found that the dreams varied in their construction. The dreams for each group member reflected multiple realities that emerged from different contexts, influenced by historical and socially dominant cultural values.Through studying and theorising our dreams for the nursing profession, we increased our understanding of how they were shaped so that we were able to initiate change and make our dreams become a reality. This has implications for the nursing profession. We live our lives collectively, as nurses and women, as others influence our being and reality. Although others influence us, it is each individual nurse who contributes to actively construct her/himself in to the dominant cultural values held by society and therefore up to each individual to initiate change. If nurses are able to make dreams a reality then positive changes will occur within the profession; I.e. decreased staff turnover, increased morale and increased quality in patient care
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Williams, B. G. (2000). The primacy of the nurse in New Zealand 1960s-1990s: Attitudes, beliefs and responses over time. Ph.D. thesis, , .
Abstract: Exploring the past, and pulling ideas through to the present, to inform the future can make a valuable contribution to nurses and nursing in New Zealand. By gaining some understanding of the attitudes and beliefs nurses held, and how these influenced their responsiveness, we can learn what active responses might help inform our future. Nurses in New Zealand, as individuals and within the profession as a whole, reveal the primacy of the nurse – nurses who have made and can continue to make a difference to the health of the peoples of New Zealand. A hermeneutic process was used to interpret material, from international texts, national texts and public records over four decades, the 1960s to 1990s. This was supplemented and contrasted with material from twelve oral history participants. Analysis of the material led to the emergence of four themes: Nurses' decision-making: changes over time; An emerging understanding of autonomy and accountability; Nurses as a driving force; and Creating a nursing future. These four themes revealed an overall pattern of attitudes, beliefs and responses of the New Zealand registered nurse. The themes surfaced major revelations about the primacy of the nurse in New Zealand, nurses confident in their ability to take the opportunity, seize the moment, and effect change. The author suggests that the contribution this thesis makes to the discipline of nursing is an understanding of how the nurse actively constructs the scope of a professional response to the context. The author notes that the thesis demonstrates how nurses can learn from the past, that the attitudes and beliefs that underpin our active responses can either move us forward, or retard our progress. As nurses we can also learn that to move forward we need particular attitudes, beliefs and responses, that these are identifiable, and are key factors influencing our future, thus ensuring the continued primacy of the nurse.
Keywords: Nursing; History; Registered nurses
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Wilson, C. (1998). Reflections on care: Older people speak about experiences of nursing care in acute medical and surgical wards. Ph.D. thesis, , .
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Wilson, H. V. (2000). Surveillance or support: Divergent discourses in Plunket nursing practice. Ph.D. thesis, , .
Abstract: Plunket nurses are New Zealand child health nurses who work in the community with the families of new babies and preschool children. Their work is called child health surveillance and this is considered to involve routine and unproblematic practices which are generally carried out in homes and clinics in the context of a relationship with the child's mother (Ministry of Health 1996; Royal New Zealand Plunket Society 1997). However, evidence in the literature that surveillance can have implications for power relations throws doubts on official claims that the relationship between the mother and nurse operates as a partnership (Trout and Polaschek 1996). The purpose of this thesis was to explore the way in which surveillance is constituted within the discourses of Plunket nurses and to examine these discourses for any implications of unequal power relations. Foucauldian discourse theory and poststructuralism, which informed this thesis, provided the opportunity to challenge assumptions about power and knowledge in the child health context. Analysis of the discourses generated by interviews with five Plunket nurses revealed that, contrary to the claims in the official literature, the relationship between the Plunket nurse and the mother is not that of an equal partnership but is constituted in various and unexpected ways. It was through the nurses' discourses of surveillance that the power relations underpinning this relationship were surfaced. While these discourses suggested that many mothers who use the nursing service are actively involved on their own terms, there are a number of women for whom the surveillance activities of the nurse have been shown to be particularly intrusive (Mayall 1986; Clinton 1988; Bloor and McIntosh 1990; Knott and Latter 1999). It may be primarily this unwelcome surveillance which accounts for the considerable number of women who, the statistics show, cease using Plunket services particularly in the early months. It is perhaps for this reason that the nurses in this study locate themselves as being caught between divergent discourses of support and surveillance. Findings indicate that the resolution of this dilemma by abandoning surveillance practices might improve maternal satisfaction with the Plunket nursing service. The author concludes that a child health service responsive to mothers' stated needs rather than institutional requirements or the nurse's own agenda could lead to a more open and equal relationship between mother and nurse. This relationship would be likely to benefit mothers and babies and, at the same time, enhance both nursing practice and nurses' satisfaction with their work.
Keywords: Public health; Children; Community health nursing; Plunket
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Wilson, L. J. (2001). Futurist planning, not a shortage stopgap: Recruitment and retention of registered nurses in New Zealand. Ph.D. thesis, , .
Abstract: This literature review critically examines contributing factors to the current nursing shortage in New Zealand, centering on recruitment and retention of registered nurses. There is a dramatic widening between the supply of registered nurses and the demand for their services. All regions in New Zealand are reporting difficulty in hiring experienced and specialty nurses, and recruiting time is lengthening. This report suggests that the shortage is closely linked to factors in the nursing care environment. As a result of multiple factors during the centralising, cost-containing, acuity-increasing decade of the 1990s, the care environment has driven practising nurses out of acute care settings and discouraged new students from entering the profession. The availability of numerous alternative career opportunities has heightened the effect. Continuing causes to the non-selection of nursing as a profession are the influences of wage compression and limited career progression over the lifetime of the nurse, and insufficient orientation and mentoring of new nurses. Recent changes in the health care system have gone unevaluated and without oversight by nursing regulatory agencies – a situation not in the best interests of patients or nurses. A number of both literature-supported and resourceful approaches, including recommendations towards addressing the nursing shortage are proposed in this review.
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