Woods, M. (1999). A nursing ethic: The moral voice of experienced nurses. Nursing Ethics, 6(5), 423–433.
Abstract: This article presents discussion on some of the main findings of a recently completed study on nursing ethics in New Zealand. An interpretation of a nurse's story taken from the study is offered and suggestions are made for nursing ethics education.
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Butters, K. J. (2008). A qualitative study of the ethical practice of newly-graduated nurses working in mental health. Master's thesis, Massey University, .
Abstract: Presents a qualitative exploration of factors that influence eight newly-graduated nurses as they endeavour to practice ethical mental health nursing. Gathers data from in-depth interviews with the participants, analysed using a thematic analysis method. Considers aspects of the social and political context within which the participants are situated.
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Wareham, P., McCallin, A., & Diesfeld, K. (2005). Advance directives: The New Zealand context. Nursing Ethics, 12(4), 349–359.
Abstract: Advance directives convey consumers' wishes about accepting or refusing future treatment if they become incompetent. There are associated ethical issues for health practitioners and this article considers the features that are relevant to nurses. In New Zealand, consumers have a legal right to use an advance directive that is not limited to life-prolonging care and includes general health procedures. Concerns may arise regarding a consumer's competence and the document's validity. Nurses need to understand their legal and professional obligations to comply with an advance directive. What role does a nurse play and what questions arise for a nurse when advance directives are discussed with consumers? This article considers the cultural dimensions, legal boundaries, consumers' and providers' perspectives, and the medical and nursing positions in New Zealand.
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Connor, M. (2003). Advancing nursing practice in New Zealand: A place for caring as a moral imperative. Nursing Praxis in New Zealand, 19(3), 13–21.
Abstract: The author argues that the framework of competencies required for advanced nursing practice should include a moral dimension in order to take account of relational as well as functional competencies. There is no recognition of the relational competencies required to practice caring as a moral imperative. The Nursing Council of New Zealand expects that nurses will practise 'in accord with values and moral principles'. The paper explores the history of two nursing discourses, that which sees nursing as a functional occupation and that which emphasises the relationship between nurse and patient. A practice exemplar is used to demonstrate positive outcomes from advanced relational competencies.
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Carter, L. J. (2010). Am I doing the right thing?: Plunket Nurses' experience in making decisions to report suspected child abuse and neglect. Master's thesis, Waikato Institute of Technology, Hamilton.
Abstract: Studies the experiences of Plunket Nurses reporting suspected child abuse and/or neglect in uncertain situations, using hermeneutic phenomenology. Selects a purposeful sample to ensure participants could provide rich data through semi-structured, face-to-face and recorded telephone interviews. Guides data analysis using the framework developed by van Manen to formulate meaning from participant experiences.
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White, G. E., & Su, H. - R. (2000). Am I dying, nurse? Nursing Praxis in New Zealand, 15(1), 33–40.
Abstract: This paper addresses the concept of truth, and debates who should tell it and how it should be told. It explores the cultural aspects of knowing the truth about dying. The question of whether nurses have a moral obligation to tell the truth is explored, and suggests the lack of New Zealand research in this area should be addressed.
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Lewer, D. (1999). Analysing the Mental Health Act. Kai Tiaki: Nursing New Zealand, 5(8), 14–16.
Abstract: Changes brought by the Mental Health Act (MHA) to clinical practice, and some of the problems it has created for nurses, are examined in this article. Compulsory assessment and treatment orders (CATO) and the role of Duly Authorised Officers (DAO), and moral dilemmas that can arise as a consequence of CATOs used by DAOs are examined. The requirement for DAOs to act as patient advocates and to safeguard cultural beliefs are highlighted. The MHA promotes self responsibility and a treatment philosophy rather than detention of the mentally ill.
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Woods, M. (2001). Balancing rights and duties in 'life and death' decision making involving children: A role for nurses? Nursing Ethics, 8(5), 397–408.
Abstract: This article examines a growing number of cases in New Zealand in which parents and guardians are required to make life and death ethical decisions on behalf of their seriously ill child. Increasingly, nurses and other practitioners are expected to more closely inform, involve and support the rights of parents or guardians in such situations. Differing moral and ethical values between the medical team and parents or guardians can lead to difficult decision making situations. The article analyses the moral parameters, processes, outcomes and ethical responses that must be considered when life and death ethical decisions involving children are made. It concludes with a recommendation that nurses should be recognised as perhaps the most suitable of all health care personnel when careful mediation is needed to produce an acceptable moral outcome in difficult ethical situations.
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McCallum, C. (2002). Balancing technology with the art of caring. Kai Tiaki: Nursing New Zealand, 8(7), 21–23.
Abstract: The author examines the role of technology in high dependency units, which can alienate nurses from patients. The ethical issues raised by technology are reviewed, particularly the allocation of expensive interventions, and the implications of life-sustaining technology on the application of informed consent. The author highlights the challenge facing nurses to bridge the gap between medical technology and humane caring.
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Johns, S. (2004). Being constrained and enabled: A study of pre-registration nursing students ethical practice. Ph.D. thesis, , .
Abstract: This study uncovers the experience of being ethical from the perspective of pre-registration nursing students. Using the qualitative methodology of phenomenology, specifically that outlined by van Manen, it seeks to show how students act ethically within everyday practice. Providing nursing care is an ethically charged undertaking and despite ethics taking an increasingly important place in nursing education, the author suggests that few studies show the contextual nature of ethical practice from the perspective of students. This study aims to partly redress this situation. In this study the author has interpreted the experiences of twelve pre-registration students. Using seventeen stories shared by the student participants, the author's personal understandings and literature, the meaning of being ethical has been illuminated. Three themes emerged from the interpretation. These include 'keeping things 'nice'', 'being true to yourself' and 'being present'. This thesis asserts that the overarching theme within these themes is that of 'being constrained and enabled'. Being constrained shows the experiences of students as they live through the tensions of being and doing as they strive to be ethical. Being enabled shows the experience of self-determination. Finally the study maintains that the shaping of ethical practice for undergraduate students may be enhanced when their reality is positioned and valued within educational processes.
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McClunie-Trust, P. (2000). Body boundaries and discursive practices in life threatening illness: Narratives of the self. Ph.D. thesis, , .
Abstract: This thesis tells a story from within and between the boundaries of my professional work as a nurse and my private life as the wife of a patient with life threatening illness. The events related in the thesis are told using a technique I have called writing back to myself, where my own journals and stories of the experience of living with life threatening illness provide data for analysis. The reader is invited to participate in these representations and to consider the potential for the skilful practice of nursing which may be read in the stories, and the analysis I have developed from them. I have developed the theoretical and methodological positionings for the thesis from the work of Foucault (1975,1979,1982,1988), Deleuze (1988), Ellis (1995), Richardson (1998) and other writers who utilise genealogical or narrative approaches. The analysis of my own stories in the thesis explores the philosophical and contextual positionings of the nurse as a knowledge worker through genealogies of practice and the specific intellectual work of the nurse. Local and contextual epistemologies are considered as ways of theorising nursing practice through personal knowledge, which is surfaced through the critical analysis of contextual positionings and the process of writing as inquiry.
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Cleary, H. (2001). Caring and bioethics: Perspectives, predicaments and possibilities. Ph.D. thesis, , .
Abstract: This thesis presents an explorative study of the place of caring in bioethics. Through the examination of various sources of literature from the disciplines of nursing, feminist theory and ethics, and bioethics, a case is developed that argues for a valid respected place for caring, as an ethic of care in bioethical decision-making. The case is built by providing evidence to support the fundamental importance of caring to human life, health, relationships, and survival at the broad societal level. This is presented from the feminist and nursing perspectives, along with a critique of the negative aspects of caring practices. The next stage of the case presents a layout of the discipline of bioethics, using an historical perspective to illuminate the influences of bioethics' deep past, as it still affects the discipline in the present. The development of contemporary bioethics' current status is presented along with critiques from bioethicists themselves, and nursing and feminist theory and ethics. In the case at this point, from a bioethical perspective, two major predicaments appear to prevent an ethic of care obtaining a valid place in ethical decision-making in bioethics. These are the justice/care duality, and the conflict between different conceptions of care and autonomy. The bioethical objections and arguments put forward regarding these predicaments are examined and refuted, and the author suggests a case is established for the inclusion of an ethic of care in bioethical decision-making.
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Jackson, H. (2001). Compassion: A concept exploration. Nursing Praxis in New Zealand, 17(1), 16–23.
Abstract: This paper explores the nature of compassion and posits it as a moral virtue that requires the nurse to act in the presence of suffering. Compassion is defined in relation to suffering and reciprocity, and distinguished from sympathy and pity.
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Spence, D., & Smythe, E. (2007). Courage as integral to advancing nursing practice. Nursing Praxis in New Zealand, 23(2), 43–55.
Abstract: This paper focuses on the illumination of courage in nursing. The authors suggest it is a fundamental component of nursing, yet it is seldom mentioned or recognised in the literature, or supported in practice. Data from a hermeneutic analysis of nurses' practice stories is integrated with literature to assist deeper understanding of the meaning of courage in contemporary nursing practice. The purpose is to make visible a phenomenon that needs to be actively fostered if nursing is to effectively contribute to an improved health service.
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Harding, T. (2013). Cultural safety : a vital element for nursing ethics. Nursing Praxis in New Zealand, 29(1), 4–11.
Abstract: Argues that the globalisation of nursing and the internationalisation of nursing education potentially leads to the values underpinning nursing curricula coming into conflict with those of other cultures. Suggests the need to examine the values inherent in ethics education in nursing, proposing that cultural safety is incorporated into it in an increasingly multi-cultural nursing environment.
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