Abstract: This paper explores the benefits of using education as one means to advance palliative care competence for nurses. A literature search was conducted revealing numerous educational initiatives and approaches have been developed to improve palliative care. Benefits include improved nursing knowledge, confidence and competence which directly correlate with improved patient outcomes. Accompanying the shift of palliative care from hospices to varied health care providers globally, are disparities in care provision. The literature suggests that reasons for such disparities include insufficient specialised palliative care knowledge and skills of nurses to effectively deliver this care within generalist health settings and lack of information for caregivers. In response, approaches aimed at improving palliative care include reviewing, redefining and implementing nursing roles, education courses, and theoretical frameworks to inform practice and improve outcomes. This paper focuses on the benefits of offering tailored palliative care education in work settings to improve patient care. One entrepreneurial education initiative aimed at advancing palliative nursing and which is currently being implemented in aged care contexts is shared. Careful strategic planning and working more collaboratively between all stakeholders, is strongly recommended in order to manage current and future challenges. Advancing palliative nursing care using appropriate education is achievable and beneficial but is fraught with complexities.

Abstract: This paper reports on research into print media representations of industrial disputes in Canterbury in 2001, when mental health nurses undertook a variety of strike actions after stalled negotiations with the local district health board. One response to these actions was the temporary reduction of many of the regions' mental health services. The researchers identified themes of juxtaposed but largely deprecatory images of both mental health nursing and of consumers of services. Some professional nursing voices were given print space during the strike; however, these were largely incorporated into existing discourses rather than offering a nursing viewpoint on the strike. The researchers suggest organisational efforts to focus on ways of ensuring that mental health nurses are seen as a legitimate authority by the media.

Abstract: This paper focuses on the history of Plunket nursing and Truby King's ideology and other dominant ideologies, during the years 1905 – 1920. To provide a context, the paper explores the development of a new nursing speciality – Plunket nursing, that became part of the backbone of a fledgling health system and the New Zealand nursing profession. Correspondingly, Truby King presented the country with a vision for improving infant welfare underpinned by his eugenics view of the world and his experimentation with infant feeding. The author argues that nurses were drawn to the work of the newly created Plunket Society and that the Society had lasting influence on the development of nursing in New Zealand.

Abstract: Sexual health clinics and the people who visit them commonly face stigma. Sexually transmitted infections have historically been used to divide people into “clean” and “dirty”. A grounded theory study of the work of sixteen nurses in six sexual health services in New Zealand was undertaken to explore the management of sexual health care. The study uncovered the psychological impact of negative social attitudes towards the people who visit sexual health services and to the staff who work there. Sexual health nurses manage the results of stigma daily and reveal in their interactions with clients a process of destigmatisation.

Abstract: This clinical case study takes an integrated approach to investigation and critical analysis of the complex physiological and pathophysiological treatment modalities instigated when a patient presents following acute traumatic head injury. A broad overview of the developmental physiology of the brain and an explanation of the mechanism of traumatic brain injury as it relates to alterations in cerebral blood flow, intracranial pressure and cerebral metabolism is presented. The author describes in narrative form the clinical presentation of a patient, her symptoms and initial treatment rationale. It concludes with analysis of the patients initial treatment priorities and symptom management during the first 48 hours of her care.

Abstract: This feminist study is an exploration of the subjectivity of women working as nurses within the gynaecological ward. Gynaecology has a long history as a unique area of concern to the health practitioners of any given period. However, the author suggests, recently with the development of modern gynaecology, this specialty has become based on male knowledge and male texts, women either as patients or nurses appear voiceless within this canon. Major tests within nursing mirror a medical construction of gynaecology, with the women involved in the discourse again absent from the literature. To explore the nurses' reality within the gynaecological ward, the author has undertaken a feminist interpretive study. To contribute to this debate the author drew on certain specific notions from feminist and postmodern epistemologies. These notions of the Other, difference, the body and discourse provided a unique way of viewing the practice of the nurses in this gynaecological setting. These epistemological concepts were then interwoven with feminist strategies to undertake the research. Through the process of feminist praxis, which included the author working alongside the nurses and conducting in-depth interviews, three areas of general concern to the nurses emerged. Firstly the relationships, that is their relationships with each other as nurses and with their women patients. Secondly, the difficulties inherent in nurses' practice in this setting due to the nature of the experiences of the women they were nursing. These difficulties arose in relation to two particular situations, nursing women experiencing a mid-trimester termination and nursing women with cancer. Thirdly, the relationship with/in the medical discourse and individual doctors which, according to nurses, had a major impact on their work. This study contributes to nursing knowledge by providing a forum for the voices of women as nurses, who nurse women in the gynaecological ward, to be heard. The author concludes that nursing and feminism have much to offer each other and share an emancipatory goal of positive action to support and assist people in their lives.