Abstract: The aim of this study was to describe the recruitment strategy and association between facility and staff characteristics and success of resident recruitment for the Promoting Independence in Residential Care (PIRC) trial. A global impression of staff willingness to facilitate research was gauged by research nurses, facility characteristics were measured by staff interview. Forty-one (85%) facilities and 682 (83%) residents participated, median age was 85 years (range 65-101), and 74% were women. Participants had complex health problems. Recruitment rates were associated (but did not increase linearly) with the perceived willingness of staff, and were not associated with facility size. Design effects from the cluster recruitment differed according to outcome. The recruitment strategy was successful in recruiting a large sample of people with complex comorbidities and high levels of functional disability despite perceptions of staff reluctance. Staff willingness was related to recruitment success.

Abstract: Draws on the author's doctoral thesis to examine the prejudices, paradoxes and possibilities inherent in nursing a person from a culture other than one's own.

Abstract: The purpose of this article is to review evidence about nurse workload, staffing, skill mix, turnover, and organisational characteristics' effect on outcomes; discuss methodological considerations in this research; discuss research initiatives currently under way; review policy initiatives in different countries; and make recommendations where more research is needed. Overall, an understanding of the relationships among nurse staffing and organisational climate to patient safety and health outcomes is beginning to emerge in the literature. Little is known about nursing turnover and more evidence is needed with consistent definitions and control of underlying patient characteristics. Research and policy initiatives in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United States are summarised.

Abstract: A brief critique and comment on the ethical implications of nurse researchers using methodology that involves soliciting personal experiences of patients and subsequently publishing them as stories.

Abstract: A paper presented as one of the four “Winter Lecture Series” hosted by the Nursing Studies unit of the Department of Education, Victoria University of Wellington. It is a critique of “ The Nursing Process” referred to commonly in nursing education programmes. It challenges the usefulness for nursing of the linear sequence of steps of assessment, diagnosis, planning, intervention and evaluation.

Abstract: Case study research, as a qualitative methodology, attracts some criticism, especially related to rigour, reliability and validity. A New Zealand-based study that explored complex phenomena – flexible learning for postgraduate nurses – provides a practical example of how the case study design can address these criticisms. Through describing the mixed methods used, different sources and methods of data collection, and data analysis, the process of achieving data quality and trustworthiness are highlighted.

Abstract: This inquiry is an in-depth exploration of one middle aged woman's experience of strife in chronic illness and her nursing care involving four nurses (including the author) in a community context over a three-year period. The study is praxiological in that the understanding achieved is derived from practice within a 'research as praxis' methodology positioned in the disciplinary perspective of nursing as a practical human science. Five methodological premises inform the research processes: reflexivity, dialogue, moral comportment, re-presentation in narrative and critique. They emanate from an eclectic ontological praxiology based on the research framework constructed from Gadamerian philosophical hermeneutics, components of other philosophical praxiologies evolved from an exploration of the practical discourse in philosophy and my preferred health and nursing assumptions. The research processes include researcher journalling, a summary of Sarah's nursing record and dialogical meetings with Sarah and the nurse co-participants. Using the research material a narrative is then co-constructed. The narrative is structured around what Sarah viewed as the overall nursing contribution to her care; the 'sharing of her burden of illness'. This, she maintained, enabled her to live safely in the community. Finally there occurs a critique of the narrative within a discursive framework. Three themes, embedded in particular discourses, emerged from the narrative both in Sarah's and the nurses' experience; paradox, moral meaning and metaphor. Sarah's experience is interpreted as taking place in the 'in-between space' of the disease and health-illness discourses. Two main concepts which depict the tension experienced in this space are the 'the ontological assault of illness' and 'entrapment in the disease discourse'. The nurses, in this instance, 'pushed the boundaries' to create a space for the nursing as a caring practice discourse on the margins of nursing as a functional service discourse. The author notes that, within the nursing as a caring practice space, many 'fine lines' were walked with Sarah. Walking the 'fine line' of an 'intense relationship' was seen as advanced nursing practice. The research highlights important implications for a person and/or families who live with chronic illness and practice and educational issues for advanced nurse practitioners. Further, it promotes praxiological methodologies as advantageous for expanding nursing knowledge.