Abstract: Evaluates the aids and barriers for perioperative teams in functioning effectively, preventing adverse events, and fostering a culture of safety. Undertakes an integrative review of the literature. Highlights the role of theatre nurses in situational awareness (SA), running the theatre and assuming leadership of the team.

Abstract: Analyses and synthesises the evaluation reports of the clinical leadership training programmes of Nga Manukura o Apopo, the national Maori nursing and midwifery workforce development programme. Considers how the marae-based Kaupapa Maori training approach contributed to the outcomes. Examines clinical leadership, recruitment, professional development and governance.

Abstract: The aim of this cross-cultural study was to collect stories of difference and fairness within nursing. The study used a life history methodology informed by feminist theory and critical social theory. Life story interviews were conducted with 26 women nurses of varying racial, cultural, sexual identity, and specialty backgrounds in the United States (n = 13) and Aotearoa New Zealand (n = 13). Participants reported having some understanding of social justice issues. They were asked to reflect on their experience of difference and fairness in their lives and specifically within nursing. Their stories were analysed using a life history immersion method. Nursing remains attached to the ideological construction of the “White good nurse.” Taken-for-granted ideals privilege those who fit in and marginalise those who do not. The nurses who experienced discrimination and unfairness, survived by living in two worlds, learned to live in contradiction, and worked surreptitiously for social justice. For nurses to contribute to changing the systems and structures that maintain health disparities, the privilege of not seeing difference and the processes of mainstream violence that support the construction of the “White good nurse” must be challenged. Nurses need skills to deconstruct the marginalising social processes that sustain inequalities in nursing and healthcare. These hidden realities-racism, sexism, heterosexism, and other forms of discrimination-will then be made visible and open to challenge.

Abstract: The New Zealand nursing workforce is increasingly made up of overseas trained nurses. There is extensive literature from elsewhere in the world on the impacts of international nurse recruitment and migration on individual nurses and on health services. The literature also portrays evidence of abuse and exploitation, yet few studies are available relating to the experiences of migrant nurses in New Zealand. This research conducted a survey of overseas-trained nurses, specifically focusing on those nurses for whom English is not their first language, to understand the experiences and factors affecting migrant registered nurses in New Zealand. Given the importance to the New Zealand workforce of overseas-trained nurses, this research highlighted that more warnings and advice regarding recruitment agencies and information about nursing in New Zealand and the Nursing Council requirements for registration should be made available to nurses prior to their migration. Nursing leaders should be particularly alert to any evidence of bullying or discrimination based on race or overseas origin.

Abstract: It has been shown that intensive management of diabetes with type 2 diabetes is effective and has led to wider use of insulin. The conversion of patients from oral medication to insulin is usually managed in primary care. The study discussed here aimed to explore how patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) perceived insulin. The study was conducted in 2009 in an urban general practice in a large town in New Zealand with more than 300 patients with type 2 diabetes. A qualitative study was conducted with face-to-face interviews with 13 participants. The question focused on insulin initiation, lifestyle and routine. The transcribed responses were subject to thematic anaylsis. Interviews showed participants felt restricted by the prospect and eventuality of the routine and restrictions of being on insulin. Results show there needs to be a greater emphasis on the disease being progressive. This study provides the ground work for developing resources that will benefit patients with T2DM.

Abstract: On September 3, 2010, the night nurses at Christchurch Hospital in New Zealand went to work unaware of the personal and professional challenges that were about to unfold in the following hours. This paper, derived from the results of a phenomenological research project, explores the issues that helped and hindered nurses during that night shift and in the three days following the 7.1 earthquake, which struck in the early morning of September 4, around 20km from the hospital. This narrative article allows the world to hear the voices of Christchurch nurses who were providing care in the first 24 hours and during the three days following that major seismic event.

Abstract: This article reviews the recent evidence underpinning the New Zealand Ministry of Health's recommendation to offer free annual influenza vaccination to people aged six months to 64 years who have certain chronic medical conditions (eligible younger people). These results show there is relatively limited research providing evidence underpinning recommendations for influenza vaccination among people aged <65 years. These results show that there is a need to increase nurses' awareness of the rationale behind the New Zealand influenza vaccination policy, that this may in turn increase their willingness to recommend influenza vaccine to more eligible younger people.