Abstract: The author contends that health care and education have been colonised by 'The Audit Society' and managerialism. It is argued that under the benign guise of 'improving quality' and 'ensuring value for money' a more Orwellian purpose operates. Academics had to be transformed into a workforce of 'docile bodies', willing to scrutinise and survey themselves and their 'performance' as outcome deliverers and disciples of the new 'Qualispeak'. This paper critiques the current obsession with audit and performativity, and the constant and often pointless 'change' that is held to be so self-evidently 'a good thing' and identifies policy discussion as a linguistic wasteland.

Abstract: 'No suicide contracts' take the form of a 'guarantee of safety', along with a 'promise' to call specified persons if the suicidal ideation becomes unmanageable for the person concerned. They are commonly used in community crisis situations with suicidal people in New Zealand. This article describes and analyses the use of 'no suicide contracts' in these settings. It is argued that the theoretical base (transactional analysis) of the 'no suicide contract' is likely to be deleterious in the community crisis situation.

Abstract: Seeks to give voice to migrant nurses, using case-study methodology to highlight their experience of the competence assessment process. Distributes a questionnaire to a group of 22 newly-arrived IQNs, and conducts interviews with 10 IQNs who had been working in NZ for several years. Uncovers the motivations among the first group and reflections on the Competence Assessment Programme (CAP) among the second. Makes recommendations for CAP training based on the results of the study.

Abstract: Explores the experiences of Filipino and Indian internationally-qualified nurses who have immigrated to NZ to work as registered nurses in aged care. Conducts a small-scale study in a large retirement facility in urban NZ using a qualitative approach comprising semi-structured interviews and one focus group. Discusses the physical, social and professional transitions the nurses made to work in aged care in this country.

Abstract: In this report, the New Zealand Nurses Organisation (NZNO) releases the findings from its first-ever members' employment survey. The questionnaire, based on the United Kingdom?s Royal College of Nurse?s annual survey (which has been running for 21 years) covered core employment issues: employment agreements, hours, pay, job change, along with demographic details, as well as questions around plans for and perceptions of working life for over 800 NZNO members.

Abstract: A clinical audit was undertaken to assess the diagnostic skills of the nurse colposcopist measuring colposcopy: histology: cytology correlation. At National Women's Health the first New Zealand nurse colposcopist training programme was developed in 2000. A retrospective audit of the colposcopy clinical records was performed during the nurse's training programme between July 2000 and March 2002. An 82% (82/100) histology: cytology: colposcopy correlation was achieved by the nurse in the third phase of her training programme. The results are comparable with other reported studies involving medical and nurse colposcopists. Expertise in colposcopy examination can be incorporated into the broader role of a Nurse Practitioner working in the area of women's health.

Abstract: This thesis concerns an investigation of the tripartite arrangements between the government, the nursing and the medical sectors in New Zealand over the period 1984 to 2001 with a particular focus on primary health care. The start point is the commencement of the health reforms instituted by the Fourth New Zealand Labour Government of 1984. The thesis falls within a framework of critical inquiry, specifically, the methodology of depth hermeneutics (Thompson, 1990), a development of critical theory. The effects of political and economic policies and the methodologies of neo-liberal market reform are examined together with the concept of collaboration as an ideological symbolic form, typical of enterprise culture. The limitations of economic models such as public choice theory, agency theory and managerialism are examined from the point of view of government strategies and their effects on the relationships between the nursing and medical professions. The influence of American health care policies and their partial introduction into primary health care in New Zealand is traversed in some detail, together with the experiences of health reform in several other countries. Post election 1999, the thesis considers the effect of change of political direction consequent upon the election of a Labour Coalition government and concludes that the removal of the neo-liberal ethic by Labour may terminate entrepreneurial opportunities in the nursing profession. The thesis considers the effects of a change to Third Way political direction on national health care policy and on the medical and nursing professions. The data is derived from various texts and transcripts of interviews with 12 health professionals and health commentators. The histories and current relationships between the nursing and medical professions are examined in relation to their claims to be scientific discourses and it is argued that the issue of lack of recognition as a scientific discourse is at the root of nursing's perceived inferiority to medicine. This is further expanded in a discussion at the end of the thesis where the structure of the two professions is compared and critiqued. A conclusion is drawn that a potential for action exists to remedy the deficient structure of nursing. The thesis argues that this is the major issue which maintains nursing in the primary sector in a perceived position of inferiority to medicine. The thesis also concludes that the role of government in this triangular relationship is one of manipulation to bring about necessary fundamental change in the delivery of health services at the lowest possible cost without materially strengthening the autonomy of the nursing or the medical professions.