Abstract: There is concern over the standards of nursing practice skill acquisition in undergraduate programs. One of the issues relevant to this is which of the multitude of nursing practice skills to include in an undergraduate program. Previous research by Alavi, Loh and Reilly (1991) has been modified and used in clinical settings in the New Zealand context in order to address this concern. Competency level of the most important skills identified by clinicians was also sought in order to aid development of a skill curriculum for Whitireia Community Polytechnic. There is a strong theoretical support for the preparation of student nurses in skills laboratories prior to clinical learning experience in order to maximise learning. Further directions for study are covered with discussion of the implications for teaching from the research findings

Abstract: A Heideggerian Hermeneutical Analysis (HHA) approach was used for a study of returning registered nurse students (RRNS) from a nursing/health management context. In essence a descriptive interpretive study the intent has been to unveil the common meanings embedded in the lived experience of RRNS return to formal (advanced) studies. The phenomenon or issue of interest was pursued in the form of a question: What is meaningful and significant for participant RRNS in their everyday world on re-engaging in formal (advanced) nursing studies?Research from the RRNS viewpoint is scarce, so the focus of the study was to understand what RRNS themselves found to be the highlights of the experience. Participants included RRNS coming from a management background and, therefore, very much at the cutting edge of rapid and continuing change in health care provision. In addition to personal and professional reasons for returning to study, what the narratives disclosed was the compelling need experienced by the RRNS to increase understanding of changing requirements in the workplace. They looked for new possibilities to transform management of nursing/health services and for learning experiences favorable to that purpose. A key aspect of their concern related to the interactive nature of their lived experience as a RRNS with the entire context of their everyday world, that is, with the connections and relations between the study-work-homespace.Fourteen RRNS from an established university nursing programme participated in an expended non-structured interviews lasting 60 – 90 minutes. The interviews were held during 1993 in places selected by participants, some in the home but mostly in the work setting. With the consent of the participants interviews were audiotaped and then transcribed. The texts (transcriptions) were analysed hermeneutically using Heideggerian phenomenology, a particular tradition of philosophy whose concern is the meaning of Being. The concern is to make visible participants' experience of their 'world'. In this instance, it was the everyday 'world' of the participant RRNS and the lived meanings of what they experienced on return to formal (advanced) studies. Hence everyday lived experience is the focus of attention in Heiedeggerian phenomenology. In this research approach what is sought is understanding not explanation. It is a premise of phenemenology that, in general, an understanding of the meaning and significance of the lived experience can be required from the 'things' (the phenomena under study) themselves. Approaching a participant as an expert by virtue of directly experiencing the phenomenon, is basic to phenomenology. Hermeneutic analysis of the texts of the participant RRNS affirmed the authenticity of those assumptions.The study revealed several common or major themes, two relational themes and one constitutive pattern were identified through the process of textual interpretation. The constitutive pattern expressing the full complexity of the relations and connections between the themes, was found to be present in all fourteen texts; the nature of a constitutive pattern being 'that it's always there'. The constitutive pattern 'Nursing is Dwelling in Thoughtful Concern as Context Calls Forth', emerged as the major finding of the study. This pattern witnesses to the pragmatism that is inherent in nursing and commonly found in nurses' responses to the challenges presented by continuing and rapid change. For the participant RRNS nursing had become a way of engaging their energies in the workplace as appropriate to a given place, time and culture. The two relational themes accent particular aspects of the constitutive pattern. 'Nursing' is a whole pile of things'; and 'Curriculum: Reflective Openness' reveal the inherent meanings of the constitutive pattern. Firstly, that nursing is diverse in practice and has many dimensions; and,, secondly, that a curriculum befitting the diversity of nursing requires us to constantly challenge ad test the learning experiences we provide for RRNS.The fourteen participants traversed diverse pathways to acquire the understanding and skills required for altered health care structures. Adopting new relationships and 'leaping-ahead' (Heidegger, 1962), to be able to see the whole picture of what was being experienced in nursing/health care, reveals the RRNS becoming-as interpreters for both colleagues and clients. Leaping-ahead is reflective of thoughtful concern as the pattern of responding to presenting need. This way of living a life transforms work. The participant RRNS disclose that, dwelling in such a way in nursing/health work opens up a future of possibilities which brings all the presenting needs into focus. Sharing the story of their lifeworld as RRNS, the participants have exemplified the ' reflective openness' Senge(1990) advocates, as being a pre-requisite for 'learning organisations'. Contemporary oganisations require us to challenge our own thinking as well as being free to speak our minds ('participant openness'). Since, however much we value our daily life practices and understandings, they need to be 'always subject to test and improvement'. In effect, what the participants have bestowed on us is that, within the framework of a curriculum for RRNS and the content learning of a given course, we must generate a process of learning amenable to both individual and group requirements

Abstract: This research began in 1995 with an e-mail survey of psychiatric / mental health (PMH) nurses who belonged to an e-mail discussion group. The original aims were to describe how PMH used and learned to use the internet, the benefits to their work, and how they saw the internet affecting their work in future. Data were analysed using content analysis techniques and findings published in a number of forums. In 1999 another survey using the same e-mail list was undertaken to explore how things had changed in terms of internet use and peoples visions of how the internet is likely to impact on nursing in the future. These data are the subject of continuing analysis

Abstract: The report of an exploratory study of current approaches to case management by nurses as requested by the College of Nurses Aotearoa New Zealand. It revealed different interpretations of nurse case management around New Zealand and in the US, UK and Australia. They differed according to the conceptualisation of health service design and delivery in the respective country. Case management in New Zealand in general presented nurse care management roles as an interface between the mangement of health service delivery and the peculiarities of the healthcare people received, holding the potential for achieving tailored, patient-centred care outcomes.

Abstract: This conference paper outlines the nature of nursing research developing the distinct knowledge for nursing practice. It is presented as a cumulative process of knowledge development about health, practice and service delivery. Nursing research is illustrated by tracing a personal trajectory of research over 25 years that addressed questions relating to and derived from the practice of nursing.

Abstract: The objective of this research was to determine aspects of hospice based palliative care which patients described as being important and valued. This research is to be the basis of future work on the development of consumer generated quality indicators. Palliative care managers could use these to evaluate hospice based care, and provide output measures for health providers. The methodology used by the researcher was qualitative descriptive informed by phenomenology. Six recently discharged hospice patients who had at least two episodes of palliative care were interviewed about their experience of care. The resulting data, after reflection, formed a representation; the circle of care. This included aspects of valued care generated by actions of the interdisciplinary staff, and other aspects of care generated within the palliative care environment which the patient perceived as being meaningful and important. In conclusion, the reality of people receiving palliative care is characterised by a number of supportive traditional and non-traditional aspects of caring. Although some characteristics have been described within general health and the palliative care literature, some appear to have been generated by these particular participants as part their reality. The researcher believes that the resulting representation of care requires further research in other palliative care settings. The process of interviewing terminally ill people although not without concern to the interviewer, and inherently difficult for the patients, appeared to allow the patient to tell the story of both their illness and care