Abstract: Accountability has been described by nurses as an elusive concept or myth. The author suggests that this elusive concept or myth can partly be attributed to accountability becoming visible usually following a critical incident. The overall goal of this project is to provide nurses working within mental health with the incentive to raise their awareness and explore what their roles and responsibilities are within the accountability process in a more positive scenario. This research paper reports on an exploration of the key components of accountability within the New Zealand mental health environment. It describes significant influences that affect accountability. This is achieved by the means of a literature review, sharing of the author's experience of being involved in a national inquiry, and the adaptation of a who what and how framework, in conjunction with a diagram displaying accountability levels and lines for mental health nurses. The author points out that the domains of accountability for nurses will continue to evolve and expand but what remains important is that consumers have access to good quality mental health care.

Abstract: This study uncovers the experience of being ethical from the perspective of pre-registration nursing students. Using the qualitative methodology of phenomenology, specifically that outlined by van Manen, it seeks to show how students act ethically within everyday practice. Providing nursing care is an ethically charged undertaking and despite ethics taking an increasingly important place in nursing education, the author suggests that few studies show the contextual nature of ethical practice from the perspective of students. This study aims to partly redress this situation. In this study the author has interpreted the experiences of twelve pre-registration students. Using seventeen stories shared by the student participants, the author's personal understandings and literature, the meaning of being ethical has been illuminated. Three themes emerged from the interpretation. These include 'keeping things 'nice'', 'being true to yourself' and 'being present'. This thesis asserts that the overarching theme within these themes is that of 'being constrained and enabled'. Being constrained shows the experiences of students as they live through the tensions of being and doing as they strive to be ethical. Being enabled shows the experience of self-determination. Finally the study maintains that the shaping of ethical practice for undergraduate students may be enhanced when their reality is positioned and valued within educational processes.

Abstract: This paper examines the difficulties health professionals face daily when providing care for the mentally disordered offender in the court environment. The role of the court nurse is to provide care for people with mental health needs in the court and health professionals can find this a restrictive environment to work in. This is mainly due to the court's legal processes which are designed to punish rather than offer therapeutic alternatives. By advocating for the mentally disordered offender, the court nurse ensures the court is aware of an individual's mental health needs, thus reducing the prospect of inappropriate sentencing, and the associated stigmatisation that may occur as a result of a criminal conviction.

Abstract: The focus of this research was to explore the migrant family's experience in palliative care. In writing this thesis, the author notes that it became evident that cultural safety was a connection that warranted further study in relation to end-of-life nursing care as was illustrated by the intergenerational case study of this migrant family in New Zealand. The use of the case study method of qualitative research enabled the voice of the migrant to be heard and the story of the migrant family's experience to be showcased. The uniqueness of this family's palliative care experience was around the religious and cultural needs and migration as a process of transition from a previous society to a new one. Palliative care was defined by the family approach with strong community support and empowered by culturally safe and appropriate nursing practice. End-of-life illness is a time when cultural perspectives are challenged for patients and their families and religious and cultural practices take on a new priority, regardless of how they have lived life previously. As a migrant nurse living and working in the New Zealand context, the author identifies as an important factor, the nurse-patient interaction as an encounter between two cultural perspectives, the patient's and the nurse as bearer of her own culture. Acknowledging this factor is an important step in developing a culturally safe approach to practice, an approach that proved to be a major ingredient in planning and caring for this patient and his family in end-of-life illness. This study and thesis explores the underpinnings of culturally safe palliative nursing care and identified 'reflexive bracketing' as a useful practice in the process.