Abstract: Explores registered nurses' (RN) experiences, knowledge and practice of kangaroo care (KC) for preterm infants. Highlights factors promoting or hindering the uptake of the practice in two neonatal intensive care units in both the Canterbury and Southland DHBs. Undertakes a qualitative, semi-structured interview-based study with 14 RNs highlighting the use of KC in everyday clinical practice.

Abstract: Investigates programmes to facilitate the transition to home for babies who have had lengthy admission to Neonatal Intensive Care Units. Provides an overview of the transition services at four sites visited in the US and Canada. Highlights the common elements among all four programmes and identifies the components of quality transition services. Evaluates their clinical effectiveness. Part of the Margaret May Blackwell Scholarship Reports series.

Abstract: This research undertaken by a nurse working with bereaved families, aimed to explore how grandparents, parents and health/bereavement professionals constructed grandparent bereavement when an infant grandchild died unexpectedly. The 26 participants, living in New Zealand and the United Kingdom, included 16 grandparents and 6 parents from 11 families, in addition to three health/bereavement professionals. A constructivist inquiry informed by writings on nursing, storying and postmodernism was used. Through an exploration of the methodological and ethical issues that arose and were addressed during the study, this work adds to knowledge of how constructivist inquiry can be used in nursing and bereavement research. In addition, the context of this research as a partnership with multiple family members contributes to the ongoing debate about whether participation in bereavement research may be harmful or therapeutic. Conversations in this research formed a series of interviews and letters, which led to the development of a joint construction and each individual's story. A grandchild's death was constructed as a challenge which grandparents faced, responded to and then managed the changes that arose from the challenge. The context of their bereavement was seen as underpinned by their relationship as “parents of the adult parents” of the grandchild who died. This meant that grandparents placed their own pain second to their wish to support and “be with” the parents. Outside the family was where many grandparents found friends, colleagues or their community forgot, or chose not to acknowledge, their bereavement. This work shows how some grandparents help to create a space within the family which maintains a continuing relationship with the grandchild who died.