Abstract: An existential phenomenological approach is used to study the experience of six adults hospitalised with acute mental illness which they considered contribute to the stress of, or coping with mental illness. The phenomenological research methods used is described. The analysis of the data reveals that consumers of acute mental health care view being controlled as contributing to the stress of mental illness, and caring as contributing to them coping with mental illness. The implications of these findings for nursing practice and further research are discussed

Abstract: A telephone survey was conducted with 61 randomly selected patients who had been admitted to the cardiology service with an Myocardial infarction but did not attend the cardiac rehabilitation programme. Findings show that many patients who would benefit from cardiac rehabilitation are denied access because it is only open to patients who have Myocardial Infarctions. Only a small percentage of MI admissions attend rehabilitation the main reason being patients are not informed the service is available. Women are under represented among rehabilitation participants and lack of transport is a major factor inhibiting women from attending. Improvements in referral systems and follow up are recommended

Abstract: The paper reviews, as a case history, the progress (to 1980) of the development of a Nursing Manpower Plan for Wellington Hospital Board.The main features of protocol are delineated.The prime requirement for the development of a manpower plan are perceived of as having available, reliable, quantifiable and comparable data.Discussion indicates the methods of collection, analysis and use (actual and potential) of quantifiable data.The use of quantifiable data indicated the potential, for the use of “nursing hours per patient per day”

Abstract: This is a piece of philosophy research and covers the following matters; the nature of privacy, Why it is morally significant, nature of health research, the privacy issues in health research and finally some suggestions as to ways privacy in health research may be preserved

Abstract: Objective; The objective of this study is to determine if attending a nursing education session on menopause has an impact on women's management of their menopausal symptoms and consequently their quality of life for women aged 40 to 60 years. The hypothesis is that women attending education sessions will start or increase health promotion activities which will reduce menopausal symptoms and thus improve their quality of life.Design and method; Two questionaires were given to the women on the day of the education sessions and another questionnaire was sent to the participant three months later. The sample of 30 completed questionnaires includes feedback from Pacific Island women. A combination of quantitative and qualitative methods were used. The measure of quality of life has been based on the level of impact of menopausal on each women's life before the education session and three months later.Results; Initial analysis indicates that diet, exercise and time out were most commonly reported health activities utilized for relief of symptoms with HRT and herbal remedies used less often. Three months after the education session there was a significant reduction in the impact of symptoms in most categories with 140 incidences of total disappearance of symptoms, 24 incidences of reduction of symptoms, 17 incidences of symptoms increasing while 36 symptoms remained unchanged. Only one woman reported that she continued to have no control over her symptoms while the rest of the sample indicated that they had some or total control. The most common changes in health promotion activities were reduction in caffeine, exercise, relaxation and lubrication with sex. Herbal, homeopathy, dietary and hormone treatment rated low in health activities after the three months.Conclusion; Initial analysis indicates that menopausal symptoms has significantly improved for the majority of women who attended the nursing education session

Abstract: The aim of this study is to investigate whether clinicians consider women have different needs to men. To identify what specific treatment clinicians provided for women with alcohol and drug problems and ascertain whether various clinician variable, are elated to differences in beliefs and treatment provision.The questionnaire items for this study were included in the National Centre for Treatment Development (Alcohol, Drug & Addiction) New Zealand wide telephone survey of alcohol and drug clinicians. Independent interviewers surveyed 217 clinicians. Clinicians were first asked whether they believed women with alcohol and drug problems have differing treatment needs to men. Clinicians responses were compared with various clinician Socio-demographic characteristics (gender, age, ethnicity, professional group, years working in the alcohol and drug treatment field, work setting, qualifications/courses attended, location, and personal alcohol use).Key findings are that almost a quarter (24%) of the clinicians surveyed did not believe that women have different treatment needs to men. However the majority (76%) of clinicians do believe that women have different treatment needs to men. Furthermore findings from this study suggest that significant differences exist in relation to clinicians' practice in new Zealand in relation to clinician, gender, work setting (Crown Health Enterprise, outpatient and residential), and gender mix of caseload

Abstract: Current New Zealand health policy encourages collaborative health promotion in all sectors of health service delivery. The integrated approach to the acute management of coronary heart disease in a coronary care unit, combining medical therapy and lifestyle change, supports clinical health promotion. The aim of this study was to use the grounded theory approach to discover the main concerns of nurses' promoting health in an acute coronary care setting and to explain the processes that nurses used to integrate health promotional activities into their practice. Seventeen registered nurses from three coronary care units within a large metropolitan city in New Zealand were interviewed. Data were constantly compared and analysed using Glaser's emergent approach to grounded theory.The main concern for nurses promoting health within coronary care was ritualistic practice. In this study, ritualistic practice concerns the medically-based protocols, routines, language and technology that drives nursing practice in coronary care. This concern was resolved via the socio-cultural process of attitudinal shifting that occurs over time involving three stages. The three conceptual categories, environmental pressures, practice reality and responsive action are the main components of the theory of attitudinal shifting. In environmental pressures, nurses experience a tension between specialist medically-dominated nursing practice and the generalist nursing role of promoting health. In practice reality, nurses become aware that the individual needs of patients are not being met. This causes role conflict until the nurse observes colleagues who role model possibilities for practice, working with patients to promote health. Responsive action sees the nurse engaging in self-development, also focusing on the nurse-patient relationship, thereby enabling active patient involvement in individual health-promoting decisions. The author suggests that the findings from this research have implications for nursing practice and education. With the increasing specialisation in nursing practice, these findings may be of interest to nurses working in delegated medical roles where the reality of everyday practice precludes nurses from undertaking their essential nursing role. Health care facilities also need to ensure that there are opportunities for the personal and professional development of nursing staff. The place of health promotion within nursing undergraduate curricula needs to be examined, as many nurses found that they were ill prepared for undertaking health promotional activities.

Abstract: The aim of this study is to analyse the discourses drawn upon by community paediatric nurses in relation to children's rights to health. The philosophy of Michel Foucault has been used to underpin the analysis of the interviews and exemplars of five experienced community nurses, revealing conflicting power relationships and discourses. Rights are formalised morality and so from a children's rights perspective, discourses reflect both the moral and ethical positions of the nurses. Children are constructed as developing human beings whose moral status gradually changes and who, through a lack of developmental autonomy, entrust their decision-making to their representatives (parents and caregivers) as their trustees. Rights are correlative with the obligations and duties toward children by both families and society. Society constructs legislative and politically organised structures to govern raising children because children are an intrinsic social concern. Whilst representing society's interest in children's rights to health, nurses in the home act as a conduit for multiple governing structures. The nurses in this study construct their “truths” and knowledge about children's health rights from nursing, medicine, law, education, and social policy. However, the values of individual parents can conflict with universal values for children's health and wellbeing. Therefore representing society positions nurses as “agents of the state”, a role that potentially holds power over parents and children and leads to the epithet of “the health police”. Within the institution of the family, and in the privacy of the home, there are also mechanisms of power that can resist the mechanisms of the state and its representatives. Therefore the discourse “it takes a village to raise a child” competes with the “my home is my castle” discourse. Nurses negotiate a fine balance between these power relations. Nurses are challenged with using power productively to promote children's rights whilst respecting the role of parents and families. The author argues that children's rights are central to the moral and ethical work of nurses but that such work is often obscured and invisible. She proposes that children's community nurses are excellent at negotiating networking and connecting at a micro level, but need to create a more sophisticated and cohesive entity at a macro level to become fully political children's rights advocates.