Abstract: This literature review critically examines contributing factors to the current nursing shortage in New Zealand, centering on recruitment and retention of registered nurses. There is a dramatic widening between the supply of registered nurses and the demand for their services. All regions in New Zealand are reporting difficulty in hiring experienced and specialty nurses, and recruiting time is lengthening. This report suggests that the shortage is closely linked to factors in the nursing care environment. As a result of multiple factors during the centralising, cost-containing, acuity-increasing decade of the 1990s, the care environment has driven practising nurses out of acute care settings and discouraged new students from entering the profession. The availability of numerous alternative career opportunities has heightened the effect. Continuing causes to the non-selection of nursing as a profession are the influences of wage compression and limited career progression over the lifetime of the nurse, and insufficient orientation and mentoring of new nurses. Recent changes in the health care system have gone unevaluated and without oversight by nursing regulatory agencies – a situation not in the best interests of patients or nurses. A number of both literature-supported and resourceful approaches, including recommendations towards addressing the nursing shortage are proposed in this review.

Abstract: This interpretive inquiry explores the lived experience of 3 undergraduate nursing students and one midwifery student who have panic attacks. The aim of the research is to give voice to these students and to raise awareness among nurse educators about the impact that panic attacks may have for them. The research question asks, “what is the lived experience of panic attack in undergraduate nursing students?” A semi structured interview was conducted with each student in order to gain significant data. The research identified four key themes implicit to the lived experience of panic attack analysis: Listen to the beat of my heart (embodiedness), fearfulness, shamefulness, and holding one's own (coping). The findings suggest that the lived experience of panic attack is embedded in the lifeworld of lived body, lived time, lived relation, and lived space. Panic attack affects students physically and emotionally and interpersonally. The significant finding is that nurse educators need be aware of the coping or non-coping strategies used by students and, most importantly, recognise the impact that panic attacks have on their study.

Abstract: This historical research study examines some of the factors that caused problems for early New Zealand trained nurses upon their introduction into New Zealand hospitals, between 1885 and 1914. Eight incidents in the professional lives of nurses of the period are used as illustrations of the strains and discord that were apparent in this time of change. Analysis of these incidents attempts to answer the question as to whether the introduction of trained nurses into the New Zealand hospital system did add new considerations to problems encountered by nurses in their professional life. The conclusion is that there was a new dimension of difference added to the system with the introduction of the trained nurse. This developed from the evidence that these nurses, particularly if they were also matrons, had to fit into the existing power structures, which were not really ready to accept them, either through choice or lack of foresight. Enmeshed within these considerations is the influence of Florence Nightingale; her effect on nursing itself, and the consequent public and official perception, or misperception, of who nurses should be.

Abstract: This dissertation came out of the author's wondering why there are still so few men going into nursing especially when the history of nursing reveals that men have been a part of nursing for a long time. In New Zealand it is only since the mid seventies that men have been able to gain the exact same nursing qualifications as their women colleagues. The author notes that men in nursing are still seen as unusual in that they work in a predominantly female occupation and have had their masculinity questioned by the myth that all men in nursing must be gay. There is also the notion that caring is a difficult task for men and is seen by society as a uniquely feminine ability. Both issues are related to dominant notions of masculinity. In addition to this there is currently a crisis in terms of a nursing shortage and it has been suggested that one way to resolve this crisis is to encourage more men into nursing. Thus this exploration as to why there are so few men in nursing is timely. Men who choose nursing as a career risk challenging the traditional roles of their gender stereotype. A comprehensive search of the literature from different disciplines reveals deeper issues than just the commonly held assumption that nursing is not masculine. Exploring the issues of gender with a particular focus on masculinity has uncovered the concept of hegemonic masculinity. This describes how gender is practiced in a way that legitimises patriarchy, reinforcing the dominant position of men over women as well as over other groups of men. It is these patriarchal attitudes that have seen men marginalised within nursing. On the one hand men in nursing could be seen as challenging the current dominant masculine ideal. However, on the other hand men in nursing may not challenge this hegemonic masculinity; instead often supporting the status quo in an effort to maintain their own masculinity. The author suggests that the implication for nursing, if it is to increase the numbers of men in the profession, is to challenge this notion of hegemonic masculinity. This needs to be done appropriately by critically examining this concept rather than by merely replacing one hegemony with another. He goes on to say that it is now time for nursing education to include a critical exploration of gender issues and how it relates to men as part of undergraduate nursing education for both men and women students.

Abstract: This action research study explores the experiences of 'patient education' from the perspective of a group comprising two nurses, two people with asthma, and the researcher who is a nurse who has asthma. The method used is emancipatory action research (Grundy, 1990) with critical social theory and feminism as theoretical underpinnings.The focus moves from patient education to a broader view of living and working with asthma. The story of the group is presented in the format of a play. A play within the play tells of living and working with asthma.An action research spiral is formed which reflects the way the group moves through the three modes of action research described by Grundy (1990). The acts of the play represent each of the stages of the action research process. The emphasis moves from power and control through to practice wisdom.The main issues explored are: the nature of patient education by nurses; the implications this has for relationships with patients and nursing education; power and control in the secondary setting; the lived experience of chronic illness and the practice wisdom of nurses and people with asthma. The work concludes with recommendations for change in each of these areas based on the work of the group

Abstract: There's Nobody There, is a qualitative study of the practise of caring for confused elderly people. It examines the implications of community care for social policy. It presents an account of the everyday lives of twenty eight family members who care for people with Alzheimer's disease or a related dementia. It shows that community care like other forms of care, carries a cost that the burden is largely borne by the carers themselves, rather than by the State

Abstract: There has been a great deal written about the efforts of the nursing profession to achieve full professional status but little about individual nurses' aspirations in seeking this goal. A group of 6 co-researchers, myself included, looked at this perceived gap in nurses' dreams for the profession.The philosophical underpinnings of the research were feminist and reflected postmodern feminist and some radical feminist concepts. This philosophical positions guided our research to uncover the knowledge of how we actively construct ourselves into dominant social values. This means we were searching for how our dreams were constructed and how we reflected the values of society in the way we produced our dreams. Peace and Power (Chinn & Wheeler, 1989) was used to guide the group interaction and Memory-Work (Hague, 1987) for data collecting and analysis. The co-researchers wrote individual stories about their dreams for the nursing profession. Collective analysis of the stories occurred in order to uncover the was in which the dreams were constructed. From this collective analysis the individual co-researchers redrafted their stories. Each redraft contained new insights, motives and actions of ourselves and others, forgotten experiences and inconsistencies, as a means of identifying and questioning dominant ideologies. The aim was to move towards empowerment through making the unconscious conscious.Four common dreams emerged from analysis of the stories: the first was that individual nurses want full professional status and autonomy; the second asked the nurses to care and support each other; a high standard of patient and nursing-focussed care was the third dream; and the fourth was for continuing education and knowledge to be shared between nurses. Although the dreams were common across the group it was found that the dreams varied in their construction. The dreams for each group member reflected multiple realities that emerged from different contexts, influenced by historical and socially dominant cultural values.Through studying and theorising our dreams for the nursing profession, we increased our understanding of how they were shaped so that we were able to initiate change and make our dreams become a reality. This has implications for the nursing profession. We live our lives collectively, as nurses and women, as others influence our being and reality. Although others influence us, it is each individual nurse who contributes to actively construct her/himself in to the dominant cultural values held by society and therefore up to each individual to initiate change. If nurses are able to make dreams a reality then positive changes will occur within the profession; I.e. decreased staff turnover, increased morale and increased quality in patient care

Abstract: The use of massage by nurses is a popular activity in many fields of nursing practice. The last ten to fifteen years have seen a rising popularity in the literature. Whilst the literature within nursing is plentiful it often does not present the empirical evidence necessary to support nursing actions. The objective of this analysis is to present the extant literature discussing soft tissue massage from a Western health perspective. Massage has first been contextualised as an ancient as well as modern healing activity. There is evidence of early modern medical interest in the therapeutic benefits of massage for a number of ailments. From this contextual perspective it is then possible to track the evolution of modern complementary health practices since 1980, and the professional and practical issues surrounding their use. Against the backdrop of twenty-first century health care there is increased evidence of the importance of maintaining the human aspect of caring, and massage is seen as an ideal way to provide this. The author argues that the discipline of modern nursing must increase its awareness of the empirical evidence around the use of massage, to provide safe and effective nursing care. This physiological and psychological evidence is presented and critiqued, based on the principles of evidence-based practice. This critique has enabled some sound research-based practical statements on the effects of massage to be made. These statements will enhance the practice of massage within a nursing context. The final part of the journey has been to explore the actual practice of massage within nursing, including the current use of massage by a sample of New Zealand nurses. The educational opportunities have also been presented, alongside some main professional issues. Massage can now be viewed as a legitimate nursing tool that has value in a range of nursing settings by enhancing the quality of patient care. The techniques are easy to learn, simple to perform and do not add undue workload to nurses. The author notes that there is a considerable amount of literature to support this, but the quest for further knowledge cannot be ignored.