Abstract: This study was developed to explore the use of seclusion in an acute in-patient unit for people with mental illnesses. Investigation into this issue was considered important due to an identified large increase in seclusion use over the previous two years. The study used a qualitative research methodology with a descriptive and interpretive approach. Data collection included a retrospective file audit of patients who had been secluded over the past seven years, and one-to-one staff interviews. It also includes the author's personal reflections of seclusion events. The principle reason for using seclusion was violence and aggression in the context of mental illness. It was also used for people who were at risk of, or who had previously absconded from the unit. A recovery approach and the use of the strengths model was fundamental to nurses' way of working with patients in the unit. Nurses believed that the strengths process should be adapted to the person's level of acuity and to their ability to engage in this approach in a tangible way. Seclusion continues to be a clinical management option in the unit that is the subject of this study. However, in many circumstances there are other options that could be explored so that the utmost consideration is given to the dignity, privacy and safety of that person.

Abstract: This is an oral herstory of two West Coast Women in conversation with a contemporary, and all are nurses. The conversations are presented as whole patterns which are quilted together to form a story within a story. I have woven in my story, with the commonality of being a nurse and having lived on the West Coast for five years.Until the 1960s, women on the West Coast had had very little written about their lives and the nursing records on the Coast were very limited, even in the 1990s. The women in this study conveyed the childhood memories and the nursing days, as they reflected on a training that was strictly disciplined, hierarchical in a hospital based apprentice system.The opportunity to do this project has enabled me to explore some of the aspects of the lives of women on the West Coast, particularly through the eyes of two wonderful women. Their contribution has been particularly valuable, in that they were able to convey how it was for them as children, and also the experiences of their mother and other women. Both were nurses who trained at Grey River Hospital between 1933 and 1946, and they were able to recall their nursing days on the Coast and make a contribution to West Coast history.It has enabled me to rediscover my own nursing story and to gain insight into the conversations that will inspire my nursing, and enable me to hand on stories to other nurses. This thesis will also be of interest to nurses of the future, reflecting on the past and experiencing how it was then

Abstract: Employs a qualitative descriptive approach to examine the feasibility of health care assistants’ participation in rehabilitation for older people. Enrols health care assistants in focus groups before and after a mobility programme for inpatients promoting independence and functional rehabilitation. Involves ten in-patients who had sustained a fractured neck of femur in the functional exercises with the health care assistants. Analyses the interview data thematically.

Abstract: Examines the experiences of internationally-qualified nurses from the
Philippines and India upon migration to NZ. Employs an explanatory sequential mixed-methods study to survey the migrant nurses and to identify dominant themes.

Abstract: In 2003 the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act was introduced and established separate regulatory authorities for nursing and midwifery. This study is designed to explore the experiences of dually registered practitioners affected by this divide, as now there are two separate and possible paths, and two corresponding sets of competencies to fulfil. The design for this qualitative descriptive study utilised the written and oral narratives of three practitioners affected by this professional regulation and demonstrated its impact on their career development. Individual storytelling, as narrative, provided a theoretical lens aiding insight into their experience and pattern of decision making. In addition, symbolic consideration of the study data was provided by collective storytelling via the perennial myth of the hero journey. Shifting professional ground following the Health Practitioners Competence Act 2003 generated a focus for the inquiry into practitioners' modes of adjustment. For the practitioners in the study, transition between the occupational roles of nursing and midwifery comprised the possible career trajectories. A status passage, as the process of change from one social status to another, is described and includes the transitional experience of anticipation, expectation, contrast, and change. The author suggests that the findings from this research provide illumination of the nuances of professional decision making as a lived experience, and highlight how these practitioners dealt with shifting meaning, values, awareness, choices, and relationships. Aspects of group agency and identity, change management, and professional role transition were revealed. Life pattern, revealed through narrative, was an important research construct for exposing the ways in which the participants negotiated change, and displayed the function of their thinking and reasoning through dilemmas. Perception of individual and group identity revealed attitudes of esteem to the dominant discourse, and exposed dynamic tension between work patterns and life stage. Renegotiating arrangements of personal and professional commitment resulted from this dynamic interplay, and the relationship to stress and burnout was explored.

Abstract: A nurse presents a personal account of a typical day at Middlemore Hospital's 50-bed acute inpatient mental health unit Tiaho Mai. The article covers aspects of shift handover, working with multidisciplinary teams, developing care plans, working with families, and responding to emergencies.