Abstract: The purpose of this thesis has been to explore the discursive production of delirium in people over the age of 65 years. The philosophical approaches underpinning the study were derived from the field of critical gerontology, postmodernism and the utilisation of a Foucauldian understanding of discourse and power/knowledge. Data sources included published documents on delirium, interviews with people over the age of 65 years who had been delirious (as well as their clinical notes), family members, registered nurses and a doctor. Textual analysis revealed the presence of two contesting and contradictory discourses that impacted on being an older person who had delirium. These were identified as the discourse of delirium as a syndrome and a personal discourse of delirium. The discourse of delirium as a syndrome is underpinned by the biomedicalisation of the ageing process. This process utilises scientific methods as the foundation from which to understand, research and provide a health service to older people with delirium. Any personal perspectives on delirium are rendered unimportant and relegated to marginalised positions. Nursing through its vicarious relationship to medicine is interpellated into deploying the discourse of delirium as a syndrome and has largely ignored the personal dimensions associated with this phenomenon. Consequently, the older delirious 'body' is known and inscribed as unruly, problematic, physically unwell, cognitively impaired and at risk. Conversely, a personal discourse of delirium privileges the individual narratives of people who have been delirious and provides a different perspective of delirium. The deployment of a personal discourse of delirium offers another position that views this group of older people as bringing to the health care setting a rich tapestry of life experiences that are more than a cluster of signs and symptoms. It is these varied life experiences that need to be included as a legitimate source of knowledge about delirium. This thesis demonstrates how nursing needs to espouse a critical gerontological position when working with older people who have delirium. Critical gerontology provides nurses with the theoretical tools to challenge the status quo and uncover the multiple, varied, contradictory and complex representations of delirium in older people.

Abstract: A description of the establishment and the first year's operation of an occupational health service set up as a limited liability company and offering contracted fee- for- service health care for employees of clients' businesses. The report tells how the two nurses established the company and how the company secured contracts, it describes the delivery of health care in the workplace. The nurses' perception of their work and the client managers' evaluation of the service are included.

Abstract: In October, 1986 the fifteen technical institutes that run Nursing programs in New Zealand were sent questionnaire that were designed to find out about the Nursing Research Component in the Diploma of Nursing, The Advanced Diploma of Nursing and other Nursing Courses. The same questions were asked of each of these courses. Twelve replies were received and eleven were analysed in this report. Two general observations emerged from the Diploma of Nursing: 1. The questionnaires varied greatly in the detail provided in answers. 2. Where there were small numbers enrolled in the Diploma of Nursing, the questionnaire answers suggest there is less emphasis placed on Nursing research as a separate component in the course. This small project provides us with some information about the Nursing Research Component in the Diploma of Nursing courses offered in New Zealand

Abstract: A qualitative study of factors affecting four registered nurses participating in continuing education.Data was collected through unstructured interviews and then analysed using themetic analysis The data revealed that the nurses had ambient feelings towards the benefits of post registration nursing education and that these were many work related, supervisal, and financial and logistial barriers affecting their ability to participate in further study. The nurses were also disturbed and frustrated by a lack of clinically based programmes for them to attend. Implications from this study are discussed and recommendations are presented

Abstract: This thesis is about what the author terms the 'invisible bodies of nursing'. The physical body of the nurse, the body of practice, and the body of knowledge. The physical body of the nurse is absent in most nursing literature, it is sometimes inferred but seldom discussed. The contention is that the physical body of the nurse is invisible because it is tacit. Much nursing practice is invisible because it is perceived by many nurses to be inarticulable and is carried out within a private discourse of nursing, silently and secretly. Nursing knowledge is invisible because it is not seen as being valid or authoritative or sanctioned as a legitimate discourse by the dominant discourse. These issues are approach through an evolving 'specular' lens. Luce Irigaray's philosophy of the feminine and her deconstructing and reconstructing of psychoanalytic structures for women inform this work. Michel Foucault's genealogical approach to analysing discourses is utilized, along with Maurice Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology. Nursing's struggle for recognition is ongoing. The author discusses strategies that nurses could use to make themselves more 'visible' in healthcare structures. The exploration of the embodied self of the nurse and through this the embodied knowledge of nursing is nascent.

Abstract: Aims to develop a new empirical method for assessing the similarity of mental models in surgery, focusing on laparotomy; to begin the process of validation of the new approach; and to demonstrate how the new approach could be used in clinical practice. Develops a software application (Momento) to sort key tasks in order to capture the information on mental models regarding task sequence and responsibility. Asks 20 6-person operating room (OR) teams, each comprising 3 sub-teams consisting of anaesthesia, surgery and nursing, to complete Momento prior to 2 simulated emergency laparotomies. Suggests the Momento approach could be used to improve teamwork in OR.