Abstract: The role of storytelling in any society fulfils multiple functions such as maintaining culture, holding history, teaching genealogical lessons, imparting wisdom, entertaining, passing on knowledge. The author suggests that nursing, historically described as a craft with an oral tradition, could be seen to be quietly moving away from the practice of storytelling. Or has it? She asked this question and began to realise that her practice and relationships with colleagues had always been based on stories and storying. To explore this phenomenon, she began to describe her day to day practice in story form, and began to position stories she had previously written. In her work of oncology palliative care nursing within a community setting in New Zealand, the stories proved crucial to her role as an educator, and companion of patients and their families. In this paper she examines how she uses story for her benefit, the patients' benefit, but mainly for the benefit of nursing. She examines from her own perspective, some underlying themes that reinforce the need to continue this ancient tradition and explore the role, value and function of storytelling within nursing.

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: This article presents the findings of an interpretive study that explored and documented the meaning and impact of nurse participation in performance appraisal interviews. Data gleaned from nine New Zealand registered nurses employed by a single district health board provide evidence that nurses are often disappointed by the process of performance appraisal. Although they believe in the potential value of performance appraisal interviews, they seldom experience the feedback, direction, and encouragement necessary for an effective appraisal process. It is suggested that changes to the current professional development program and its accompanying performance appraisal will require skilled commitment on the part of nurses, managers, and the employing organisation to improve and develop the assessment and promotion of nursing practice.

Abstract: Cultural safety is taught in all undergraduate nursing programmes in Aotearoa/New Zealand. There is a predominance of Pakeha nurse educators in teaching this content. There is little explanation of what being Pakeha entails. This perpetuates a silence and continues the dominant hegemonic position of Pakeha in Aotearoa/New Zealand. This study suggests that as Pakeha cultural safety nurse educators we examine our dominance and critique the delivery of cultural safety education. This autobiographical study undertakes to explore the Pakeha identity of a cultural safety nurse educator. The author discusses identity in the context of a globalised world, and challenges the idea of a definitive Pakeha identity. There are multiple descriptions of Pakeha, all underdeveloped and inadequate for the purposes of cultural safety education. In this study, the author uses the heuristic process of Moustakas (1990) and Maalouf's (2000) ideas of vertical and horizontal heritage to locate and present the essence of the self. In keeping with the purpose of cultural safety education, the author considers her ethnic cultural self as described by Bloch (1983) and explores Helms' (1990) theory of White racial identity development. This thesis describes the position of one Pakeha in the context of teaching cultural safety in an undergraduate nursing degree programme in Aotearoa/New Zealand. For Pakeha cultural safety nurse educators the author argues that exploration of one's heritages and location of a personal Pakeha identity is pivotal to progressing the enactment of cultural safety in Aotearoa /New Zealand.

Abstract: This article defines scholarship and how it links to nursing. It explores how nurses perceive scholarship and how it can enhance their practice. While agreeing that scholarship plays a vital role in the image of nursing as a professional practice, the article's main focus is on scholarship as an integral component of advanced nursing practice.

Abstract: This thesis describes an exploratory study of registered nurses within a local district health board which pursued 'if' and 'how' professional practice frameworks assisted nurses in their individual professional practice. Self assessment and performance appraisal are identified as critical elements of professional development by the Nursing Council of New Zealand, and this became the focus of the author's research. A qualitative descriptive framework was utilised to explore the research question, where experiences of registered nurses employed within inpatient adult medical and surgical settings were collected through questionnaire. Analysis of the data was through general inductive thematic approach. Eight themes arose, of which, two have sub-themes. The first four themes relate to self assessment and performance appraisal and the second four themes relate to professional practice. The findings from the participant's perspective provide an understanding of how participants' utilised self assessment and performance appraisal to inform their professional practice. There are significant implications for professional practice within the findings of this study, which are presented along with recommendations for future practice, and future avenues for research.

Abstract: This report is an evaluation of the academic journey undertaken by a group of newly graduated nurses who were sponsored by a New Zealand district health board to work in a variety of primary health care nursing settings. The impetus for this pilot employment option was the Ministry of Health's focus on primary health care nursing and workforce development for this sector and the Expert Advisory Committee for primary health care nursing's recommendations to district health boards regarding employment of graduate nurses and support for them to engage in post graduate study. Evaluation participants were primarily the graduate nurses who were interviewed at the end of their first year of practice which was following programme completion then again nine to ten months later. Findings include the nurses reflections on what supported them and what acted to impede as barriers to their learning success and practice development. The report concludes with five recommendations that can be used to ensure that the travels of future newly graduated nurses taking this pathway are supported, safe and successful.

Abstract: This article examines the concept of clinical supervision as “professional supervision”. Professional supervision contains many elements, is structured and not without effort. Fundamentally it is about being safe and professional. 'Reflective learning' and 'Live/tutorial' models are reviewed in different contexts for assisting nurses work through everyday issues, conflicts and problems of their role. The author concludes that regardless of which model is used there are benefits for safety and professionalism.