Abstract: This social-cultural history explores the changing context, culture, and identity of psychiatric nurses working in New Zealand public mental hospitals between 1939 and 1972. Primary documentary sources and oral history interviews provided the data for analysis. The thesis is divided into two periods: 1939 to 1959 when asylum-type conditions shaped the culture of the institutional workforce, and 1960 to 1972 when mental health reform and nursing professionalisation challenged the isolation and distinct identity of mental hospital nurses. Between 1939 and 1959 the introduction of somatic treatments did not substantially change nursing practice in mental hospitals. Overcrowding, understaffing and poor resources necessitated the continuance of custodial care. The asylum-type institutions were dependent on a male attendant workforce to ensure the safety of disturbed male patients, and the maintenance of hospital farms, gardens, and buildings. Although female nurses provided all the care and domestic work on the female side, the belief that psychiatric nursing was physically demanding, potentially dangerous, and morally questionable, characterised the work as generally unsuitable for women. Introduction of psychiatric nursing registration which was a move toward professionalisation did little to change the dominance of a male, working-class culture. From 1960 to 1972 psychiatric nurses' identity was contested. New therapeutic roles created the possibility of the nurses becoming health professionals. Their economic security and occupational power, however, was tied to an identity as unionised, male workers. As psychiatric nurses were drawn closer to the female-dominated nursing profession through health service changes and nursing education reform, both men and women acted to protect both their working conditions and their patients' welfare. To achieve these ends, they employed working-class means of industrial action. By accepting the notion that psychiatric nurses' identity was socially constructed, this thesis provides an interpretation that goes beyond the assumption that nursing is a woman's profession. Instead, it presents psychiatric nursing as a changing phenomenon shaped by contested discourses of gender, class and professionalisation. Nursing in public mental hospitals attracted ordinary men and uncommon women whose collective identity was forged from the experience of working in a stigmatised role.

Abstract: This article reviews the development of the New Zealand nursing workforce, which has been shaped by social, political, scientific and interprofessional forces. The unregulated, independent and often untrained nurses of the early colonial period were succeeded in the early 1900s by registered nurses, with hospital-based training, working in a subordinate role to medical practitioners. In the mid/late 1900s, greater specialisation within an expanding workforce, restructuring of nursing education, health sector reform, and changing social and political expectations again reshaped nursing practice. Nursing now has areas of increasing autonomy, expanding opportunities for postgraduate education and leadership roles, and a relationship with medicine, which is more collaborative than in the past. Three current challenges are identified for nursing in New Zealand's rapidly evolving health sector; development of a nursing-focused knowledge culture, strengthening of research capacity, and dissemination of new nursing knowledge.

Abstract: Describes four historical sources relevant to the history of nursing in NZ. Uses them to explain how nurse researchers can evaluate their research material. Outlines the five dimensions of evaluation: provenance, purpose, context, veracity, and usefulness. Explains the questions that must be addressed in each dimension of the evaluation. Illustrates the different kinds of information available in the 4 selected historical sources, by references to individual nurses.

Abstract: Traces the history of the Plunket Book, or Well Child/Tamariki Ora Health Book, during the years 1920-1945, chronicling the development of a medicalised relationship between mothers and health professionals during this era.

Abstract: Examines the evolution of the enrolled nurse in NZ from the perspective of a registered nurse who has worked with enrolled nurses in both Britain and NZ. Analyses key documents from a critical perspective to consider the positioning of enrolled nurses in NZ, particularly from the point of view of the large number of Maori enrolled nurses. Makes recommendations for a more equitable future for those who undertake enrolled nursing.

Abstract: Draws on a conversation between Wood and Adams, both tauiwi (non-Maori) academics, exploring challenges, innovations, and paradigms of care at a time in NZ history when colonising processes had already affected Maori. Traces the origins of rural, district and Plunket nursing. Provides insight into the structure and content of the book, its value in recording the history, proactive leadership, and practice of modern nursing as instigated by the British nursing diaspora.