Abstract: This study explores the the experience of nursing a person, or people, form cultures other than one's own. Informed by the tradition of philosophical hermeneutics, and drawing specifically on some of the notions articulated by Hans-Georg Gadamer and Charles Taylor, it seeks to understand everyday nursing practices within their cultural and historical context.Against a background of Maori resurgence, nurses in New Zealand have been challenged in Aotearoa-New Zealand to recognise and address racism in their practice. Meeting the health needs of all people has long been important in nursing yet the curricular changes implemented in the early 1990s to enhance nursing's contribution to a more equitable health service created uncertainty and tension both within nursing, and between nursing and the wider community.In this study, I have interpreted the experiences of seventeen nurses practising in an increasingly ethnically diverse region. Personal understandings and those from relevant literature have been used to illuminate further the nature of cross-cultural experience from a nurse's perspective. The thesis asserts that the notions of prejudice, paradox and possibility can be used to describe the experience of nursing a person from another culture. Prejudice refers to the prior understandings that influence nursing action in both a positive and a negative sense. Paradox relates to the coexistence and necessary interplay of contradictory meanings and positions, while possibility points to the potential for new understandings to surface from the fusion of past with present, and between different interpretations. As New Zealand nurses negotiate the conflicts essential for ongoing development of their practice, the play of prejudice, paradox and possibility is evident at intra-personal and interpersonal levels as well as in relation to professional and other social discourses. This thesis challenges nurses to persist in working with the tensions inherent in cross-cultural practice. It encourages continuation of their efforts to understand and move beyond the prejudices that otherwise preclude the exploration of new possibilities.

Abstract: A qualitative descriptive approach was undertaken to explore the experience of eight registered nurses and two hospital play specialists who care for children hospitalised with burn injuries. The research participants were recruited from a paediatric ward that offers centralised specialty care to children with burns. Emerging out of the data was the over-arching theme of 'passionate dedication' that shows the nurses and hospital play specialists genuine compassion and commitment to meet the needs of the children with burns. The findings of the study reveal that the participant's dedication is shaped and determined by a dynamic process that involves having professional integrity and in-depth knowledge of caring for children and burn management. The nurses and the hospital play specialists have a common understanding of what their role entails and the skills required to provide quality care and support to the children and the children's family. On a personal and professional level the participants encounter several challenges in this care context that are physically and emotionally overwhelming. Despite becoming overwhelmed the participants are revealed as being resourceful and resilient in their aptitude to find ways that enable them to cope and get through. The author suggests that this study supports international literature that suggests that caring for children with burns is equally rewarding, as much as it is physically and emotionally demanding. The author identifies that the implication in this study for the organisation is to seriously consider issues regarding productivity and efficiency of the workforce with acknowledgement that nurses and hospital play specialists cannot do this emotional work without effective systems of support in place.

Abstract: An ethnographic study which attempts to understand what initial employment means to graduates from a comprehensive nursing course. The researcher participated in the first 3-4 months of the nurses' employment in general hospital settings. Five major themes emerge from the study indicating that the rhetoric practice of the school of nursing is different from the rhetoric and practice within general hospital settings. The reality of initial employment for the new graduated conflicts with the values and ideals of nursing promulgated by the comprehensive nursing course. The educational program stressed patient centred nursing, where nurses accepted responsibility for the continuing care of individuals. In contrast the hospital settings stress nursing as management of tasks across different patients. This conflict was a major source of frustration for the 'beginning' nurses. Ultimately they accept the reality of nursing as the management of tasks, but not without some personal cost. Orientation programs and the early employment period focus on 'fitting in to the system'. A significant determinant of the practice of new graduates are context effects such the time of their shift and the availability of experienced nurses. A number of management practices foster and maintain a beginning level of practice and new graduates have no opportunity to practice as autonomous nurses within a multi disciplinary health care team. Beginning practice is identified in new graduates through their difficulties in coping with unplanned or unexpected events. The initial employment period is dominated by shift work, resulting tiredness and adjustment to social activities.It is argued that management practices which support the ideals of comprehensive nursing courses and totally qualified nursing workforce have yet to occur. There are implications in this study for nursing education and nursing practice

Abstract: This study uncovers the experience of being ethical from the perspective of pre-registration nursing students. Using the qualitative methodology of phenomenology, specifically that outlined by van Manen, it seeks to show how students act ethically within everyday practice. Providing nursing care is an ethically charged undertaking and despite ethics taking an increasingly important place in nursing education, the author suggests that few studies show the contextual nature of ethical practice from the perspective of students. This study aims to partly redress this situation. In this study the author has interpreted the experiences of twelve pre-registration students. Using seventeen stories shared by the student participants, the author's personal understandings and literature, the meaning of being ethical has been illuminated. Three themes emerged from the interpretation. These include 'keeping things 'nice'', 'being true to yourself' and 'being present'. This thesis asserts that the overarching theme within these themes is that of 'being constrained and enabled'. Being constrained shows the experiences of students as they live through the tensions of being and doing as they strive to be ethical. Being enabled shows the experience of self-determination. Finally the study maintains that the shaping of ethical practice for undergraduate students may be enhanced when their reality is positioned and valued within educational processes.