Abstract: The article presents a theoretical model of social consciousness developed from nurses' life histories. A 3-position dialectical framework (acquired, awakened, and expanded social consciousness) makes visible the way people respond to social injustice in their lives and in the lives of others. The positions coexist, are not hierarchical, and are contextually situated. A person's location influences her or his availability for social action. Nurses who could most contribute to challenging social injustices that underpin health disparities are relegated to the margins of mainstream nursing by internal processes of discrimination. The author suggests that more inclusive definitions of “a nurse” would open up possibilities for social change.

Abstract: The author presents an overview of the impact and management of novovirus infections in New Zealand. The impact of this highly contagious virus on hospital settings is serious. With staff shortages already a problem, any outbreak of contagious disease has the potential to result in unsafe staffing, either through low numbers or poor skill mix. A report from New Zealand Environmental Science and Research (ESR) showed 35 reported norovirus outbreaks in New Zealand in the first quarter of 2004, resulting in 890 cases of the disease. Norovirus outbreaks are characterised by a rapid spread of infection, high uptake rate, and a high proportion of cases presenting with projectile vomiting. The author provides a definition of the novovirus, and looks at transmission, the management of hospital outbreaks, and the impact on emergency departments and hospital wards. Procedures include in-patient isolation. She notes there are no simple answers or “quick fixes” to the problem of norovirus outbreaks. While ongoing surveillance, recognition and isolation are key elements, there are wider structural and political implications that need to be acknowledged. These issues include overcrowding and staff shortages.

Abstract: This article reports one aspect of a phenomenological study that described the lived experience of mothering a child hospitalised with acute illness or injury. The significance for mothers that nurses do the 'little things' emerged in considering the implications of this study's findings for nurses in practice. Seven mothers whose child had been hospitalised in the 12 months prior to the first interview agreed to share their stories. The resulting data were analysed and interpreted using van Manen's interpretation of phenomenology. This description of mothering in a context of crisis is useful in the potential contribution it makes to nurses' understanding of mothers' experience of the hospitalisation of their children. It supports the philosophy of family-centred care and highlights the ability of individual nurses to make a positive difference to a very stressful experience by acknowledging and doing 'little things', because it is the little things that matter to the mothers of children in hospital.

Abstract: The focus of this study is the management of unsafe nursing students within the tertiary education context. The moral dilemmas experienced by nurse educators, specifically linked to the issue of accountability for public safety, are explored. The theoretical framework for the thesis is informed by the two moral voices of justice and care identified by Gilligan and further developed using the work of Hekman and Lyotard. Case study methodology was used and data were collected from three schools of nursing and their respective educational organisations. Interviews were conducted with nurse educators and education administrators who had managed unsafe nursing students. Interviews were also conducted with representatives from the Nursing Council of New Zealand and the New Zealand Nurses Organisation to gain professional perspectives regarding public safety, nurse education and unsafe students. Transcripts were analysed using the strategies of categorical aggregation and direct interpretation. Issues identified in each of the three case studies were examined using philosophical and theoretical analyses. This thesis explores how students come to be identified as unsafe and the challenges this posed within three educational contexts. The justice and care moral voices of nurse educators and administrators and the ways in which these produced different ways of caring are made visible. Different competing and conflicting discourses of nursing and education are revealed, including the discourse of safety – one of the language games of nursing. The way in which participants positioned themselves and positioned others within these discourses are identified. Overall, education administrators considered accountability for public safety to be a specific professional, nursing responsibility and not a concern of education per se. This thesis provides an account of how nurse educators attempted to make the educational world safe for patients, students, and themselves. Participants experienced different tensions and moral dilemmas in the management of unsafe students, depending upon the moral language games they employed and the dominant discourse of the educational organisation. Nurse educators were expected to use the discourses of education to make their case and manage unsafe students. However, the discourses of nursing and education were found to be incommensurable and so the moral dilemmas experienced by nurse educators were detected as differends. This study bears witness to these differends.

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 research used the economic technique of conjoint analysis and an informal discussion to canvas opinions regarding ideal combination of inpatient facilities and the use of cell phones in hospital. The content of the conjoint analysis was, with the exception of the inclusion of the question regarding the use of cell phones, derived from the literature. Because conjoint analysis does not appear to have been used with adolescents one of the questions to be answered was whether this was a method of research that could be used with adolescents. The research was undertaken with 29 young people, most of who were from CanTeen (the adolescent cancer support group) in Wellington. The conjoint analysis, and discussion with the adolescents supported the general findings from the literature that adolescents do not want to be nursed in either overtly paediatric or, in their words, 'dull adult wards', as they enjoy bright lively surrounds. Ideally they would like to be nursed with their peer group and so have the opportunity to interact with young people of their age. The research demonstrated that adolescents are able to understand the concept of conjoint analysis and also supported findings from overseas that these healthcare consumers value having their opinions canvassed and are well able to give constructive and well thought out opinions. A report on the findings of this research will be presented to Capital and Coast District Health Board with the expectation that it will be considered when the final decisions are made regarding the upgrading of Wellington Hospital's present facilities as it is anticipated that these facilities will contain dedicated adolescent beds within the paediatric unit.

Abstract: This paper critically examines the literature on mammography as a breast cancer screening modality. It looks at what the New Zealand consumer is being told about the scientific uncertainties about the effectiveness of mammography and the substantial risks involved with it. This literature review raises concerns about the lack of information available for healthy women to make a fully informed decision about mammography screening.

Abstract: This article explores historical, philosophical and theoretical perspectives of health assessment, and discusses one institution's experiences developing and implementing undergraduate health assessment courses.