Abstract: This study uses a critical approach to analyse influences connected to opportunities for nurses to have their unique contribution to the health system recognised, and identifies a plan of action. The stories as told by four Northland nurses, identified the underlying principle of self-knowledge which, when connected to core values emerged as personal power with the language of possibility. Other factors which enabled opportunity recognition were labelled as: knowing the self, integrating core values from personal and professional qualities, connecting these to an intuitive plan, trusting it because it is value-based, using that plan to form goals and achieve direction. Integrating core values into goal setting enabled people to make choices that would enhance as well as protect their personal development. This study has implications for nurses as they seek out places where they can work well and for health planners to design systems where this can happen.

Abstract: This study examines the discursive formation of professional nursing in one country, as revealed by the history of nursing in New Zealand. Michel Foucault's approach to historical research signifies a different level of analysis from conventional approaches, focusing not on the history of ideas but on an understanding of the present, a history of the present. A genealogical method derived from Foucauldian poststructuralism reveals how different understandings of nursing have occurred and have governed nursing practices and scholarship in different historical contexts. The archaeological investigation in this study reveals two moments of epistemic transformation, that is, two intervals of mutation and discontinuity. The Nightingale era in the 1880s precipitated the first epistemic shift – premodernism to modernism. The transfer of nursing education from hospital based training to the tertiary education sector, followed by the introduction of the baccalaureate degree, precipitated the second epistemic shift in the 1990s, the advent of postmodernism. Encompassing these two epistemes, six historical contexts are identified, where significant disruptions to the nursing discourses overturned previously held assumptions about what constituted a nurse. Each historical context is identified by specific discursive constructs. The first is colonial caring, the second the Nightingale ethos and the third heroic, disciplined obedience. In the fourth context, nursing is framed by, and within, discourses of skilled, humanistic caring, in the fifth, scientific, task focused managerialism, and in the 1990s, the sixth context, by multiple realities in an age of uncertainty.

Abstract: The question explored in this research project is: What are inpatient registered nurses' perceptions of the factors which influence therapeutic relationship development? The literature reviewed for this project includes the history of interpersonal relationships in nursing; therapeutic relationships; what constitutes these relationships. Also discussed is literature about phenomenology as the underlying theoretical and philosophical position that informs the research method. To answer the research question a single focus group was used to gather data from a group of registered nurses practising in inpatient mental health units. Focus groups as a data collection method produce data and insights that would not be accessible without the group interaction. The key themes to emerge from the data analysis were; time, environment, knowing / self-awareness, compassion and power imbalance / empowerment. These key themes are discussed in relation to the literature and the wider context of the mental health care environment. The contribution this research makes to nursing includes a list of recommendations to nurses, nurse leaders and managers who aim to provide therapeutic mental health unit environments.

Abstract: This thesis explores the theoretical notions of suffering and caring within the nurse patient relationship in the context of emergency nursing. It includes a small pilot study that aimed to assess the feasibliity of a major research project, by describing the impact of vicarious traumatisation in emergency nurses, specifically in relation to their self capacities. This pilot study utilised a descriptive, correlational design. Data was collected by using the Inner Experience Questionnaire (IEQ) a twenty four-item questionnaire developed by Dr Pearlman (1995), and a profile sheet which identified demographic details. Twenty-seven emergency nurses participated in this pilot study. The IEQ was assessed for internal reliability by applying the Cronbachs alpha and utilising a focus group to gain insight into the usability and relevance of the questions. The internal reliability of the IEQ suggests that it may be an appropriate tool to measure disruption of self capacities in the population of emergency nurses. Although the results are limited, and conclusions cannot be drawn, findings suggest a correlation between the variables of age, experience, nursing qualifications and a history of personal trauma and the IEQ. There is evidence that emergency nurses are affected psychologically when caring for the victims of trauma in emergency departments and the IEQ has the potential as a tool to be integrated into future emergency nursing studies. A multidimensional methodological approach is recommended to capture the many contours of the complex phenomena of vicarious traumatisation and the emergency nurse.