Abstract: The authors synthesise and critically analyse parenting research in nursing. They focused on studies published between 1993 and 2004 by nurse researchers in peer-reviewed journals. Data were organised and analysed with a sample of 17 nursing research studies from core nursing journals. The majority of parenting research has been focused on mothers, primarily about parenting children with physical or developmental disabilities. Research about fathers as parents is sparse. Parenting across cultures, parenting in the context of family, and theoretical frameworks for parenting research are not well developed. The authors conclude that the scope of nursing research on parenting is limited.

Abstract: The author contends that health care and education have been colonised by 'The Audit Society' and managerialism. It is argued that under the benign guise of 'improving quality' and 'ensuring value for money' a more Orwellian purpose operates. Academics had to be transformed into a workforce of 'docile bodies', willing to scrutinise and survey themselves and their 'performance' as outcome deliverers and disciples of the new 'Qualispeak'. This paper critiques the current obsession with audit and performativity, and the constant and often pointless 'change' that is held to be so self-evidently 'a good thing' and identifies policy discussion as a linguistic wasteland.

Abstract: The article is a collaborative writing venture drawing on research findings from New Zealand and Iceland to contribute to the international scholarship on the status and future direction of the nursing discipline. It takes an overview of the international historical trends in nursing knowledge development and proposes a framework for contemporary nursing research that accommodates the past efforts and paradigms of nurse scholars and reflects the changing thinking around the humanness of the health circumstance as the focus of the nursing discipline. It addresses contemporary challenges facing nurses as practitioners and researchers for advancement of practice and delivery of health services, and for influencing health policy.

Abstract: Details how the author employed focused ethnography in her doctoral research to investigate nurses' and parents' experience of emotional communication in the context of a children's unit of a regional hospital in NZ. Interviews 10 parents and 10 nurses after the children were discharged. Validates the ethnographic method as a means of inspecting the hidden as well as observable aspects of nurse-parent interaction.

Abstract: This research undertaken by a nurse working with bereaved families, aimed to explore how grandparents, parents and health/bereavement professionals constructed grandparent bereavement when an infant grandchild died unexpectedly. The 26 participants, living in New Zealand and the United Kingdom, included 16 grandparents and 6 parents from 11 families, in addition to three health/bereavement professionals. A constructivist inquiry informed by writings on nursing, storying and postmodernism was used. Through an exploration of the methodological and ethical issues that arose and were addressed during the study, this work adds to knowledge of how constructivist inquiry can be used in nursing and bereavement research. In addition, the context of this research as a partnership with multiple family members contributes to the ongoing debate about whether participation in bereavement research may be harmful or therapeutic. Conversations in this research formed a series of interviews and letters, which led to the development of a joint construction and each individual's story. A grandchild's death was constructed as a challenge which grandparents faced, responded to and then managed the changes that arose from the challenge. The context of their bereavement was seen as underpinned by their relationship as “parents of the adult parents” of the grandchild who died. This meant that grandparents placed their own pain second to their wish to support and “be with” the parents. Outside the family was where many grandparents found friends, colleagues or their community forgot, or chose not to acknowledge, their bereavement. This work shows how some grandparents help to create a space within the family which maintains a continuing relationship with the grandchild who died.

Abstract: This book examines in detail the confluence of personalities and professional and practice agendas, out of which emerged the research section, intent on placing research at the centre of the profession's evolution. It provides a fascinating look at how a group of women, utterly committed to nursing, drove their research agenda and it expands understandings of why nursing research is significant for the development of nursing. It also provides an insight into that web of relationships between the professional body, NZNA, the Department of Health, service delivery and education.
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Abstract: This research examines how nurses negotiate the context of the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) while working with families. The action research described in this thesis developed through a series of meetings and conversations where the conversations supported the reflexive intent of the research. In commissioning the research, the design of the meetings and conversations were as a series of overlapping actions. Data collection and data analysis occurred in the action research by meetings, reflective conversations, ad libitum observations, and in a research journal. Conceptual maps explain the progress and findings of the research in this thesis while categories distilled from the conversations also support the findings in the research. The Family Action Research Group that was established within this project proposed a Family Assessment Form for the family to provide an assessment of themselves and the patient. Implementing this assessment tool demonstrated that clear information was needed for the family in the ICU. Findings in this research focus on developing action research and family care in ICU. Findings also focused on the role of the researcher being of and not being of the context where action research is undertaken. Recommendations include staff examining relationships for potential asymmetries and seeking ways to address these to support families and staff. Suggested strategies for developing action research in a clinical context include detailed planning, clear focusing, transparency of data, and working to explain change initiatives through the research are also included.