Abstract: A survey of health professionals in a medium-sized regional hospital, examining attitudes and perceptions of clinical practice surrounding 'do not resuscitate' orders. Data collected using a questionnaire circulated to medical and nursing professionals currently practising in general medical and surgical areas. Reveals differences in what actually happens in clinical practice compared to what health professionals believe should happen. Using five brief case vignettes, agreement is shown in only two cases as to what resuscitation status should be. Shows that determining resuscitation status in dependent on the individual's values and belief systems

Abstract: Reports the development of a set of Rating scales which can be used to measure the Home visiting part of the workload of Community Health Nurses. The scales provide a useful tool for the equitable distribution of Home visits among existing staff and can assist in the assessment of the total workload of the Community Health Nurses

Abstract: This thesis provides a reflexive critique of the power structures which constrain nursing actions in the practice setting, an abortion clinic, of the registered nurses who participated in this study. The development of abortion services, like other health services for women, has been based on a medical ideology of health which has created many ethical dilemmas for nurses. One of the most complex of these is the extent to which nurses should fulfil the role of client advocate. While the literature on nursing advocacy has been prolific, published research in this area is scant.The theoretical assumptions of critical social science, provide the basis for the methodological approach of action research adapted in this study. In depth, unstructured interviews involving exchange of dialogue amongst the participants with the researcher focused on the participants' experiences of their own nursing practice, with a view to uncoveing and removing restrasints, which had prevented them fulfililng an advocacy role. Diaries were also kept and used as supplementary research tools.The analysis of the data demonstrates the ways in which nurses interpret their own practice world as a system independent of their own actions. It shows how the shared understandings of the participants were 'ideologically frozen' and power relations inherent in the health care system are deep rooted and subtle, coming to be treated as natural by the nurses, and so denying them their own ability to make changes.It is suggested that opportunities for nurses coming together and engaging in such critically reflexive dialogue may provide a basis for future emancipation from traditional power structures. In this way effective and satisfying nursing practice dependent on emancipatory knowledge and a reinterpretation of power structures may result in an advocacy role for nurses

Abstract: The report contains biographical and demographic data from 255 Comprehensive Nursing graduates from the 1986 Cohort ( N= 1200) It is a follow up survey of Nurse Students who participated in the 1987 survey ( Phase 1) It describes these graduates' experiences on entry to the workforce

Abstract: This reports the results of a national survey to ascertain what direction education of theatre nursing personnel is taking. It includes method and content preselection, orientation and in service education/ staff development phases of education. Options for the future are also addressed.

Abstract: A student exercise using the qualitative research approach of Glaser and Strauss, commonly known as 'Grounded Theory'. The theory is generated from and grounded into data. Part One dealt with the advantages and disadvantages of qualitative research and its applicability as a methodology to add to Nursings' knowledge base. Part Two was a student learning exercise in the use of Grounded theory as a strategy for theory generation. Nurses identified three main categories that contributed to their perception of their stress level. 1. The degree of control Nurses perceived themselves as having on any given situation. 2. Their personal self image. 3. Their interpersonal skills and relationships with other people within the work environment

Abstract: The purpose of the study was to research the reasons for the dissatisfaction experienced by ten professional nurse-practitioners who chose to leave nursing to join the professions of law or medicine. The mnotivation for professional nurses to chose entry to these particular professions may in some way throw light upon the difficulties being experienced in attempts to bring about changes of an emancipatory nature in the nursing profession (Habermas, 1974). The approach for the study is hermeneutic phenomenology (Gadamer, 1975 – ; Heidegger, 1962)

Abstract: The original purpose of this work was to put some notes together about nurse training at Sunnyside for the hospitals 150th anniversary celebrations. When the celebrations were cancelled, the author continued with the project out of personal interest.A variety of historical research methods were used to collect data for the project. These included a literature search of historical publications related to the subject and the period; gathering documents and statistical records from a variety of sources; writing letters to previous students and tutors, requesting photographs anecdotes and opinions; and a number of prearranged interviews.The resultant brief history, published finally in 1992 is a collection of records, anecdotes, reproduced documents and photographs, interspersed with referenced information from the literature and the writers comments.Past and present staff of this once large psychiatric institution have been able to look at their training in a historical and social context, and in many cases, to see their names in print in the class lists. Others who are undertaking a historical study of Mental Health Nursing in New Zealand may find it useful as a reference work