Abstract: The purpose of this study was to provide a partial theoretical description of the phenomenon of caring in nursing practice. Three practice settings involving cancer patients were selected: hospital, hospice, and community with thirty patients and thirty-two nurses participating in the study. A research design combining a phenomenological perspective and grounded theory strategies was implemented. Data were collected by interview, participant observation and records. The data were analysed by the method of constant comparative analysis.A number of concepts were developed from the data and the theoretical framework of “The Actualized Caring Moment” was formulated to explain how the actual caring process occurs in nursing practice. This caring moment is the moment at which the nurse and the patient realise their intersubjective connectedness in transforming healing-growing as human beings in a specific-dynamic changing situation. The actualized caring moment is a gestalt configuration of three carting moments. The pre-conditions, The on-going interaction, and The situated context.The Pre-conditions, which consist of the nurse, personally and professionally prepared to care, and the patient, a person with compromised health and wellbeing, are pre-requisites for the occurrence of the caring process. The nurses has the qualities of benevolence, commitment, and clinical competency to be ready to care. The patient is a unique person in a vulnerable state and requires assistance from the nurse to meet personal health needs.The on-going interaction, the actual caring process, is the continuity of the nurse-patient interaction moment by moment which brings together six caring elements: Being there, Being mindfully present, A relationship of trust Participation in meeting needs, Empathetic communication, and Balancing knowledge-energy-time. The Situated Context is the situation and environment where the actual caring process is taking place, and this is comprised of circumstances of the nurse-patient meeting and care-facilitating working conditions.The conceptual framework of “The Actualised Caring Moment” offers nurses an opportunity to understand their practice more fully in providing effective nursing service. Consequently, its implications are valuable for education, research, and the development of knowledge focussed on the discipline of nursing

Abstract: This thesis presents a study of a nursing 'practicum' from the perspectives of nursing students and staff 'buddies'. A grounded theory approach was used to interview six nursing students during their transition placement, the final practicum of their Diploma in Nursing programme. Five staff nurse buddies selected by the students were also interviewed. An informal, conversational interview was used and data was analysed from an experiential learning perspective.This study differs from others because it focuses on the clinical experience component of nursing education, 'practicum', and includess practitioners viewpoints. At present there is a re-evaluing of experience within nursing education with a new emphasis on practice-based learning. Experience-based learning is becoming increasingly acceptable within academia as a 'seamless' education system evolves.I identified three learning stages which students' experience during practicum – initiation, exploration and consolidation. The key stage for learning through experience was exploration. Learning during this stage was predominantly buddy-directed which contradicted the self-directed curriculum design. Students and staff nurses however agreed that communication between them during this stage enabled the development of 'competence'.The learning /teaching approach used by the students and staff nurses made it difficult for students to translate their 'all-round' competencies during practicum. It is argued that it is the useof such competencies during practicum which enable nursing students to become autonomous in the attitudinal and epistemological sense. The predominantly 'technical training' approach adopted was understood by students and staff nurses to be reinforced by 'silence' from tutors.Restructuring gives the opportunity for nursing to develop an ';investigative', enquiry-based approach in practice. There will increasingly be an emphasis on practice-based research as a result of the implementation of degree and post-graduate programmes in nursing. This study highlights some aspects of nursing education and it's relationship with practice which can assist the development of such an approach

Abstract: Historical facts from 1881 pertaining to Wellington Hospital, and the training of nurses, commencing with the employment of unpaid Lady Nurses, the conditions of employment for probationers (circa 1883), the formal teaching of probationers 1888, progressing to a three year training, and, with Miss Ellen Dougherty a Wellington trainee being the first registered nurse in the world in 1901. Management of the 1880's and 90's appears a little strange, not employing their own trainees, nor appointing Miss Dougherty as matron, when she had been acting matron.Extrapolation of historical facts to give a probable characterisation of the unpaid Lady nurses and the day in the life of a probationer nurse of these times.Inferences suggest that nursing in New Zealand had military rather than religious origins and, perhaps Misses Selena Sutherland and Dougherty were not lady like enough to be employed by Wellington Hospital!

Abstract: The interdepartmental Center for Postgraduate Studies is newly established within the University of Otago and intends to develop a research profile which is responsive to the health care of the community ad can provide a rigorous basis for teaching and postgraduate research. This study aims to determine:* the characteristics and needs of those people with a serious mental disorder who are cared for by community mental health nurses.* the characteristics of the community mental health nurse's role.* the environmental, political issues and policies which impact on the needs of patients and the role of the community mental health nurse.This is timely research given public concerns about mental health services, lack of integration in social and health policy and the impact of the Health Reforms on care delivery (National Health Committee, 1998; Howden-Chapman, 1998) but limited empirical data or systematic investigation of the issues from a service user, on the needs of users of community health services and their families, and the role of the community health nurse in meeting these needs