Abstract: This research illuminates the challenges of living well within one's own family as a nurse caring for her own relative who is dying of a cancer-related illness. Developing a deeper awareness of the consequences of this caring work has been the central focus for inquiry in this research. Nursing requires epistemologies that encompass new ways of understanding how we live within our own families and communities and practice as nurses. The theoretical framework that guides this research interprets the French Philosopher Michel Foucault's (1926-1984) critical history of thought as an ethical project for nursing. It uses conceptual tools developed in his later writing and interviews to draw attention to how discursive knowledge and practices constitute subjectivity in relations of truth, power and the self's relation to the self. The first aspect of the analysis, landscapes of care examines the techniques of discourse as relations of power and knowledge that constitute nurse family members as subjects who have relationships with their own families and other health professionals. The second aspect analyses care of the self and others as self work undertaken to form the self as a particular kind of subject and achieve mastery over one's thoughts and actions.As an exploration of the complex and contradictory subjectivities of the nurse family member, this research illuminates the forms and limits of nursing practice knowledge. It shows how nursing is practised, and the identity of the nurse is created, through intellectual, political and relational work, undertaken on the self in relation to others, as modes of ethical engagement.

Abstract: This article outlines the development of the neonatal nurse practitioner role in New Zealand as an example of one advanced practice nursing role. A model of how nursing culture changes to include roles that incorporate components that historically have been considered the domain of other health professionals is proposed. This article outlines some of the issues surrounding the neonatal nurse practitioner role, including the educational requirements for this role in New Zealand.

Abstract: Investigates the requirements for documentation by nurses. Research by Millar & Araquiza (1999) suggests that nurses spend an estimated 30% of their time documenting patient care.

Abstract: New graduate nurses, particularly in the first year of clinical practice, face challenges with making clinical decisions about patient care. A review of the literature revealed no studies that reported using fundamental qualitative descriptive methodology to investigate new graduate nurses' clinical decision making. Aspects of decision making by new graduates have been studied using observational and interview methods, the findings from which have been interpreted using various theoretical decision making models. There has been little research outside of the context of critical care or intensive care units, but anecdotal reports in 2006 from the New Zealand Nursing Entry to Practice Programme (NetP) coordinators network suggest that new graduates are seldom employed in critical care or intensive care units in New Zealand. Nursing educators involved in undergraduate nurse training and NetP programmes need to understand how new graduates perceive, experience and manage decision making in clinical practice, in order to assist them to develop and refine those skills. There is a need for studies utilising fundamental qualitative descriptive methodology in order to explore the experiences of new graduates' decision making in clinical practice. The author notes that the topic is particularly relevant in light of the introduction of the national NetP programmes framework in New Zealand, and to her role as a NetP programme coordinator. This dissertation examines the relevant literature about decision making by new graduates and the research methods that were used, and concludes that fundamental qualitative descriptive method is a highly appropriate method by which to study new graduates' decision making.

Abstract: This study explored what some New Zealand families believe constitutes the successful management of unsupervised childcare. It was designed to increase social understanding and practitioner knowledge of the issue by exploring families' beliefs, practices and perspectives. The researcher was concerned with the professional role nurses may play with this group of children. A qualitative descriptive approach was used to obtain a straight description of successful unsupervised childcare, using the everyday language of the participating families. Data was collected in semi structured interviews with five family groups, and subjected to content and thematic analysis. Findings suggest unsupervised childcare is both choice and solution, though parents are fearful of the legal and social consequences of using it. Context of the care is important, with the child's preference, community context and availability of adults through distal supervision critical components of its success. Trust between parent and child, the use of rules and boundaries to regulate child behaviour, the teaching of skills and strategies to build child competency, and parental support of children while unsupervised are identified by parents as factors linked to success. Parents identify increasing child independence and self responsibility as positive outcomes from the successful use of unsupervised childcare. This study has helped to identify positive factors resulting in good outcomes from which successful interventions could be developed, provides information that will be of particular interest to practitioners and policy makers, and provides a platform to launch larger studies into the issue of unsupervised children.

Abstract: Aims to explore NZ registered nurses' experience of using tele-consultation to provide care at a distance. Using a general inductive approach, single semi-structured interviews were undertaken with nine experienced nurses who provide secondary and tertiary services to patients and healthcare teams. Identifies five themes relating to nurses' role in tele-consultation.

Abstract: Explores nurses' perceptions about their everyday direction and delegation interactions using a narrative inquiry approach. Invites Registered Nurses (RN)and Enrolled Nurses (EN) who hold a practising certificate, are employed in Canterbury, and registered with the Nursing Council, to participate in this research. Presents 8 narratives that highlight the nature of teamwork, the importance of communication, and the need for a delegation relationship.