Abstract: This paper documents a practice development initiative with the aim of formulating a rationale for the professional practice development of a relatively recently conceived nursing initiative; that of a Palliative Care Liaison Nurse (PCLN) role. The project involved conducting an inquiry through a search of the literature with the aim of discovering ways to articulate, then develop, the role to meet the needs of elderly people living in Residential Aged Care Facilities (RACFs), their family and the whanau. The paper initially explores the concept of liaison roles globally, to consider how this role might be located as an interagency position between palliative care and aged care within the context of Aotearoa/New Zealand. The paper then reveals the perceived skills and personal attributes required by a person in the PCLN role that the author, drawing from personal and professional experience of having been appointed to this position, considers are necessary to effectively manage the diverse dimensions of this role. Bridging the gap is a key role discussed which centres on the capacity to organise and present an effective education programme while supporting, encouraging and role modeling for staff providing the day to day nursing care. This role involves practice wisdom and advocating for change and tolerance within everyday practice. An example of this dimension is discussed in depth, because the researcher considers that through staff working together, they can effectively bridge the knowledge-practice gap which exists between specialist palliative and gerontological nursing care.

Abstract: Home Based Treatment in acute mental health care is a relatively new phenomenon in New Zealand, although it has been utilised successfully overseas for many years. This paper considers factors that are integral elements of its successful implementation, specifically considering the relationship of nursing care to crisis intervention methodology. It describes how Home Based Treatment fits with contemporary crisis services and how the adherence to crisis intervention models can enable nurses to create a clearly defined recovery perspective in their practice. The author notes that service users in New Zealand and overseas have openly voiced their concerns around the discrepancies between how services have traditionally been delivered and how they wish services to be. He suggests that, as an alternative to inpatient care, Home Based Treatment is an option that promotes recovery and self determination. It is also an arena in which nurses can deconstruct the traditional power relationships between themselves and clients to create a new and invigorating way of practicing.

Abstract: People working in aged care settings in New Zealand spend approximately 30% of their lives in their workplace. There is a challenge for workplaces to support people to maintain and improve their health status. This project investigated the question: How can workplaces support staff to maintain health in an aged care environment? The project concerned two considerations: primarily what people can do for themselves and how the organisation can assist their interest and maintain their investment in health based activities and secondly what workplaces can do to make the organisations more healthy. The philosophy and the realities of the workplace were reviewed and the project addressed the strategies that could be adopted by the workplace. The study identifies a series of practical activities and outcomes that aged care facilities can undertake for nurses/caregivers or other members of staff working in the workplace. The findings lead to recommendations about healthy outcomes and managing health and creating a positive climate for health within the workplace.

Abstract: This dissertation came out of the author's wondering why there are still so few men going into nursing especially when the history of nursing reveals that men have been a part of nursing for a long time. In New Zealand it is only since the mid seventies that men have been able to gain the exact same nursing qualifications as their women colleagues. The author notes that men in nursing are still seen as unusual in that they work in a predominantly female occupation and have had their masculinity questioned by the myth that all men in nursing must be gay. There is also the notion that caring is a difficult task for men and is seen by society as a uniquely feminine ability. Both issues are related to dominant notions of masculinity. In addition to this there is currently a crisis in terms of a nursing shortage and it has been suggested that one way to resolve this crisis is to encourage more men into nursing. Thus this exploration as to why there are so few men in nursing is timely. Men who choose nursing as a career risk challenging the traditional roles of their gender stereotype. A comprehensive search of the literature from different disciplines reveals deeper issues than just the commonly held assumption that nursing is not masculine. Exploring the issues of gender with a particular focus on masculinity has uncovered the concept of hegemonic masculinity. This describes how gender is practiced in a way that legitimises patriarchy, reinforcing the dominant position of men over women as well as over other groups of men. It is these patriarchal attitudes that have seen men marginalised within nursing. On the one hand men in nursing could be seen as challenging the current dominant masculine ideal. However, on the other hand men in nursing may not challenge this hegemonic masculinity; instead often supporting the status quo in an effort to maintain their own masculinity. The author suggests that the implication for nursing, if it is to increase the numbers of men in the profession, is to challenge this notion of hegemonic masculinity. This needs to be done appropriately by critically examining this concept rather than by merely replacing one hegemony with another. He goes on to say that it is now time for nursing education to include a critical exploration of gender issues and how it relates to men as part of undergraduate nursing education for both men and women students.

Abstract: New Zealand statistics project that the aging population of people aged 65 years and over will more than double in the next decade. This has implications for palliative care providers including hospices and hospitals because long-term inpatient care is not generally provided by hospitals and hospices. When dying patients need long-term care, residential settings become an option. The level of palliative care in these facilities is dependent on staff training and numbers. In general, staff are not trained in palliative care, neither do they provide the multidisciplinary facets that define palliative care as undertaken by hospices. This paper describes a practice development initiative using storytelling as the vehicle for introducing the concept of the Liverpool Care Pathway (LCP) for the dying patient into residential aged care settings. With the emergence of a reflective paradigm in nursing the concept of storytelling as a teaching/learning tool has grown. Many staff in residential care settings come from diverse ethnic backgrounds where for some, English is their second language. Storytelling therefore can be a useful approach for learning because it can increase their communication skills. The author suggests that the Liverpool Care Pathway for the dying patient is a model that can be translated across care settings, hospice, hospital, and community. It can demonstrate a framework that facilitates multiprofessional communication and documentation and embraces local needs, culture and language to empower health care workers to deliver high quality care to dying patients and their family/whanau and carers. This paper also explores the role of a facilitator as an agent of change and discusses how the interplay of evidence, context and facilitation can result in the successful implementation of the LCP into residential aged care settings.

Abstract: This paper explores the reaction of the author's colleagues when she returned to work disabled after recovering from an injury. In order to understand the new experience of disability and discrimination and to help answer what changed the behaviour of colleagues, the author considered evidence from the published literature. After considering many different models of disability, the social model of disability helped clarify and frame her own experience. Reflecting on this literature and personal experience, she suggests that there is acknowledgement that society's attitudes are changing slowly through governmental action and the activism of the disabled. However, she goes on to say, it is only through progressing education, experiencing disability, and continuing emancipatory research that progress will be made to release people with disabilities from their bonds of prejudice and oppression.

Abstract: With the intention of decreasing emergency department demand, there has been a focus on determining those patients who do not require the services of the emergency department so they can be redirected away to an alternative health care provider or facility. Co-locating an after-hours primary health care facility near to the emergency department is a model under consideration in some district health boards. This model suggests that a substantial proportion of the patients currently managed in the emergency department can be assessed and managed in a general practice setting. It is envisaged that by redirecting the lower acuity patients away from the emergency department, overcrowding will be relieved. This is despite evidence demonstrating that low acuity patients are not the cause of emergency department overcrowding. Moreover, being treated at the emergency department is the only safety net for many people in the community who cannot afford alternative care. This research report discusses the literature regarding the practice of referring or redirecting patients away from the emergency department and the issues associated with this model. In doing this, it looks at the Australasian Triage Scale, the system used to ensure patients are seen in order of clinical urgency, because it has been suggested that this system could be used as a tool to refer patients away from the emergency department. The author concludes that even though some people could be seen by another health care provider, the triage system is not an appropriate tool for achieving this. While it is tempting to believe that patients in the lower triage categories are prime candidates for being referred away, there is evidence from hospital statistics that patients in these categories have a high number of hospital admissions and in-hospital death rates. Additionally, to complicate matters, there is no universal definition of what constitutes an 'appropriate' emergemcy department presentation and no consensus of opinion amongst health professionals in deciding patients' 'appropriateness'. For these reasons it is unethical to expect nurses who administer the triage system to use it for the purpose of referring people away from the emergency department.