Litchfield, M. (1994). Viewpoint: Telling nursing stories. Kai Tiaki: Nursing New Zealand, 2(4), 28.
Abstract: A brief critique and comment on the ethical implications of nurse researchers using methodology that involves soliciting personal experiences of patients and subsequently publishing them as stories.
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Litchfield, M., Clarke, M., Edwards, R., Richardson, F., Tansley, R., & Woodman, K. (1995). A description of the needs of people with cancer and support people. Ph.D. thesis, , .
Abstract: The report of a research project commissioned by the Wellington Division of the New Zealand Cancer Society to provide a foundation for policy to give direction to development of its services. The research approach and methodology had an ecological theory foundation. It involved a survey and in-depth interviews with people with cancer and those caring for them to understand their experience. Needs were identified from the data and presented according to three distinct phases in the course of living with cancer. People moved from the shock of diagnosis, through the time of treatment when usual living was suspended and focus narrowed on the intensive fight against the disease, then into a very different phase of on-going ?wait-and-see? time requiring a new way of living with uncertainty for both patient and carers. The last phase was where most of the unmet needs lay. Recommendations were made for services to provide a continuous caring relationship for patients and carers with a knowledgeable person from the point of diagnosis.
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Litchfield, M. (1997). The process of nursing partnership in family health (Vol. 4).
Abstract: The study reconceptualises the process of nursing practice where health is expanding consciousness. The praxis methodology and design derive from the findings of the previous study (Litchfield, 1993) through which a framework for personal practice was articulated. The philosophical premises were hermeneutic and dialogic reflecting a narrative orientation within a participatory paradigm. Ontology and epistemology merge and language is fundamental. The findings from this subsequent study depict the process of modeling practice as a tetrahedron to show inter-relatedness of four facets, each defined completely by the others: partnership, dialogue, pattern recognition and health as dialectic. Five young families with complex health circumstances were preferred by Plunket Nurses and visited at hole to talk about health and the family. Th e process of health patterning ended with indication of insight as the potential for action; the partnership ended as the closure of the initial contract to provide a summary text to the family. Transformative change in family living was identified. The continuous analysis of the scripts of the evolving conversations and summary text showed the relational, dialogic processes were identified as vision – finding purpose to act in the here-and-now against the backdrop of past and potential of the future; and community – a sense of being connected, participant and relevant in society. This process of research, as if practice, presented health and caring as synonymous and core of the discipline of nursing
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Litchfield, M. (1997). The language of nursing practice in hospitals. (Vol. Proceedings of the National Nursing Informatics Co).
Abstract: A paper presenting the findings of a small research project involving a group of self-selected senior nurses of Wellington Hospital to explore the nature of nursing practice in the care and management of hospitalised patients and to formalise the language that would acknowledge its significance in the current effort of hospitals to define patient care pathways. The nature of hospital nursing practice was described in themes of a generic process of nurse-patient care that articulates a distinct specialism of hospital nursing, whatever the hospital department in which nurses hold positions.
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van Wissen, K. A., Litchfield, M., & Maling, T. (1998). Living with high blood pressure. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 27(3), 567–574.
Abstract: An interdisciplinary (nursing-medicine) collaboration in a qualitative descriptive research project undertaken in the Wellington School of Medicine with New Zealand Health Research Council funding. The purpose was to inform the practice of nursing and medical practitioners. A group of patients were interviewed in their homes. Their experience of having a diagnosis of hypertension and prescription of long-term treatment requiring adjustment in their lives and the lives of their families is presented as themes.
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Litchfield, M. (1998). Case management and nurses. Nursing Praxis in New Zealand, 13(2), 26–35.
Abstract: The report of an exploratory study of current approaches to case management by nurses as requested by the College of Nurses Aotearoa New Zealand. It revealed different interpretations of nurse case management around New Zealand and in the US, UK and Australia. They differed according to the conceptualisation of health service design and delivery in the respective country. Case management in New Zealand in general presented nurse care management roles as an interface between the mangement of health service delivery and the peculiarities of the healthcare people received, holding the potential for achieving tailored, patient-centred care outcomes.
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Litchfield, M. (1998). Professional development: Developing a new model of integrated care. Kai Tiaki: Nursing New Zealand, 4(9), 23–25.
Abstract: An overview of the model of nursing practice and nurse roles derived through a programme of nursing research in the context of the policy and strategies directing developments in the New Zealand health system. The emphsis was on the health service configuration model presented diagrammatically to show the position of a new role of family nurse with a distinct form of practice forming the hub.
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Litchfield, M. (1998). The scope of advancing nursing practice. Nursing Praxis in New Zealand, 13(3), 13–24.
Abstract: An overview of the model of nursing practice and nurse roles derived through a programme of nursing research in the context of the changing New Zealand health system. The emphasis is on the complementary nature of the practice of family nurses taking a generic integrative service delivery hub role and the practice of other nurses advancing in specialist roles. Nursing care is presented as a professional, collective practice of registered nurses spread across all health service sectors and employment settings. Nurse roles are differentiated according to the interplay of two factors influencing the extent of practice autonomy the nurses assume (educationally supported) in responding to health need. A diagram depicts the interrelationship of competency and scope for the inclusive three different career trajectories of nurses advancing in practice. NOTE: This paper was published with an error in the title of the article (stated correctly on the journal contents page). An apology from the journal editor with an explanation of the importance of the use of the term ?advancing? and not ?advanced? was published in the subsequent issue (Nursing Praxis in NZ,14(1)).
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Litchfield, M. (1998). What is nursing research? P. Watson & M.Woods (Eds.), Waiora: Nursing research in Aotearoa/New Zealand, evolving a shared sense of our future. Proceedings of the Nursing Research Section/Te Runanga O Aotearoa (New Zealand Nurses' Organisation) conference, Wellington 26-27 March., .
Abstract: This conference paper outlines the nature of nursing research developing the distinct knowledge for nursing practice. It is presented as a cumulative process of knowledge development about health, practice and service delivery. Nursing research is illustrated by tracing a personal trajectory of research over 25 years that addressed questions relating to and derived from the practice of nursing.
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Litchfield, M., & Laws, M. (1999). Achieving family health and cost-containment outcomes: Innovation in the New Zealand Health Sector Reforms. In Cohen,E. & De Back,V. (Eds.), The outcomes mandate: New roles, rules and relationships. Case management in health care today (pp. 306-316). St Louis: Mosby.
Abstract: The chapter presents the research findings of the 1992-1993 Wellington Nurse Case Management Scheme Project as a distinct model of nurse case management, which introduced a role and form of practice of a family nurse and a diagram of the service delivery structure required for support and relevant for the New Zealand health system reforms.
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Litchfield, M. (1999). Practice wisdom. Advances in Nursing Science, 22(2), 62–73.
Abstract: The paper is the report of two cumulative research projects studying the nature of nursing knowledge and methodology to develop it. They were undertaken as theses for masters and doctoral degrees at the University of Minnesota, USA. Nursing knowledge is depicted as relational: an evolving participatory process of research-as-if-practice of which 'health' (its meaning), dialogue, partnership and pattern recognition are threads inter-related around personal values of vision and community.
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Litchfield, M., & Ross, J. (2000). The role of rural nurses: National survey. Christchurch: Centre for Rural Health.
Abstract: A survey was used to reach as many nurses as possible involved with nursing in “rural” areas throughout New Zealand and to build a profile of nurses involved in the provision of healthcare beyond the urban centres. The contact also sought to inform nurses of the rural healthcare project and encourage them to contribute their experience to the development of health services in the new health service structure. Data is presented on the characteristics and employment conditions of nurses and access to resources including information technology. The inadequacy of information on the rural nurse workforce is identified: nurse roles are historically defined yet employment patterns are changing according to the workforce demands of new structures, and the existing definitions of rural health service design and delivery are only in terms of general medical practices and on-call coverage. Recommendations are made for definitions of “rurality” and “rural nurse” that will allow a more useful depiction of the nurse workforce.
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Litchfield, M. (2001). A framework of complementary models of nursing practice: A study of nursing roles and practice for a new era of healthcare provision in New Zealand. Christchurch: Centre for Rural Health.
Abstract: This is the second of a series of research projects undertaken to present the contemporary picture of the nurse workforce and their work in rural settings to inform policy for development of rural healthcare. The document presents the findings of telephone interviews with nurses in different work rural work settings around the country discussing their practice. The analysis identified a framework of four models of nursing practice: two traditional models defined by the institutions employing nurses, and two emerging models defined by the new positions requiring nurses to respond directly to health need.
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Litchfield, M. (2002). The successful design and delivery of rural health services: The meaning of success. Christchurch: Centre for Rural Health.
Abstract: This is the report of the analysis of data from an in-depth survey designed by Sue Dawson, previously Rural Health Researcher in the Centre for Rural Health, and follow-up interviews. The study purpose was to construct a definition of “successful design and delivery of rural health services” as a step towards a measurement tool. Participants were grouped as general practitioners, nurses and community representatives. A format for a participatory approach to evaluation of rural health services is derived from the criteria of success identified, with its relevance for the implementation of the new Government primary health care strategy explicit. This format provided the basis for a subsequent evaluation case study undertaken in a small rural forestry township by the Centre for Rural Health.
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Litchfield, M. (2002). The successful design and delivery of rural health services: The meaning of success. Christchurch: Centre for Rural Health.
Abstract: A report on the analysis of data from an in-depth survey designed by Sue Dawson, previously Rural Health Researcher in the Centre for Rural Health, and follow-up interviews. The study purpose was to construct a definition of ?successful design and delivery of rural health services? as a step towards a measurement tool. Participants were grouped as general practitioners (GPs), nurses and community representatives. A format for a participatory approach to evaluation of rural health services is derived from the criteria of success identified, with its relevance for the implementation of the new Government primary health care strategy explicit. This format provided the basis for a subsequent evaluation case study undertaken in a small rural forestry township by the Centre for Rural Health.
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