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Alexander, S. M. (1989). Evaluation as an aged-care management tool: a case study. Ph.D. thesis, , .
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Litchfield, M., & Noroian, E. (1989). Changes in selected pulmonary functions in patients diagnosed with myasthenia gravis. Journal of Neuroscience – Nursing, 21(6), 375–381.
Abstract: Patients with myisthenia gravis (MG) face major pulmary problems as a part of the disease process. In this descriptive study, changes in selected pulmonary functions (respiratory rate, negative inspiratory force, tidal volume and forced total capacity) in 14 patients diagnosed with mild or moderate MG were measured every two hours from 8.00 a.m. to 8.00 p.m. Females comprised 64% of the sample while 36% were males. All subjects received anticholnesterase medication, and some subjects received additional treatment modalities. Most of the subjects were non-smokers or previous smokers, but two subjects continued to smoke. Ninety-three recent of the sample had forced vital capacities less than 60% of their predicted values. Myasthenic forced vital capacities were significantly lower (p=.0000) than those predicted for normal subjects. The inspiratory force for the sample was low sat 8:00 a.m. as well as in females over 55 years of age. There was a wide variation in total volume to normal values derived from random tables and predicted equations ws not significant. Th major implications from this study are the need to assess pulmonary function in the hospitalized myasthenic every two hours, and the need for a program of coughing, deep breathing and sighing after medication administration when the muscles are strongest
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Litchfield, M. (1989). Knowledge embedded in practice. Kai Tiaki: Nursing New Zealand, 82(10), 24–25.
Abstract: A statement of the nature of research needed to distinguish the knowledge of nursing practice from knowledge developed by other disciplines. It orients to the interrelationship of practice and research as the foundation of the discipline of nursing.
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Gordon, M. J. (1988). View of the new – a case study of the perceptions of nurse tutors support and development in the first two years of their employment. Ph.D. thesis, , .
Abstract: This study was designed to explore the perceptions of Nurse Tutors, of their first two years following appointment to teaching positions, in a small regional Polytechnic . There was particular emphasis on factors they believed enhanced or impeded their performance, in the first two years of their employment.It was hoped the project would serve as a springboard for their development of support to assist Nursing Tutors during the first two years in their employment.The purpose of the study was not to examine the formal induction process, or the role of the staff development unit. Instead it aimed to focus on the experience of the Nursing Tutors within the Nursing school, and associated practicum teaching.An essentially qualitative approach was adopted. The aim being to discover patterns in the data from the research, and explore these themes with reference to relevant literature. Case study was chosen as the design framework for the study.Participants in the study were five Nurse Tutors who had joined the Polytechnic during the last two years and volunteered to participate in the study.Data was gathered by interview based on critical incidents, identified by participants. Themes identified from interview transcripts are discussed with reference to relevant literature. These themes indicated that tutors looked forward to their new role with anticipation, but that initial teaching experience was somewhat negative, and they did not feel well prepared. An important issue was congruency between the Nursing Curriculum (with focus on care), relationships with students and staff, and institutional constraints. The tutors coped with multiple demands, the three worlds of the Polytechnic , Health Care system and home (and for some degree study!). Participants were actively seeking strategies for successful teaching and able to reflect on aspects they wished to change. Although there were common elements , each participant demonstrated individual strengths and needs.The study concludes with suggestions for future action, including appropriate preparation prior to initial teaching, attention to initial workloads, exploration of buddying, discussion of what constitutes a safe, caring, learning and teaching environment and the relationship to the Nursing curriculum. It is suggested that collaborative sessions in order to share expertise in teaching and learning and/or action research may assist in support of new tutors (and ultimately benefit all staff)
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Christensen, D. J. C. (1988). The nursed passage: a theoretical framework for the nurse-patient partnership. Ph.D. thesis, , .
Abstract: This study focussed on nursing practice in action. The research goal was to identify nursing-relevant dimensions within a person's experience of being a hospital patient undergoing elective surgery. In order to discover and conceptualize the underlying processes which are present as patients are nursed through this experience, an open question was posed – What is happening here? A qualitative research method ws the most appropriate means of discovering an answer to this question.The particular method chosen was the grounded theory approach developed by Glaser and Strauss. Data were collected in five surgical wards of a large city hospital over a period of five months. The research participants were twenty-one patients and the nurses involved in their care. Primary sources of data were interviews and the nursing records. These were augmented by field notes and accounts of observed incidents relating to the care of each patient.Using the inductive strategies of the grounded theory method, numerous descriptive concepts were generated during the data analysis. These were ordered within an integrating social process derived from anthropology. By this means a founded theory in the form of a theoretical framework – the Nursed Passage – was developed. Within this passage the patient is the passage and nursing is translated into action through the agency of the nurse.The Nursed Passage is a patterned partnership with three key elements. Firstly, the temporal element, characterised by ongoing movement and constant change, is conveyed in the sequence of phases or stages. Secondly the participative element is portrayed as a patterned relationship in which both nurses and patient are actively involved in progressing the patient through the passage. Finally, the contextual element recognises complex factors within the nursing environment which have an impact on the shape of the relationship between patient and nurse.This theoretical framework, generated from the reality of nursing as it occurs in one setting, assigns a specific shape to the encounter between nurses and patient. It identifies the contribution nursing alone can make to optimise each patient's hospital experience. In this way it both complements and facilitates the work of medical and other colleagues with whom nurses work. Thus it serves to revalue nursing in terms that can maximally utilise the registered nurse's knowledge and skill for the benefit of all concerned. Consequently, it has the potential value for nursing practice, education and research
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Kinross, D. N. J., Nevatt, E. A., Boddy, J. M., & North, N. (1987). A nurse in an urban community: a process study. Ph.D. thesis, , .
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West, S. R., Harris, B. J., Warren, A., Wood, H., Montgomery, B., & Belsham, V. L. (1986). A retrospective study of patients with cancer in their terminal year. New Zealand Medical Journal, 99(798), 197–200.
Abstract: This was a retrospective study of 100 Auckland people suffering from cancer in their terminal year. It aimed firstly to report the development of limitations in daily living activities and of dependence on help, and secondly to develop a method of assessing the functions of both patients and those who cared for them in such a way that support services could be matched to needs. The observations showed problems of progressive disability and dependence, which varied with the age of the patient and the type of malignancy. They showed clearly the long lasting emotional problems of the careers after the patients' death
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Dodd, J. E. L. (1986). Nursing evaluation of the efficacy of analgesic delivery in post operative pain (Vol. 6). Ph.D. thesis, , .
Abstract: The progress of 22 adult patients was recorded for three days post operatively. Pain was assessed at rest and on activity three times a day using visual analogues. Nausea levels were assessed similarly. All analgesics and anti emetics administered were recorded. There was a wide range of variation in the administration of medications and consequently a wide range of effectiveness. A significant proportion of patients showed unacceptably high levels of pain indicating under treatment. Patients and nurses had conflicting expectations of who should initiate the request for pain medication
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Litchfield, M. (1986). Thinking through diagnosis: Process in nursing practice. Nursing Praxis in New Zealand, 1(4), 9–12.
Abstract: A paper following on from the paper “Between the idea and reality” (Nursing Praxis in New Zealand 1(2), 17-29) proposing the focus for the discipline of nursing – practice and research – is diagnosis. For nursing practice, diagnosis is a practice that collapses “The Nursing Process”; for research to develop nursing practice, diagnosis is one continuous relational process that merges and makes the separate tasks od assessment, intervention and evaluation redundant.
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Litchfield, M. (1986). Between the idea and reality. Nursing Praxis in New Zealand, 1(2), 17–29.
Abstract: A paper presented as one of the four “Winter Lecture Series” hosted by the Nursing Studies unit of the Department of Education, Victoria University of Wellington. It is a critique of “ The Nursing Process” referred to commonly in nursing education programmes. It challenges the usefulness for nursing of the linear sequence of steps of assessment, diagnosis, planning, intervention and evaluation.
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Rodgers, J. A. (1985). Nursing education in New Zealand 1883 to 1930: the persistance of the Nightingale ethos. Ph.D. thesis, , .
Abstract: The Nightingale ethos with its allegiance to the traditional belief in women's responsibility for nurturance, cleanliness and order, aided in the shaping of early formal nursing education in New Zealand
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Shadbolt, Y. T. (1984). Curriculum innovation in a school of nursing – a case study. Ph.D. thesis, , .
Abstract: The study gives an account of curriculum development and innovation in a New Zealand school of nursing and focuses on some aspects of the basic diploma course. The study attempts, through the medium of case study, to illuminate the way in which significant curriculum decisions are made and ideas translated into institutional and technical form. Evidence is derived from the recorded perceptions of the participants, observations, and analyses of documented material. The findings confirm that the field of study is complex, multivariable and dynamic, and that translation of the curriculum on paper involves a multitude of deliberative and factual decisions by practicing teachers
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Hand, K. (1984). Nursing, alcohol and the social model: a study of nurse attitudes. Ph.D. thesis, , .
Abstract: Health professionals, as well as clients, appear to often miss, ignore or avoid alcohol as a health problem. Changes in role for Nurses as well as changes in concepts of alcoholism, alcohol and alcohol control especially in sociological terms led to this study of Nurse's attitudes to alcohol as a social issue. Aim was to shed light on the adequacy of Nurses to function in the community and in the application of sociologically oriented programs of alcohol control. 44 Student Nurses on the point of entering clinical practise were questioned on 21 attitude items. Their responses were compared to those of 100 respondents selected as comparable demographically from 10,000 New Zealanders surveyed in 1978-79 by A.L.A.C. Differences were found, but no strong profile of distinctive 'nurse' views could be identified with confidence. No real extra concern for alcohol issues could be established giving some doubts about the efficiency of Nurses in the workplace. Nurses did differ in some areas of social viewpoints from the general New Zealand population but further studies are needed to more exactly define dimensions of these differences
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Kapoor, S. D. (1983). A time for health: a study into the collaboration of professional, non-professionals and the public to promote better health. Ph.D. thesis, , .
Abstract: An exploratory study of the functioning of four multi disciplinary health care teams ( HCT) in the New Zealand services and possible implications foe Health personnel education. This research seeks to 1. establish form structure and functioning of the HCT in the relation to the delivery of comprehensive primary health care. 2. Determine what collaborative skills are being used, the extent of interdependence and these factors which inhibit the use of these skills in providing primary health care. 3. Identify the key requirements for, and these factors which limit the successful functioning of the HCT in the provision of comprehensive primary health care. Data has been collected through structured interviews and observations. The analysis will compare and contrast the functioning of the social groups in the different settings in terms of their responses to both HCT index and appropriate contextual variables such that differences and similarities are delineated
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Howard, F. M. (1983). Staff – patient interaction patterns in hospital and community psychiatric facilities, a comparison. Ph.D. thesis, , .
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