Family nursing: walking the talk

This article discusses a study exploring the lived experience of family nursing for novice registered nurses. There has been an increased emphasis on including family content in Canadian nursing education curricula. Literature on family nursing is ambiguous about differentiating family nursing at the generalist and specialist level, and acknowledges that there is a blurring of lines between the two. The study utilized a phenomenological approach to examine how nurses with 2 years or less in practice experience family nursing in a variety of settings. Following ethical approval, invitations were sent to all nurses employed in two health authorities, who met the study criteria. Five nurses were interviewed using a semistructured interview. Participants shared how they practice family nursing in the current nursing situation of shortages and constraints. This study adds to our understanding of what happens at a beginning level of family nursing, how nurses understand and experience caring for families in the everyday enactment of their professional role, and barriers and facilitators to including family in nursing care. The findings provide important information for nurse educators in grounding the teaching of family nursing in the real world of nurses.     

Careful nursing: a model for contemporary nursing practice

BACKGROUND: Careful nursing, a system of nursing developed in Ireland by Catherine McAuley in the early years of the 19th century and used by Irish nurses at the Crimean war, has been described as Ireland's legacy to nursing. Although records of careful nursing have been preserved, it has received little attention in the nursing literature. AIM: The purpose of this study was to conduct a preliminary content analysis of the mainly primary source historical documentation of the careful nursing system and present it within the structure of a contemporary conceptual model of nursing. METHODS: The documents describing the careful nursing system were studied and re-studied to gain understanding of the philosophical assumptions underlying careful nursing and of the thinking, attitudes, actions and practice of the nurses. Content relating to the four central nursing concepts was identified and summarized. RESULTS: Careful nursing definitions of person, environment, health and nursing are presented. Ten key concepts of careful nursing practice are identified as disinterested love, contagious calmness, creation of a restorative environment, 'perfect' skill in fostering safety and comfort, nursing interventions, health education, participatory-authoritative management, trustworthy collaboration, power derived from service and nurses' care for themselves. The spiritual dimension of human life and the spiritual in nursing emerge as important characteristics of the model. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this preliminary analysis require further verification and critical examination. However, the careful nursing model illuminates important aspects of professional nursing and could be further developed to conceptualize and guide nursing practice.     

Reforming hospital nursing: the experiences of Maria Machin

The reform of hospital nursing in the last quarter of the nineteenth century brought nursing leaders into conflict with the gendered and class bound structure of Victorian society. The experiences of Maria Machin are used in this article as an example of the barriers nursing leaders had to overcome in order to establish a competent nursing service. While Machin was eminently successful in improving patient care and expanding the knowledge base of her nurses, she could not change the perceptions of nursing which the public at large held. At the beginning of the nineteenth century hospital nurses had been essentially cleaning women who gave some of the less important nursing care. They formed a cheap service which many hospital governors considered a relatively low priority in the overall operation of the hospital. This view of nursing persisted long after the reformers had made nursing into something quite different. Machin's nursing career also illustrates how nursing participated in a major aspect of British imperialism, the export of professional expertise and administrative skills as well as the way nursing fitted into the rise of the new professionalism.     

Teaching holistic nursing: the legacy of Nightingale

This article emphasizes the importance of holistic concepts in nursing and curriculum development. Grounded in the work of Florence Nightingale, nursing education prepares practitioners to meet the holistic needs of clients. The basic tenets offered by the American Holistic Certification Corporation and the American Holistic Nurses' Association are used to describe essential content in a nursing program emphasizing holism. Strategies for introducing holistic nursing into curriculum and overcoming barriers to including holistic nursing in nursing education are discussed. Examples are provided through the experiences of two schools of nursing that successfully incorporated holistic nursing concepts.     

Differentiated practice: The evolution of professional nursing

Differentiated practice identifies and uses three distinct nursing roles to create a comprehensive nursing care delivery system that meets client needs across the health care continuum. Clearly defined associate degree in nursing, bachelor's of science in nursing, and master's science in nursing competencies present career opportunities for professional nurses at the bedside providing, integrating, or managing client care as well as options in management, education, and regulation. An evolutionary paradigm shift required of all nurses is the awareness that each nurse is not the whole of nursing, but rather each nurse contributes to the whole of nursing. A nursing community comprised of differentiated roles that are mutually valued and well integrated will position nursing as a powerful force in meeting the diversity and complexity of health care needs in contemporary society.     

Genetics: challenges for nursing education.

Rapid development of new knowledge in genetics has not been matched by increased inclusion of genetics content in nursing education or nursing research. Genetics is viewed as tangential to nursing, a useful but not necessary component of nursing knowledge. A paradigm shift to a view of genetics as a science basic to the practice of nursing is proposed. Methods to achieve this shift are presented.     

Elder RNs: learning from their experiences

A grounded theory study of elderly registered nurses was conducted to explore perceptions about the nursing profession in light of the nursing shortage. The participants ranged in age from 65 to 90 and came from a variety of educational and nursing backgrounds. As they spoke of their perceptions, participants shared their personal stories regarding the reasons they went to nursing school, ways they feel they made a difference in others' lives because they were nurses, and their views as elderly patients of nursing today. Their narratives describe barriers to nursing education and nurses and patients in the 1920s through 1960s and the changes that have occurred in nursing and medicine.     

Nursing science: more promise than threat

This paper considers the issue of nursing science. Nursing, as an art, has long been accepted as integral to nursing. Nursing, as a science, however, is a more recent concept. Nursing science is viewed as a threat to the profession by its opponents, while the proponents of nursing science see it as a promise for advancement of the discipline. This paper examines the issue of nursing science by looking at its history and development, the definition of science, and five factors critical to the nursing science issue. The author concludes that nursing science is, in varying respects, both a threat and a promise. It is clear that the preponderance of evidence favours the promise nursing science holds for the profession of nursing. It is not a matter of choosing either art or science, but rather skillfully blending both for the betterment of nursing. Both art and science are necessary in nursing--neither, however, is sufficient.     

Early intervention: the unique role of nursing

The nursing profession is experiencing an expansion of nursing roles into many and varied areas of health care. This article seeks to identify the role and unique contributions of the nurse in the early intervention setting. Employing Levine's conservation principles as a framework for assessment and intervention, a case study is provided and a nursing care plan is developed for a 16-month-old, multiply-handicapped child. Suggestions for nursing practice, nursing education, and nursing research in the early intervention area are offered.     

Reconsidering the conceptualization of nursing workload: literature review

AIM: This paper reports a literature review that aimed to analyse the way in which nursing intensity and patient dependency have been considered to be conceptually similar to nursing workload, and to propose a model to show how these concepts actually differ in both theoretical and practical terms. BACKGROUND: The literature on nursing workload considers the concepts of patient 'dependency' and nursing 'intensity' in the realm of nursing workload. These concepts differ by definition but are used to measure the same phenomenon, i.e. nursing workload. METHOD: The literature search was undertaken in 2004 using electronic databases, reference lists and other available literature. Papers were sourced from the Medline, Psychlit, CINAHL and Cochrane databases and through the general search engine Google. The keywords focussed on nursing workload, nursing intensity and patient dependency. FINDINGS: Nursing work and workload concepts and labels are defined and measured in different and often contradictory ways. It is vitally important to understand these differences when using such conceptualizations to measure nursing workload. A preliminary model is put forward to clarify the relationships between nursing workload concepts. CONCLUSION: In presenting a preliminary model of nursing workload, it is hoped that nursing workload might be better understood so that it becomes more visible and recognizable. Increasing the visibility of nursing workload should have a positive impact on nursing workload management and on the provision of patient care.     

Competence: A concept analysis

Twenty years ago, the National League for Nursing pushed for major reform in nursing curriculum. It was their intent to revitalize nursing education and help prepare the next generation of nursing students for the increasingly complex nursing challenges of the future. Benefits of this change were to provide better prepared nurses, increased nursing satisfaction, and decreased nursing attrition. Unfortunately, many nursing schools have not changed their curriculum in a substantive way to meet this challenge. To meet this challenge, nurse educators need to look at new ways to help students develop critical-thinking skills to be able to competently problem solve in today's challenging health care environment. This article explores the concept of competence as it relates to nursing practice. Through examination and understanding of this concept, nurse educators are challenged to redefine and rebuild nursing curriculum to help develop competent nurses and make the profession stronger.     

基于共词分析的围手术期护理研究热点探讨

目的 采用共词分析法对国内围手术期护理研究的相关文献进行分析,探讨围手术期护理的研究热点。方法 以中国知网(CNKI)作为检索数据库,检索时间段为2016年4月-2019年4月、主题词为“围手术期”和“护理”的文献,采用共词分析方法,利用Bicomb软件、SPSS 18.0软件进行统计分析,并生成聚类分析树状图。 结果 提取高频关键词共22个。近三年我国围手术期护理研究热点可归纳为5个主题:快速康复外科护理理念在腹部手术围术期应用研究、临床护理路径在围手术期的应用研究、心理护理联合健康教育在围术期护理中的应用研究、综合护理与癌症患者生活质量研究、围手术期循证护理研究。结论 我国围手术期护理文献研究主要集中在快速康复护理、临床护理路径、心理护理、健康教育以及围术期循证护理的相关研究方面。     

Community-based student practice: a transformational model of nursing education

Nursing and nursing faculty shortages demand innovation of nurse-educators and nursing leaders to prepare nursing students for the environment in which they will practice. This article outlines the process of curricular revision undertaken by a department of nursing in a small rural liberal arts college, in partnership with clinical affiliates, based on a structure-process-outcome framework. An expanding literature base promotes service learning in nursing education. Comparison of service-learning and community-based nursing education led the partners to view community-based nursing education experience as practice, and, as such, an emerging model that transcends service learning. Community-based student nursing experiences that meet student, program, and community outcomes are planned and implemented in collaboration with community partners. This model provides students with opportunities to develop a rich understanding of the professional nursing role, while promoting nursing workforce development at both the individual and organizational levels.     

Nursing informatics: yesterday, today and tomorrow

Today, at the beginning of the 21st century, nursing informatics has become a part of our professional activities. Informatics has advanced the field of nursing by bridging the gap from nursing as an art to nursing as a science. This article discusses the major milestones that have influenced the growth of computer technology and the specific efforts that have influenced yesterday's creation of the nursing informatics movement. It also provides an overview of nursing informatics in today's health care industry, while highlighting the administrative, management, research and educational applications and initiatives. In addition, it provides an overview of Saba's Home Health Care Classification, a nursing language system that has influenced the field. Finally, it provides a prediction of how computer technology will impact the nursing profession in the 21st century.     

The philosophy of nursing management: a conceptual analysis

This is a conceptual article about philosophy. The author aims to provide nursing professionals, both academic and clinical, with a point of reference covering nursing, management and philosophy, which it is hoped, will contribute to improvements in both academic and clinical nursing. The specific approach adopted is the dualistic perspective of philosophy of nursing and philosophy of management, searching for opportunities to communicate with nursing management, and, further, the possibility of establishing a philosophy of nursing management. The author argues that the most appropriate orientation for nursing management is that of a form of nonprofit organization management, and an indispensable element of health care management. If a medical institution can transcend public sector and private sector management models and adopt a nonprofit organization, management model, it could succeed in integrating the caring ideal of nursing with a humanistic organizational spirit. This would be beneficial to all parties with a stake in the effective provision of nursing care.     

Theory-practice debate: setting the scene

The theory-practice debate has not been given prominence in Australian nursing literature. This paper considers the origins of the debate by tracing its history through predominantly overseas nursing literature. It considers the role of nursing theory in nursing practice from three perspectives: that theory guides practice; that practice is a source of theory and that theory and practice inform each other. After concluding that a theory-practice gap exists, ways in which it can be reduced are considered. These strategies fall within the realms of clinical practice, nursing theory development and nursing research. Finally, the role that a critical social science perspective could play in addressing theory-practice issues is briefly examined.