Aid-in-dying: issues and implications for nursing

A debate format describes questions arising from the Model Aid-in-Dying Act, drafted at the University of Iowa's College of Law, and the implications for nurses. The Act allows patients or their named surrogates to demand or request active aid-in-dying. The Act requires nurses and other health care providers to comply with the qualified patient's demand unless the health care provider is a registered conscientious objector.     

Loss of clinical nursing expertise: A discussion paper

There is evidence to suggest that there is a general decline in clinical expertise in nursing as a result of experienced clinicians leaving the profession. The expertise of clinical nursing practice is an important resource and needs to be captured and made available to others as loss of this knowledge and expertise has implications for clinical outcomes. This paper aims to discuss the current nursing workforce, loss of clinical expertise, the nature of expertise and the way it can be captured. Clarification and articulation of clinical knowledge of nursing experts provides the means for knowledge to be transferred to a less experienced workforce and be available in an accessible form in the workplace. Leverage of nursing expertise in this manner has the potential to benefit less experienced staff, hold clinical nursing expertise in the workplace and improve clinical outcomes and satisfaction with performance.     

Focus on community: directions for nursing knowledge development

Nurses are challenged to advance the theoretical foundations of community practice. This paper offers ideas on what has been done and what needs to be done to meet this challenge. Within a community health nursing perspective, the paper defines community, proposes an integrated knowledge development framework that focuses on community, analyses contemporary theoretical and philosophical foundations of community in nursing, considers three world-views in which nursing can be framed, and examines parameters for knowledge development for the future.     

Living with diabetes: issues for nursing practice

Discussion in this paper is based on findings drawn from research undertaken within a qualitative framework of analysis, and with the purpose of exploring people's perceptions of living with diabetes, including the nursing care they receive A major theoretical concern is to demonstrate the importance of placing patients’and clients’experiences at the centre of nursing interest and practice It is argued that understanding a disease process should of necessity include an understanding of the concerns of those who live with it Findings related to the following research questions are discussed first, what are the challenges of living with diabetes? and second, what are people's perceptions of the nursing care they receive?     

Focus groups: issues of analysis and interpretation

Focus groups have become a popular method in nursing research. Their history can be traced back to marketing research methods, but they have also been used in qualitative, ethnographic research. Our study, which used this approach as part of data collection, raised many issues of analysis and interpretation: in particular, the importance of paying attention to the sequence of focus group discussions, the individuals involved, and the social context of the focus group. We conclude that focus groups are not a 'quick and easy' method of collecting data, and that issues of validity and the relationship between focus group data and other data require careful consideration.     

Fifteen minutes may decrease nursing burnout: A discussion paper

Burnout is a global concern for nurses with broad implications for the health of staff and patients. Efforts to foster resilience that have been successful in other disciplines have yet to be applied in nursing. As employers have become more responsible for the wellbeing of their employees, leveraging these successes in other disciplines could be a straightforward way to improve the wellbeing of the nursing workforce through reducing burnout. Specifically using a paid pre-shift 15 minute program grounded in mindfulness may decrease burnout through improving resilience.     

场景分析在讨论护理差错时的应用

护理差错的管理对病人安全至关重要。如何减少或控制护理差错是护理管理的重要内容和重要目标,也是护理管理者和研究者应积极探讨和解决的问题。诸多文献及资料将护理差错发生归咎于护士的责任心缺失或者粗心大意等,但美国医学研究所(IOM 1999)的报告中指出:多数差错是由于护理体制的不完善,而不是人的粗心引起的,这也是美国护士协会(ANA)长     

Ethical issues in health‐care inquiry: A discussion paper

This paper is a discussion of the possible ethical dilemmas that may arise in both qualitative and quantitative research despite stringent methodological protocols. Three categories of ethical issues will be elaborated on, namely, researcher–participant relations, informed consent and confidentiality and privacy. These are of note because ethical dilemmas most often arise in these areas. Both qualitative and quantitative research types may thus present with problems associated with any, or a combination, of these categories. Methodological rigour will also be discussed as a vital component of any research study. Critics of the qualitative approach have often suggested that the innate lack of methodological rigour has resulted in the preponderance of ethical issues in qualitative studies. Qualitative studies, similar to quantitative studies, have mechanisms that guarantee rigour, quality and trustworthiness. These checks are at par with those of quantitative research but based on different criteria. Both types of research, then, can be considered equal in terms of methodological rigour, regardless of the nature. As no research approach can be perfectly free from threats of ethical issues, it is the researcher's responsibility to address these in ways that will be less harmful to the participants, bearing in mind ethical problems can arise at any time during the research endeavour.     

Focus of research for PhD in nursing

Nurses employed in a variety of positions can benefit from knowledge generated by studies other than clinical nursing research. If the study contributes primarily to nursing and if the study provides the candidate with the opportunity to demonstrate research competence, this author supports accepting dissertation topics in nursing administration and nursing education, as well as clinical nursing practice.