Management review of nursing systems

This paper describes the systems of nursing operating at a major cancer centre in the United Kingdom. The review was undertaken over a period of 8 weeks and 11 wards were included. The systems being implemented were primary nursing, team nursing and patient allocation. Methods of enquiry included questionnaires, non-participative observation and interviews. The results of the review found the nursing systems to be at various stages of implementation, and that in reality, not all wards were operating the system they said they were. A pragmatic mixture of team nursing and primary nursing as described by Hegyvary (1982) was being practised on some of the wards. The report makes recommendations for change, and concludes by discussing the future implications for cancer nursing at the centre.     

The internal consistency and intra-rater reliability of an assessment practice grid for community nurses

The development of instruments to measure clinical competence in nursing shows little evidence of a systematic approach and studies of reliability and validity are absent. The present study was carried out using data on practice assessment collected in the course of a post-registration nursing programme. The data were analysed for internal consistency and intra-rater reliability. The instrument used to assess practice in the present study is highly internally consistent and there is evidence to support intra-rater reliability. However, further development and testing of the instrument is required.     

Nursing the future: a re-examination of the professionalization thesis in the light of some recent developments

It is now 6 years since Salvage's (1988) analysis of the position of nursing within the professionalization process, this was written in the light of the aspirations of Project 2000 Recently there have been several significant policy statements from the United Kingdom Central Council which appear to be pursuing professional status despite Salvage's contention that nursing's leaders know 'that full professional status for nursing cannot be achieved' Elements of these statements are discussed in relation to the professionalization thesis Using the examples of nurse prescribing and managerialism, it is argued that the deprofessionalization thesis is more appropriate to nursing since the ideals of autonomy, authority and status are being eroded in the new managerialist post-Griffiths National Health Service culture A positive deprofessionalization notion is put forward which highlights and re-emphasizes the caring role through the new occupational strategy of Assessment of Prior Experiential Learning (APEL)