To investigate the incidence of pain following discharge from reproductive day surgery.

Father absence is associated with negative child and adolescent outcomes, including early sexual activity, teenage pregnancy, behavioural difficulties and life adversity. However there is a lack of literature that explores the lived experiences of daughters who grew up in father absent environments. This study aimed to generate insights into the lived experience of being a girl-child growing up in a father absent environment through the perspectives of daughters who experienced father absence during their childhood and/or adolescent years.

The aim of this study was to explain the role of patient advocacy in the Advance Care Planning (ACP-ing) process. Nurses rate prolonging the dying process with inappropriate measures as their most disturbing ethical issue and protecting patients' rights to be of great concern (Johnston et al 2002). Paradoxically ethical codes assume nurses have the autonomy to uphold patients' health-care choices. Advance Directives (AD) designed to improve end-of-life care are poorly taken up and acute hospitals are generally not geared for the few they receive. The Respecting Patient Choices Program (RPCP) improves AD utilisation through providing a supportive framework for ACP-ing and primarily equipping nurses as RPC consultants. Assisting patients with this process requires attributes consistent with patient advocacy arising out of nursing's most basic tenet, the care of others.

Traditionally, evaluation of outcome post cardiac surgery has focused on objective measures of cardiovascular status. The emphasis has shifted to examining an individual's quality of life (QoL). However a gap in Australian prospective research assessing QoL from a pre-operative period to the early stage of six weeks post-operatively exists. The aim of this study was to investigate recovery from coronary artery bypass graft surgery (CABGS) on the basis of patient perceived QoL and in particular, physical and mental health.

This paper explores the development of a specific youth care plan which provides a framework for adolescent appropriate care in an adult acute care facility.

Urinary tract infection (UTI) was identified as a significant issue for people with spinal cord injury (SCI) performing intermittent clean self-catheterisation (ICSC) in the community. A review of the literature was undertaken to establish the major risk factors of UTI and how these risks could be reduced in practice. The majority of authors recommended the use of a clean catheterisation technique in the community. The maintenance of appropriate bladder volumes, low residuals and regular emptying intervals appear to be of paramount importance for minimising risk of UTI for this client group.

A literature review to examine the incorporation of respiratory assessment into everyday surgical nursing practice; possible barriers to this; and the relationship to patient outcomes.

This paper will discuss some recent concerns about research in the area of the professional self-concept of nurses, and trace the development of the literature on professional self-concept of nurses over the last 14 years.

Job satisfaction among nurses working in five general hospitals in Kuwait was analysed using a global scale based on the McClosky Mueller Satisfaction Scale (MMSS) in relation to selected background characteristics (eg age, gender, nationality, educational qualification, monthly salary and the departments in which they worked.

An Australian Institute of Criminology report (1999) highlighted the health industry as the most violent industry in Australia with registered nurses recording the second highest number of violence-related workers compensation claims, ranking higher than prison and police officers. Workplace violence has become such a common phenomenon that many nurses accept it as a part of nursing. Nurses employed in emergency departments (EDs) are considered to be especially vulnerable to workplace violence. Although there have been a number of studies reporting on the incidence of workplace violence and its consequences upon nurses, to date there have been no empirical studies that have evaluated interventions which are thought to reduce its occurrence and impact. This study investigated the effectiveness of a one-day training program in which ED nurses participated. In particular, their knowledge, skills and attitudes relating to management of workplace violence were examined. Results show that a training program has many positive outcomes which enhance nurses' ability to manage aggressive behaviours. With some basic training, ED nurses can be more prepared to manage violent and potentially violent situations, and by doing so may in fact reduce the incidence of aggression in their workplace by 50%. This has largely been achieved by raising the awareness of ED nurses to the nature of the problem, developing their knowledge and skills in managing aggressive behaviour, and improving their attitudes toward potentially violent patients.

The use of restraints in contemporary healthcare represents an ethical problem to nurses and nursing. This paper describes a point prevalence study undertaken to examine the patterns of restraint use in an Australian teaching hospital. The objectives were: to clearly define restraint; establish its prevalence; the reasons for its use; and, to describe staffing levels in relation to restraint rates. Of the 256 patients who were observed, 9.4% were restrained. A third of the patients aged 85 years and over were restrained. The results support a previous Australian study that reported restraint rates of between 8.5% and 18.5% in acute hospitals.

Many European nurses were caught up in the horror of what happened to Jewish people during the Second World War, trapped in ghettoes and concentration camps. The advanced age of the nurses, however, decreases the number of firsthand accounts available. This paper reports on the experience of nurses in one camp, Westerbork, in the Netherlands, highlighting their work and relating their stories. Facing extreme suffering, they chose to care about others when it would have been easier to distance themselves. Until recently, historians' interest in medical practices in the transit and concentration camps has centered on medicine and sanitation. Utilisation of a nursing framework allows new material that has previously been overlooked to provide a broader understanding of the context of health care within the camps. Westerbork is an ideal camp to study since it had a genuine hospital with medicines and equipment available and a number of wards that provided care. Data collection was through oral interviews, archival documents and literature. The conclusion is that these nurses provide powerful role models of care that are as significant today as they were then.

To pilot test the reliability and validity of a newly developed tool measuring nursing and midwifery staff stress and burnout.

Language is the medium by which communication is both conveyed and received. To understand and communicate meaning it is necessary to examine the theoretical basis of word conceptualisation. The determinants of understanding language however are somewhat elusive and idiosyncratic by nature. This paper will examine briefly the development of language and how language is used in the health care setting, while recognising that nursing is an internationally recognised profession.

To assess the face validity and the inter-rater reliability of the Vein Assessment Tool (VAT) for classifying veins according to their level of intravenous insertion difficulty.

Health systems throughout much of the world have been subject to 'reform' in recent years as countries have attempted to contain the rapidly rising costs of health care. Changes to hospital structures (restructuring) have been an important part of these reforms. A significant impact of current approaches to restructuring is the loss of, or changes to, nursing management roles and functions.

Throughout health care literature, vulnerability is widely accepted as a potential issue for all patients yet the consensus on the meaning of and practical strategies to reduce or manage these 'harmful agents' in the clinical context are rarely offered. Three main themes emerge from the related literature which can be further refined into general terms of; social vulnerability--a person's basic statistical data in relation to their potential for illness; psychological vulnerability--the actual or potential harm to the identity of self and/or other emotional effects such as anxiety or stress caused by the ailment or treatment; and physical vulnerability--which refers to the actual physiological state where an individual is susceptible to further morbidity or mortality.

The purpose of this study was to explore the attitudes of nurses working in a multi-purpose health service (MPHS) toward elderly people and their understanding of gerontic care. As there are no previous studies in this area of nursing it is anticipated that this study will provide the basis for further exploration.

Previous research has suggested that organisational change can contribute to stress-related outcomes for workers. Burnout, one such stress-related outcome, has been conceptualised as a multidimensional construct consisting of emotional exhaustion, depersonalisation and reduced personal accomplishment. Many health care organisations have undergone substantial organisational change over the last decade. The purpose of this study was to assess levels of burnout in nurses and to ascertain if there were individual or work characteristics that were associated with this syndrome.

Adherence to medical treatment is an ongoing challenge for families and young people with chronic medical conditions. One factor that is likely to influence treatment success is the quality of professional relationships both within the health care team and between the family, child and professionals. This paper explores the topic of professional relationships and adherence and provides an example of how a multidisciplinary team can improve the health and quality of life of paediatric patients. More specifically, the paper argues for the crucial role of the specialist nurse in supporting patients and their relationships with the health care team.