Contemporary Nursing Practice Research Articles

Patient participation - a review of the literature

This article presents a critical review of the concept of patient participation. The concept of patient participation has become widely accepted in contemporary nursing practice. It is now part of the vocabulary of professional nurses and has been heralded as a means of enhancing decision making and human dignity and enriching quality of life. Patient participation in care is emerging as a growing movement wherein patients are assuming more responsibility for the prevention, detection and treatment of health problems in a manner that supplements or substitutes for professional services. The review concludes with some recommendations for nursing practice, education and research.

OPT: Transformation of nursing process for contemporary practice

Over time, clinical, educational, and social forces have influenced the development of three generations of traditional nursing process. The first generation was concerned with problems and process. Analysis of second-generation models revealed interest in understanding the nature of diagnosis and diagnostic reasoning. We have proposed a third generation model that underscores the importance of critical, metacognitive, and thinking skills that support outcome specification and testing in clinical reasoning. Clinicians, educators, managers, and administrators are invited to consider the OPT model as an alternative to traditional nursing process. The OPT model may be one of many transitional reasoning models 35,36 needed for contemporary nursing practice.

Forensic eviclence preservation: The emergency nurses' role

By the very nature of emergency nursing practice, emergency hurses will inevitably be placed in the position of dealing with the victims of physical injury and/or violence. The reality of our speciality is that we must be fully aware of both the civil and criminal potential that may arise in the provision of emergency care. Many emergency nurses have made mention of the perception that violent crimes involving knives, firearms and physical assault have become more frequent. This raises the important issue of the emergency nurses role in the preservation, protection, documentation and proper handling of potential physical evidence, until relieved of this obligation by the relevant law enforcement agency. This paper will develop the essential approaches emergency nurses must consider as critical in contemporary nursing practice, providing definitions of what constitutes physical evidence, how to correctly describe physical injury, and the concept of the “chain of possession”. Without question an Emergency Nurse's first priority must always remain with providing rapid and expert care for an injured patient, at the same time we must acknowledge the importance of recognising and preserving forensic evidence while it remains in our departments. It is of extreme importance that Emergency nurses are informed and prepared to deal with the issues that follow the immediacy of patient care.

Gods, daemons andbanshees on the journey to the magic scroll: the use of myth as a framework for reflective practice in nurse education

This paper reports the use of a mythicjourney scenario within a student nurse groupwork session. This approach was introduced as a means to facilitate personal and interpersonal sharing and self-knowledge. These processes are held as important for the development of critical reflective process as a cornerstone of contemporary nursing practice. The use of myth invoked a coherent and supportive student environment within which previously reticent students appeared confident enough to contribute and explore their educational experience in nursing. The mythic allegoric process also identified some poignant themes and enemies, common across the student body. Monsters no less!

An exploration of ethical issues associated with the seclusion of psychiatric patients

Abstract Seclusion is a controversial practice which attracts much debate regarding the humanitarian, ethical and legal issues involved in its use. Such debate highlights the need to examine its appropriateness more closely. This paper explores ethical issues in relation to the practice of seclusion and identifies areas requiring further examination, to establish its relevance in contemporary nursing practice. The findings presented emerged as a result of research into nurses' perceptions of patients secluded in closed psychiatric wards. Using a grounded theory methodology, seven nurses from a large metropolitan psychiatric hospital in Australia were interviewed about their experiences. The predominant concern expressed by clinicians was the dichotomy between the desire to care for and the need to control acutely disturbed individuals. Clinicians articulated their role in seclusion as attempting to provide the best possible care for patients in unpredictable and challenging situations.

The panopticon re-visited?: An exploration of the social and political dimensions of contemporary health care and nursing practice

Insights from critical and postmodern perspectives are used to explore some of the aspects of contemporary nursing practice and health care which are taken for granted. Such an exploration begins to deconstruct the power relations implicit within the socio-political context of the health care arena in which nursing operates. In particular, the work of the French philosopher Michel Foucault is used to explore the discourses of the various health care “experts”. Aspects of women's health and nursing practice are used as exemplars of the limiting effects of such discourses.

Ethical Dilemmas in Contemporary Nursing Practice

Ethical Dilemmas in Contemporary Nursing Practice

Contemporary nursing practice for continence

Contemporary nursing practice for continence

Care and cure as healing processes in nursing.

Today's health care requires more than technology to accomplish healing. Nursing has a heritage of healing that was highly valued in the past. The care-versus-cure controversy during the past two decades has not identified a clear healing role in contemporary nursing practice. The author explores the concepts of care, cure, and healing as interdependent and indivisible processes within health care and particularly within nursing.

’n Vergelyking tussen kinderpsigiatriese verpleging in Suid-Afrika en San Francisco

The provision of services to children with psychiatric disorders in the Republic of South Africa--especially black and underprivileged children--is limited and inadequate. The practice of the nurse in the field of child psychiatry is vague and undeveloped and there are few nurses in South Africa with the knowledge and skills to set guidelines for this area of practice. A qualitative field study was undertaken in South Africa and San Francisco to analyze, describe and compare the situation in regard to contemporary nursing practice in child psychiatry. The result showed that nurses in San Francisco were academically better qualified than their colleagues in South Africa, while many similarities regarding therapeutic skills were found. Problems in South Africa included rigid systems, insufficient recognition, poor job descriptions and inadequate supervision. Large numbers of nurses who are specialized in child psychiatry have left the health services as a result of frustration and problems encountered in practice. These problems must be addressed in order to retain nurses recruited to this field of practice.

On the essential integration of nursing and informatics.

This paper asserts that nursing knowledge is fundamentally inseparable from the strategies and structures that represent it. Nursing informatics comprises a new disciplinary focus that results from a blend of nursing and informatics. The technologies of informatics, communications, computer science, decision science, human information processing, and knowledge engineering, provide critical care nurses with the support necessary for contemporary nursing practice. Informatics technologies enable nurses to communicate, process knowledge in new and more efficient ways, and better understand the nature of nursing thinking.

Reva Rubin Revisited

A review and analysis of Reva Rubin's major publications is presented. Rubin's contributions to maternity nursing are acknowledged and questions concerning the applicability of Rubin's theories to current practice are raised. Nursing implications are drawn for contemporary nursing practice, and areas for future research are identified.

Nutrition in Contemporary Nursing Practice

Nutrition in Contemporary Nursing Practice

Definition and regulation of nursing practice: an historical survey.

The definition and regulation of nursing practice are issues of growing national interest. A variety of factors, including rising health care costs and consumer awareness, have combined to catalyze changes in health care delivery, with an increasing emphasis on disease prevention and cost-effectiveness. These goals have necessarily focused attention on the respective roles of non-physicians—most prominently, nurses—as providers of lower cost, quality health care. In a climate of professional and economic competition, state legislatures, state nursing boards, courts, and professional nursing organizations are engaged in a process of changing, adapting, or interpreting existing nursing practice laws to meet the needs of the changing health care system.This article reviews the history and evolution of nursing practice legislation, examines the present stage in its development, and highlights some important issues affecting contemporary nursing practice acts.

Nutrition in Contemporary Nursing Practice

PART I: THE THEORY OF HUMAN NUTRITION: THE SCIENCE OF NUTRITION Introduction to Nutrition Basic Nutritional Tools Carbohydrates Fats (Lipids) Proteins Vitamins Minerals Water and Electrolytes Nutritional Concerns in North America THE NUTRITIVE PROCESS: Ingestion Providing the Cell with Nutrients Metabolism: Production of Energy Metabolism: Growth and Maintenance Metabolism: Regulation and Excretion PART II: THE APPLICATION OF NUTRITION TO NURSING PRACTICE: THE NURSING PROCESS IN NUTRITIONAL CARE The Framework of Nutritional Assessment Nursing Diagnosis Based on Assessment of the Nutritive Process Nutrition During the Growing Years Nutritional Assessment and Care During the Adult Years Nutritional Care of the Patient Nutritional Support of Medical Intervention Evaluation of Nutritional Care DIETARY INTERVENTIONS FOR ALTERATIONS IN THE NUTRITIVE PROCESS: Interferences with Ingestion Alterations in Ingestion Alterations in Digestion and Absorption Alterations in Nutrient Transport Alterations in Metabolism Alterations in Excretion Appendixes Glossary Index.