Primary Argument Research Articles

Amici Curiae Brief of Family Law Professors in Obergefell v. Hodges

This Amici Curiae brief was filed in the Supreme Court on behalf of 74 scholars of family law in the four consolidated same-sex marriage cases. The two questions presented in the cases concern whether the Fourteenth Amendment requires a state to license or recognize a marriage between two people of the same sex. Those defending the marriage bans rely on two primary arguments: first, that a core, defining element of marriage is the possibility of biological, unassisted procreation; and second, that the “optimal” setting for raising children is a home with their married, biological mothers and fathers. The brief demonstrates that these asserted rationales conflict with basic family laws and policies in every state, which tell a very different story.

Benatar and the Logic of Betterness

No abstract.

A review for Australian nurses: Cannabis use for anti-emesis among terminally ill patients in Australia

Objective: The objective of this article is to describe the potential benefits of medicinal cannabis in emesis control and the position of nurses looking after palliative patients who are on medicinal cannabis treatment in Australia. Setting: Palliative care. Primary argument: Cannabis is the most commonly abused drug and its use for medical purposes was restricted throughout the world since the early 20th century. However many clinical studies show that the natural cannabinoid compounds can stimulate the cannabinoid receptors in the brain leading to attenuation of signal transmission, resulting in alleviation of the vomiting stimuli. The debate about the use of cannabis as an anti-emetic agent in patients with life-limiting conditions has renewed interest in recent years. The principle of palliative care is to improve the quality of life of patients living with life-limiting conditions based on the best evidence available. Although some evidence suggests cannabis may have therapeutic effects on some palliative patients and the Australian Commonwealth Government has recently changed the legislation, the concept of using medicinal cannabis in emesis control is very new to many Australians including the health care providers. Conclusion: In comparison to conventional medications, medicinal use of cannabis in palliative care is a new phenomenon and nurses as well as general public may be less prepared for the use of cannabis as a medical modality in all clinical settings. This review is intended to raise awareness of the physiological mechanism of cannabis and its medicinal use to the nurses in Australia.

Promoting student belongingness: 'WANTED' - the development, implementation and evaluation of a toolkit for nurses

Objective: Literature suggests that the need to belong influences health and well-being, behavioural, emotional and cognitive responses. This paper describes the impending development and validation of a toolkit for nurses to create the experience of belongingness with a team approach, for student nurses undertaking a clinical placement. Setting and Subjects: The design of the toolkit will be developed from a selected Delphi panel process involving nursing experts’ experience and opinions. The toolkit will then be distributed to nurses in selected clinical areas for use during periods of clinical placements. Primary Argument: Clinical placements are essential for professional socialisation in which nurses provide compelling role models for how to think, feel and act. However, students have often identified a sense of alienation through poor clinical experiences. The need to belong and be part of a team exerts a powerful influence on cognitive processes and behavioural responses. The absence of meaningful interpersonal relationships can result in failure to develop optimal clinical reasoning and critical thinking skills to manage patient care safely. Conclusion: More needs to be achieved than to simply justify the core attributes of a good clinical learning environment. Understanding of the key role that clinical leaders and supervisors exert to create a belongingness environment can influence positively the attitude of other staff towards students. For a valued positive clinical learning experience to become the benchmark of best practice, it requires a structured process, a toolkit to enable nurses to comprehend the concept of belongingness and to support them in embedding this model into their role of supervision.

Balancing and bandwagoning: explaining shifts in Sri Lankan foreign policy

ABSTRACTAnalysis of Sri Lanka’s foreign policy over three decades (1977–2015) reveals a pattern of shifts from balancing to bandwagoning, and then back again to balancing. The more salient foreign policy issues during each administration fall broadly within the economic or security spheres. What are the key drivers of small state foreign policy – do systemic factors preside in general, and domestic factors prove inconsequential? Or are domestic factors able to play a decisive role under certain circumstances, within broader structural parameters? Three primary arguments are made in this regard. First, an interplay of system- and domestic-level factors best explains this pattern of foreign policy change. Second, in the domain of foreign economic policymaking, domestic imperatives and actors appear to play a decisive role, although within the broader structural preconditions. Third, systemic factors maintain predominance over domestic-level factors in shaping foreign security policy.

Zmiana społeczna a „otwieranie” aksjologii wykładni prawa. Szkic podstawowych zależności

A deep social change, both directed on the democratic and on the autocratic political system, results not only in the changes of the normative regulations but also impacts the process of legal interpretation. Weakening the role of the language and systemic interpretative arguments, the change opens the interpretation on the stronger use of the axiological arguments, connected with the legal principles and criteria of general reference clauses. Particularly the last constructs, understood as the legislative authorization of the court to use the extra-legal criteria in the process of application of law, open the axiology of legal interpretation directly and largely, tying the character of this opening with the direction of change. The strengthening of the role of axiology deals as well with the widening of the base of the reference to these criteria (general clauses as the valid argument) as with the influence of these criteria on the process (shifting the axiological arguments to the role of the primary arguments) and the results (the correction of the stricti iuris contents by the social or political axiology) of the legal interpretation.

IS MY FEELING YOUR PAIN BAD FOR OTHERS? EMPATHY AS VIRTUE VERSUS EMPATHY AS FIXED TRAIT

AbstractThe purpose of this article is to (1) critique the primary arguments given by Paul Bloom and Jesse Prinz against empathy, and (2) to argue instead that empathy is best understood as a virtue that plays an important but complicated role in the moral life. That it is a virtue does not mean that it always functions well, and empathy sometimes contributes to behavior that is partial and unfair. In some of their writings, both Bloom and Prinz endorse the view that empathy is a fixed trait, but there is little reason to think this, and the studies that they cite do not support this view. Further, a number of recent studies suggest the opposite: our empathic reactions are malleable and subject to environmental effects and learning. Although our capacities for cognitive and emotional empathy are clearly not sufficient for being moral, I argue that they are functionally necessary traits that, like other virtues, must be cultivated correctly.

Male or Nurse what comes first? Challenges men face on their journey to nurse registration

Objective: This paper aims to provide an account of the first phase of a qualitative longitudinal study that explored the initial challenges men in nursing face to become registered. What is known is that men, a minority group within nursing, face the usual challenges of all new nurses in their quest to register as nurses. In addition, they have added pressures that hinder their quest due to being male. Primary Argument: An Australian nursing shortage is looming due to nurses retiring from this female-dominate profession. Hence, the retention of men in nursing is an area requiring attention in order to support a sustainable workforce. Subjects and Setting: Nine newly graduated male registered nurses participated. These nurses had recently commenced employment in the Western Australian metropolitan health region. Findings: Individual face-to-face interviews produced the theme of role misconception with a major focus on male or nurse what comes first. This theme was derived from the categories of gender stereotyping and marginalisation. Conclusion: This study suggests the need for a gender-neutral image when promoting nursing within and outside the professional environment. Furthermore, consideration for a professional title mutually accepted by both women and men in nursing, with the gender-neutral ‘nurse’ title preferred by the men in this study. Moreover to acknowledge that men in nursing will augment a technical savvy workforce that will complement emergent complex nursing practices, and enhance a more comprehensive Australian nursing workforce that will assist with meeting the health care needs of a diverse population.

The transition of overseas qualified nurses and midwives into the Australian healthcare workforce

Objective: The purpose of this paper is to discuss the key elements to consider when developing and implementing strategies to enhance the transition of overseas qualified nurses and midwives (OQNMs) into the Australian healthcare clinical practice environment. Setting: A local health district with a major metropolitan centre and a mix of large regional centres which provide a range of public health services, to a population of approximately 850,000 people located in New South Wales, Australia. Subjects: Newly recruited overseas qualified nurses and midwives. Many of these nurses and midwives are from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds and different countries. Primary argument: Within the Australian nursing and midwifery practice environment the recruitment of overseas qualified nurses has gradually increased. While transitioning into the practice environment requires a range of support strategies, there is limited information on how to support them. Conclusion: The culturally constructed support program and its strategies assisted in minimising the impact of the challenges and difficulties faced by OQNMs in their transition into the Australian nursing workforce. The program was instrumental in improving their well-being and it provided a strategic framework to facilitate a smoother transition. Risks to patient safety were mitigated by providing opportunities for education so the provision of safe quality care was enhanced. This was also seen as a factor that enhanced the recruitment and retention of nurses in the workforce.

Who are the First Users of a Newly-Emerging International Currency? A Demand-Side Study of Chinese Renminbi Internationalization

Who are the first users of a newly-internationalizing currency? This issue, crucial to understanding the dynamics of the emergence of a new international monetary order, remains long underexplored in the existing literature, which tends to adopt a supply-side approach analyzing mainly the international currency issuers. Our study addresses this important question, with a focus on the case of the Chinese renminbi, by employing a demand-side approach examining the international currency users through generalized ordered logistic regression analysis. Our primary argument is that a state hosting a major global financial center—a condition largely independent of influence from countries issuing international currencies—is likely to be more interested in enhancing its use of the renminbi, implying thereby that global financial institutions and the related inter-state rivalries among international currency users may play crucial roles in the shaping of a new international monetary order. We in addition find significant impacts on a state’s interest in renminbi use resulting from its institutional economic cooperation with China through a preferential trade agreement or a bilateral investment treaty, but that a country’s mere trade and investment integration with China does not meaningfully affect its government’s support for renminbi use.

Drilling through Conservation Policy: Oil Exploration in Murchison Falls Protected Area, Uganda

Approximately 2.5 billion barrels of commercially-viable oil, worth $2 billion in annual revenue for 20 years, were discovered under the Ugandan portion of the Albertine Rift in 2006. The region also contains seven of Uganda's protected areas and a growing ecotourism industry. We conducted interviews and focus groups in and around Murchison Falls Protected Area, Uganda's largest, oldest, and most visited protected area, to assess the interaction of oil exploration with the three primary conservation policies employed by Uganda Wildlife Authority: protectionism, neoliberal capital accumulation, and community-based conservation. We find that oil extraction is legally permitted inside protected areas in Uganda, like many other African countries, and that the wildlife authority and oil companies are adapting to co-exist inside a protected area. Our primary argument is that neoliberal capital accumulation as a conservation policy actually makes protected areas more vulnerable to industrial exploitation because nature is commodified, allowing economic value and profitability of land uses to determine how nature is exploited. Our secondary argument is that the conditional nature of protected area access inherent within the protectionist policy permits oil extraction within Murchison Falls Protected Area. Finally, we argue that community-based conservation, as operationalized in Uganda, has no role in defending protected areas against oil industrialisation.

Book Review: North Korea’s Hidden Revolution: How the Information Underground is Transforming a Closed Society

Book Review North Korea’s Hidden Revolution: How the Information Underground is Transforming a Closed Society, by Jieun Baek. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2016. 282 pages. $30.00 hardcover. Jieun Baek’s North Korea’s Hidden Revolution examines how media flows secretly into and out of North Korea, as well as how this information affects North Korean society. Baek illuminates how networks of citizens take enormous risks as they disseminate and consume illegal content including foreign films, TV shows, books, and news. The author discusses the ways in which forbidden information is spread through gossip, freedom balloons, radio, and USBs. Baek utilizes in-depth interviews with ten North Korean defectors, and cites a variety of academic sources, news websites, governmental documents, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). The author argues that foreign media “may be instrumental in someday bringing down one of the most brutal and repressive regimes in modern history” (p. x). Baek explains the interlinked networks of actors who push illegal media into North Korea, including compassion-driven networks (e.g., good-will driven organizations who raise funds to create content and fill USBs), profit-driven networks (e.g., smugglers who work for profit to move USBs), and demanddriven networks (e.g., those who consume the content). The author makes a causal argument that “Thisactive flowof goods and information now plays a Korean Studies © 2018 by University of Hawai‘i Press. All rights reserved. central role in the social consciousness of North Korean individuals, and has sparked irreversible changes inside North Korea” (p. xviii). This text offers a coherent picture of the inflow of illicit media. Baek illustrates how the Great Famine drove people away from their work assignments and toward illegal markets and trade. CDs and VHS cassettes with Korean, Chinese, and American films became available on the black market. To counter such cracks in the system, police began to conduct home inspections looking for illegal media, and there ensued bribery or punishment. The author pieces together her interviewees’ stories intelligibly, illustrating that citizens are “more curious than afraid” (p. 55). Regarding “old school” media, Baek argues “word of mouth was and still is the most trusted and widely used source of information for North Koreans” (p. 89). The author provides examples, such as citizens receiving information about currency exchange rates and commodity prices from Chinese traders across the border. Baek also addresses the use of “freedom balloons” to deliver pro-democracy literature, radios, and USBs loaded with foreign media. However, balloon launches have the potential to cause threats to national security. Baek does not mention the use of GPS-guided balloons or other modern vehicular technologies to deliver information, such as drones. NGOs such as the North Korean Strategy Center utilize more covert delivery of information on USBs via the Chinese-North Korean border. Baek provides a thorough discussion of the usage and importance of radio. The author lays out interviewees’ testimony about their previous use of radio when living in North Korea, as well as defectors’ production of programs aimed at North Korean consumption. The content of these radio programs include news, music, South Korean dramas, descriptions of South Korean society, North Korean defector memoirs, biographies of the Kim family, and content pertaining to history, human rights, and democracy. The Unification Media Group has “a joint goal of reaching one million North Korean adults within the next five years in order to spark organic changes from within the country” (p. 134). In her discussion of the digital underground, Baek more fully explores the dissemination of information via cellular networks and content-filled USB drives. Up to 2000 calls using cell phones are made between South Korea and North Korea each day; many of which allow family members to remain in touch and coordinate the transfer of money and goods to North Korean relatives via brokers in China and North Korea. Despite tracking, surveillance, and the risk of punishment, illegal cell usage continues to grow. Although Baek’s primary argument is that the information Korean Studies 2018 underground is transforming North Korea, the author acknowledges that “information campaigns into North Korea are not linear experiments with the human mind, whereby a...

Remixing Reggaetón: The Cultural Politics of Race in Puerto Rico by Petra R. Rivera-Rideau

Reviewed by: Remixing Reggaetón: The Cultural Politics of Race in Puerto Rico by Petra R. Rivera-Rideau Francisco D. Lara Remixing Reggaetón: The Cultural Politics of Race in Puerto Rico. By Petra R. Rivera-Rideau. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2015. [xii, 224 p. ISBN 9780822359456 (hardcover), $84.95; ISBN 9780822359647 (paperback), $23.95; ISBN 9780822375258 (e-book), varies] Notes, bibliography, index. Petra R. Rivera-Rideau's Remixing Reggaetón presents an insightful reading of reggaetón as a discursive cultural practice inextricably linked to the experience of blackness in the African diaspora. In her analysis of reggaetón artists, song lyrics, music videos, and media coverage, she describes how the genre's origins and development, representation, and perception at the same time illuminate, challenge, reify, and transform conceptions of blackness and national identity in Puerto Rico. Well written and organized, and convincingly argued, her timely study resonates with and contributes significantly to current aca demic understandings of music, race, gender, sexuality, and nation, and their intersections within the context of the African diaspora. Reggaetón presents a rich and unique lens through which to explore these intersections. A discursive and multivalent genre with local roots and transnational linkages connecting Puerto Rico, New York, Jamaica, and Panama, reggaetón resists facile categorization, thanks to its multiple racial, ethnic, and national associations. At the same time, and as a result of its origins and popular association with blackness, the genre is discursively linked to hegemonic racial hierarchies reified in dominant discourses of race and national identity in Puerto Rico, the United States, and throughout much of the African diaspora. Thoughtful in its approach, Remixing Reggaetón consists of five chapters plus an introduction and a conclusion. While the introduction and conclusion serve to contextualize the study and outline the limitations of the analysis, the five remaining chapters each explore a different aspect of reggaetón's development, addressing its complex origins, reception, key figures, and diverse manifestations as they relate to the dynamics of race and racism that inform political, popular, and academic perceptions of the genre in Puerto Rico and the United States. In her introduction, Rivera-Rideau presents the major questions, issues, and theories that fed her research, as well as her primary arguments and a chapter outline. In the process, she problematizes the Puerto Rican myth of racial democracy and reggaetón's perceived association in the popular imagination with either blackness or Latinidad. She argues instead for an understanding of reggaetón as a "cultural practice of diaspora" (p. 11), or a multivalent form of expressive culture that allows its practitioners to challenge and reshape local notions of blackness in making meaningful connections with other marginalized communities in diaspora. As Rivera-Rideau argues, reggaetón "constitutes a space for Puerto Rican youth to engage in practices of self-fashioning that respond to local [End Page 81] racial politics and express an affinity with African diasporic populations" (p. 13). In subsequent chapters, Rivera-Rideau meticulously bears out this argument through her analysis while also noting the limitations of reggaetón's ability to upend racial stereotypes. Chapter 1, "Iron Fist against Rap," explores global diasporic connections and local dynamics of race and racism in the formation, representation, and reception of underground, a genre of Puerto Rican urban rap considered a precursor of reggaetón. Originating in the late 1980s and early 1990s, underground emerged from the Puerto Rican caseríos, the predominantly black urban public housing developments that became the focus of a governmental anti-violence campaign referred to as mano dura contra el crimen (iron fist against crime) during the 1990s. As Rivera-Rideau shows in the first third of the chapter, underground's characteristic musical elements, associated cultural practices, and aesthetics reveal the complex links between Puerto Rico, Jamaica, Panama, and New York City that resulted from migration and transnational circuits of cultural exchange. Establishing underground as an "exemplary circum-Carribbean music" (p. 33), Rivera-Rideau proceeds to show, through an analysis of newspaper articles and underground song lyrics and music videos, how underground artists made use of the resources of the diaspora in challenging perceptions of blackness and Puerto Ricanness. At the same...

Promotion and Conservation of Philippine Cultural Ricescapes at the Rice Science Museum

This paper presents the findings of an observational visitor study to the Rice Science Museum carried out to analyse visitors’ understanding of two exhibitions. The findings suggest that an integrated framework for the promotion and preservation of Philippine Ricescapes is required. The primary argument in the present article is that the museum should present the distinctive features of local rice cultural heritage using cultural mapping, in order to promote the understanding of its complex value and ultimately reach varied audiences.

‘Climate Refugees’: An Oceanic Perspective

AbstractThe primary argument of this article seeks to highlight the irresponsible and insensitive categorisation of the Pacific peoples as 'climate refugees'. International actors' interpretation and use of such a term is damaging as it depicts these peoples as a vulnerable, rather than resilient group. The term effectively strips them of their agency and the potential for their valuable knowledge and efforts to contribute to the fight against a natural phenomenon that proves the most serious threat to humankind today, climate change. In the first section the international perception will be addressed, in the second section the Oceanic understanding will be explored in contrast, and finally in the third section, the implications for International Relations will be outlined. In conclusion, we find that the impact of the term ‘climate refugees’ is detrimental at both the conceptual and experiential level, making its deconstruction a complex but necessary task.

The Urban Department Store in America, 1850‐1930LouisaIarocci. Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2014.

Urban Department Store in America, 1850-1930 Louisa larocci. Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2014.Recent theoretical debates concerning the increasingly complex and unstable relationships among today's urban commercial, transactional, interstitial, or even community spaces and places have inevitably produced flurry of scholarly books on the commercial walking spaces of the modernist city, and, in particular, the department store-the synecdoche for female engagement with all of the above. Louisa larocci's book differs from many previous studies in number of ways. Her research is impeccable, both longitudinally and latitudinally, and her arguments cross disciplines with ease and skill. Yet, her primary arguments, that the department store in America functioned, until the 1929 crash, as both solid building block within the modern and as a more ephemeral aggregation of consumer practices are fresh and innovative; and she asks the reader to re-imagine the place of this comfortable and well-trod institution within American urban culture (8).Iarocci's book is divided into three parts: The City and the Store, 1850-1880; The Department Store, 1880-1910; and Utopias and Distopias, 1900-1930. Part One consists of Chapters 1 and 2. Chapter 1 examines the relationship between the city and the store; it locates the department store within the nineteenth-century American city, street architecture, and American mercantile culture through an analysis of the changing foci of urban mapping companies from landmarks and public buildings to mercantile structures that represent pivoting of narrative from public to commercial community. Chapter 2 then describes the mercantile house as having narrow facade, where it met the public but was emblazoned with the store's name, but great depth to accommodate the floor and stockroom. Part Two begins with the description of the department store's emergence in the 1890s as distinctive entity, usually as goods stores expanded into larger all-purpose enterprises that, in their expansive scope, fantastic and spectacular displays, typography and spatial arrangements, mimicked in miniature the display strategies of wildly popular international expositions. Department stores were paradoxically both glittering palacefs] (71) that enticed shoppers to spend and retailed mass-produced, relatively inexpensive, ready-made, personal and household goods with the new practice of low-pressure sales strategies, clearly marked and fixed prices, and even liberal return policies. As such, larocci argues, department stores functioned as both agents and products of distinctly feminized modern urban American retailing practice. Chapter 4 concludes Section Two and details the many-layered ways in which the department store could thus function as civic institution and business concern (6). …

Doctoral education for nurses today: the PhD or professional doctorate?

Objective: This paper seeks to stimulate discussion and debate about the future of doctoral education for nurses in Australia. Setting: A large Magnet recognised acute care private hospital in New South Wales and a large regional university in Australia. Primary argument: Healthcare today and into the future is increasingly more complex and requires ever more highly skilled healthcare professionals to meet the challenges of providing safe, quality care. Doctoral research and education based in the workplace and designed to improve healthcare while skilling up nurses and other professionals in research methods has never been more relevant and appropriate. Conclusion: Nurses have generally not seen the PhD as the best fit for their higher professional development. The professional doctorate offers a compelling and dynamic alternative to the more academic focus of the PhD and prepares ‘inquiry driven leaders’ for tomorrow’s challenges.

Nurse empathy and the care of people with dementia

Objective: Empathy is widely accepted as an essential nursing attribute yet the relationship between nurse empathy and the care of people with dementia in the hospital setting has rarely been explored. A number of themes have emerged from the relevant literature regarding the influences which shape a nurse’s ability to deliver empathetic care to this patient cohort. These issues include a lack of hospital resources, an organisational focus on operational issues such as patient flow and risk management, and widespread stigmatisation of dementia in society. Setting: Acute and sub-acute facilities. Subjects: In-patients with dementia and nurses. Primary argument: Although there is widespread acknowledgment that nurses require empathy to deliver quality care, the complexity of caring for people with dementia in hospital creates further challenges for both nurses and patients. This issue has been discussed previously but there is little evidence that the situation has improved. Conclusion: This paper details the relevant influences on the ability of nurses to care empathetically for people with dementia in hospital. The recognition that there are distinct factors related to this patient cohort is an important one and may assist nurses and health organisations to identify systemic and individual problems associated with hospitalisation and lead to the implementation of supportive strategies. Appropriate nurse-patient ratios which consider the additional workload attached to caring for people with dementia, clinical supervision and targeted nurse education must be considered to ensure health systems deliver appropriate person-centred care to people with dementia.

Stoma and shame: engaging affect in the adaptation to a medical device

Objective: The objective is to understand difficulties some patients have with their adaptation to a medical device, specifically a stoma and an ostomy appliance, following gastro-enterologic surgery. A partial or total colectomy is typically performed in cases of digestive cancers, Crohn’s disease, or anal incontinence. A psychotherapeutic application deduced from this understanding is described. The therapeutic approach is informed by Lacanian psychoanalysis. Setting: The setting is the digestive surgery services section of a large public teaching hospital in France. The clinical team conducting the interventions described perform their work with patients post-operatively. Subjects: Selected cases are chosen to provide brief illustrations of the analysis and the psychotherapeutic approach developed. Primary argument: This study focuses on the impact of the stoma and the ostomy appliance on the subjectivity of the patient and shows how the affect of shame can appear. It is noted that the affect of shame in the adaptation to an ostomy appliance has not been investigated to date. This affect can in turn have psychological effects on the gastroenterologist treatment itself, even to the point of the patient’s abandonment of ongoing care. The analysis reported here explores the recognition of shame when it might be present, and the process of accompanying the patient therapeutically, engaging the logic of the transference. Conclusion: Shame cannot be treated by ignorance or by indifference. A psychotherapeutic application engaging the transference between the patient and members of the nursing and psychotherapeutic team, helps patients support shame and adapt well to the ostomy bag.

A mental health nursing transition program for enrolled nurses at a forensic mental health hospital

Objective: There are difficulties in recruiting enrolled nurses to mental health positions. A six month program was developed with the aim to bridge possible knowledge gaps for enrolled nurses, and to provide them practical support to consolidate skills and knowledge for nursing in a forensic mental health hospital. Setting: The setting was a 116 bed secure forensic mental health hospital in the state of Victoria, Australia. Subjects: Nine enrolled nurses who had completed a Diploma of Nursing, were recruited into the program. Primary argument: There is a national decrease in enrolled nursing supply, and a paucity of data exploring the training needs of enrolled nurses transitioning from the Diploma to a mental health nursing role. Nursing programs are required to assist enrolled nurses with the knowledge and skills, and support required to effectively make their transition into mental health nursing. Conclusion: The results demonstrate the importance in providing a program to assist enrolled nurses transition to mental health and that the mental health course requirements within the Diploma of Nursing and placement length may not be adequate in preparing enrolled nurses for direct entry to mental health nursing. Providing a structured transition program for a group of enrolled nurses is a useful strategy to improve knowledge, skills, and retention.