Aims: This article is a report of a mixed method study of the association between personality traits of nurses and their reasons for entering nursing. Background. The worldwide nursing shortage prompts research into better understanding of why individuals enter nursing and may assist in exploring ways to increase their recruitment and long term retention.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Nursing workload is an issue that effects both the recruitment and retention of nurses, and patient safety. Historically, measurement has focussed on the delivery of direct patient care and excluded workload of facilitating hands-on care and supporting the organisation via duties that reflect organisation cultural and climate needs. Qualitative research is appropriate to understand this complexity.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis article highlights one socially isolated older person's experiences of ageing in a large metropolitan Australian location and the problems she encounters in attempting to access appropriate and timely health care. As society moves into a phase of rapid demographic ageing, this personal account provides health professionals with an in-depth insight into what it can be like to live in social isolation as one ages and needs ever increasing health care. Win is part of a larger study investigating difficulties encountered by socially isolated older people in accessing health care needs, and preferred her real name to be used for this article.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAims And Objectives: To describe individual temperament and character trait profiles associated with nurses and nursing students in a large regional health district and university in Australia.
Background: Identification of personality characteristics have been undertaken in most professions; however there is little extant literature on nurses which looks at specific aspects of temperament and character.
Design: A cross-sectional quantitative study of nurses and nursing students in a large regional health service district and university in South East Queensland, Australia.
The role of the breast care nurse (BCN) in the Queensland's Supporting Rural Women With Breast Cancer Project was evaluated by mixed methodology. Through questionnaire and interview, patients provided views about the nurse's role under the categories of awareness, access, coordination, information, and psychosocial, emotional, and practical support. Of the 51 participants, 37 resided in rural and remote areas.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInt J Ment Health Nurs
October 2007
There is a growing awareness that a primary source of information about mental health lies with the consumers. This paper reports on a study that interviewed rural men with the aim of exploring their mental health experiences within a rural environment. The results of the interviews are a number of stories of resilience and survival that highlight not only the importance of exploring the individuals' perspective of their issues, but also of acknowledging and drawing on their inner strengths.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: The aim of this study was to assess experiences of acute surgical pain by patient description of pain intensity and patient satisfaction with peri-operative pain management in a variety of adult surgical patients prior to the appointment of an acute pain nurse in a hospital in Queensland, Australia.
Method: One hundred and seventeen patients who underwent various surgical procedures were surveyed using a pain rating scale (0-10) and a scale assessing their perceptions of the treatment they received for their post-operative pain.
Findings: The results provide baseline data about the adequacy of acute pain management within the hospital prior to the implementation of an acute pain service and an acute pain nurse.
This paper explores the issues related to rural people with cancer whose choice of radiotherapy treatment necessitated travel and accommodation in a metropolitan centre. Semi-structured interviews with 46 participants, from the Toowoomba and Darling Downs region of Queensland, Australia, were conducted and the data thematically analysed. The specific themes identified were: being away from loved ones, maintaining responsibilities whilst undergoing treatment, emotional stress, burden on significant others, choice about radiotherapy as a treatment, travel and accommodation, and financial burden.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis paper focuses on rural living as a dimension of women's experiences of living through breast cancer. The findings presented emanate from a feminist narrative research project that examined the experiences of rural women from south-west Queensland who were long-term survivors of breast cancer. This project aimed to listen, report and interpret rural women's stories of resilience in surviving breast cancer and moving on with their lives.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis is the second paper of a larger study that examined the factors influencing the decisions of rural and remote area nurses, formerly employed by Queensland Health, to leave or to remain in this area of nursing. The study was a cross-sectional survey that gathered data from nurses who had resigned from permanent positions in Queensland Health during the period February 1999 to May 2000. This paper reports only those factors that influenced their decision to remain in rural and remote area practice, which can be categorised into personal, professional and rural influences.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis paper presents a selection of the results reported in the study "Factors Influencing the Recruitment and Retention of Rural and Remote Area Nurses in Queensland" (Hegney et al 2001). The main aim of this study was to determine why nurses in those rura and remote areas of Queensland that reported higher than State average turnover rates between February 1999 and May 2000, chose to leave their employment. The study therefore investigated the factors that influenced nurses' decisions to leave rural and remote area practice, the factors that influenced them to remain in practice and those factors nurses considered irrelevant to leaving or staying in rural/remote area nursing.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBecause higher-than-average turnover rates for nurses who work in remote and rural areas are the norm, the authors conducted a study to identify professional and personal factors that influenced rural nurses' decisions to resign. Using a mail survey, the authors gathered qualitative and quantitative data from nurses who had resigned from rural and remote areas in Queensland, Australia. Their findings, categorized into professional and rural influences, highlight the importance of work force planning strategies that capitalize on the positive aspects of rural and remote area practice, to retain nurses in nonmetropolitan areas.
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