Mapping the demise of the St. John Ambulance Home Nursing Program in Nova Scotia: 1950-1975.

This paper maps the decline in Nova Scotia of a near-century old tradition of instruction in Home Nursing to members of the Nursing Divisions of the St. John Ambulance Brigade, and interested others, the majority women. The focus of this analysis is the period 1950-75.

Profile of a leader: Margaret Mary Hunter CM, CStJ, CD, RN.

Margaret Mary Hunter (1918-1991) was Chief Nursing Officer for the St.John Ambulance Association from 1965-1981. She vigorously promoted the Association's Home Nursing course believing every Canadian household should have some one trained in home nursing.

A study of transition: the new nurse graduate at 3 months.

Background: Nursing shortages, increased patient acuity, and early discharges have increased demands on newly graduated nurses. At the same time, financial constraints have curtailed orientation programs.

Method: Open-ended interviews were conducted with 11 nurses employed in acute care settings at 3 months following graduation.

Nurses' informal teaching practices: their nature and impact on the production of patient care.

Nurses' informal teaching practices have been viewed as secondary to formal teaching. This article places them at the centre of professional nursing practice. On the basis of extended observation of 12 experienced surgical nurses, I assert they teach inexperienced physicians as well as patients, that their teaching is planned but more often informal and embedded in other work, and that their intent is to produce both understanding of health and illness practices and compliance with institutional policies and procedures.

Theorizing about nurses' work lives: the personal and professional aftermath of living with healthcare 'reform'.

In this paper we discuss the impact of healthcare 'reform' on nurses' personal and professional lives. Using a thematic analysis, we interviewed 38 nurses in Nova Scotia, Canada regarding their experiences of job displacement, inability to find full-time employment and job losses. Their stories reflect how they lived day by day and the effects this had on their children, partners, friends and leisure, as well as their financial burdens.