Nursing with care: a meditation in three voices (in memoriam John S. Drummond).

This paper is a written version of a talk given at the 19 International Philosophy of Nursing conference to honour the contributions of Dr. John S. Drummond, nurse and philosopher, to an ongoing and collective project we could call 'thinking nursing'.

Development and Psychometric Testing of the Humanistic Nurse-Patient Scale.

Quality of life and well-being of older patients in chronic care facilities is often determined by their relationships with nurses. The authors developed and tested a scale to assess patients' views of what matters most when relating to nurses. Based on the humanistic nursing theory by Paterson and Zderad (1988), 69 items were created and tested with a sample of 40 patients, resulting in refinement of a scale with 24 items.

Welcome intrusions: an interpretive phenomenological study of TB nurses' relational work.

Background: Nurse-client relationships are valued in descriptions of public health practice and require consideration as work involving knowledge, skill, and personal engagement. Even so, in public health, they are largely taken-for-granted, particularly in the area of tuberculosis (TB). Instead, TB nursing is often structured by a population focus, which at times challenges individually focused relationship ideals.

Reflecting on the ongoing aftermath of heart transplantation: Jean-Luc Nancy's L'intrus.

This paper explores Jean-Luc Nancy's philosophical reflection on surviving his own heart transplant. In 'The Intruder', he raises central questions concerning the relations between what he refers to as a 'proper' life, that is, a life that is thought to be one's own singular 'lived experience', and medical techniques, shaped at this particular historical juncture by cyclosporine or immuno-suppression. He describes the temporal nature of an ever-increasing sense of strangeness and fragmentation which accompanies his heart transplant.

Art as measure: nursing as safeguarding.

In this paper I explore the possibilities of nursing as safeguarding through a phenomenological description of a small sculpture by the German artist Käthe Kollwitz. My discussion will be grounded in Heidegger's understanding of technicity as a pervasive systematizing and aggressive challenging-out. The method is grounded in Merleau-Ponty's and Heidegger's contention that strong artworks are truth-disclosing and show up our precognitive contact with the world.

Development and psychometric testing of the Relational Care Scale.

The purpose of this article is to report the development and testing of the self-report Relational Care Scale (RCS). The RCS was specifically designed to evaluate the relational care that nursing staff provides to residents living in nursing homes. The scale's content validity was assessed with the assistance of experts and related research in the area of nurse-resident interactions, and then the scale was pilot tested with 30 residents of a long-term care (LTC) facility to determine its clarity and stability.

Media portrayal of nurses' perspectives and concerns in the SARS crisis in Toronto.

Purpose: To describe nursing work life issues as portrayed in the media during the SARS crisis in Toronto.

Methods: Content analysis of local and national news media documents in Canada. Media articles were sorted and classified by topic, and themes were identified.

Effects of a relationship-enhancing program of care on outcomes.

Purpose: To examine the effects of a relationship-enhancing program of care (REPC) on resident and care provider outcomes.

Design And Methods: A quasi-experimental, repeated measures design, with intervention and comparison groups. Questionnaires were distributed to 50 residents, and observations were conducted of 40 residents and 34 nursing staff at baseline and 3 months after the intervention, on two Canadian nursing home units.