Identifying the nontechnical skills required of nurses in general surgical wards.

Aims And Objectives: To identify the nontechnical skills (NTS) required of nurses in general surgical wards for safe and effective care.

Background: As the largest occupational group, nurses are in an ideal position to block the vulnerabilities of patient adverse events in a surgical ward. Previous studies in the surgical environment have identified the NTS required of nurses for safe care in operating rooms; however, these skills have not been identified for nurses in general surgical wards.

A Boom for Whom? Exploring the Impacts of a Rapid Increase in the Male Population Upon Women's Services in Darwin, Northern Territory.

A rapidly expanding natural-resource extraction industry and a growing military presence mean an increasingly male-skewed population for the city of Darwin, Australia. This has sparked concerns about the potential for increased violence against women. In this article, we present qualitative research detailing the views of 13 participants from 10 women's support services in the Darwin area.

Alcohol, violence, and a fast growing male population: exploring a risky-mix in "boomtown" Darwin.

Boomtowns are places where populations grow rapidly, mostly as a result of large-scale natural resource developments. Increases in alcohol consumption and alcohol-fuelled violence are often linked to influxes of (predominantly male) workers associated with such developments. This article provides an integrated review of literature concerning alcohol and violence in boomtowns.

Insiders or outsiders? Mental health service users' journeys towards full citizenship.

The present study explores the journeys towards full citizenship for those using mental health services as they lobbied to be included as full citizens with the same rights and responsibilities as others in society. Qualitative data were collected through semistructured interviews with 17 service users, five government representatives, and seven registered mental health nurses. A conceptual framework of citizenship containing four domains - the extent, content, depth and acts of citizenship - was used to analyse the data.

Nurse turnover in New Zealand: costs and relationships with staffing practises and patient outcomes.

Aims: To determine the rates and costs of nurse turnover, the relationships with staffing practises, and the impacts on outcomes for nurses and patients.

Background: In the context of nursing shortages, information on the rates and costs of nursing turnover can improve nursing staff management and quality of care.

Methods: Quantitative and qualitative data were collected prospectively for 12 months.

Teamwork - general practitioners and practice nurses working together in New Zealand.

Introduction: Teamwork in primary health care has been encouraged in New Zealand and in the international literature. It may improve work satisfaction for staff, and satisfaction and outcomes for patients. Teamwork may be classified as being multi-, inter- or transdisciplinary and is likely to be influenced by the nature of the work and the organisational context.

Variation in the adoption of patient safety practices among New Zealand district health boards.

Objective: To investigate the adoption and impact of quality improvement measures in New Zealand hospitals.

Method: Structured interviews with quality and safety managers of District Health Boards (DHBs). Correlation of use of measures with adjusted 30-day mortality data.

The financial impact of clinical task substitution between practice nurses and GPs in New Zealand primary care centres.

Aim: To describe the financial impact on practice owners of increased clinical task substitution between practice nurses and GPs in New Zealand (NZ) primary care settings.

Method: Case studies of 9 primary health care centres involving: interviews; collation of service and financial information; and nurse and GP diaries covering 1826 consultations. Results were compared with previous NZ large N survey results to develop a model predicting the financial impact of task substitution.

The impact of funding changes on the implementation of primary health care policy.

Aim: To ascertain how new funding arrangements, introduced in New Zealand's 2001 Primary Health Care (PHC) Strategy, have impacted on the expansion of nurses' role in general practice.

Background: Nurses are central to the new policy that was designed to improve the health status of New Zealanders and reduce inequalities in health. Nurses were to be a crucial part of the PHC team, expanding their current roles to provide increased access to appropriate services.

Insanity, methamphetamine and psychiatric expertise in New Zealand courtrooms.

The use of methamphetamine in New Zealand has increased significantly over the last decade. Due to the potential of methamphetamine to induce, exacerbate and precipitate psychotic symptoms, this drug has also taken centre stage in several criminal trials considering the sanity of defendants. Highly publicised and often involving contested expert evidence, these criminal trials have illustrated the limits of using psychiatric expertise to answer legal questions.

Importance of work environments on hospital outcomes in nine countries.

Purpose: To determine the effect of hospital work environments on hospital outcomes across multiple countries.

Design: Primary survey data using a common instrument were collected from separate cross sections of 98 116 bedside care nurses practising in 1406 hospitals in 9 countries between 1999 and 2009.

Main Outcome Measures: Nurse burnout and job dissatisfaction, patient readiness for hospital discharge and quality of patient care.

Mental illness in the nursing workplace: a collective autoethnography.

Many nurses are burned out, exhausted and have a high intent to leave their jobs. These factors, when experienced over a period of time, are consistent with the development of mental illness. This study takes a collective autoethnographical approach to mental illness in the nursing workplace by focusing on the stories of nurses who have experienced mental illness in clinical practice.

Nurse burnout and quality of care: cross-national investigation in six countries.

We explored the relationship between nurse burnout and ratings of quality of care in 53,846 nurses from six countries. In this secondary analysis, we used data from the International Hospital Outcomes Study; data were collected from 1998 to 2005. The Maslach Burnout Inventory and a single-item reflecting nurse-rated quality of care were used in multiple logistic regression modeling to investigate the association between nurse burnout and nurse-rated quality of care.

New Zealand nurses' reports on hospital care: an international comparison.

Despite the differences in health care systems, nursing shortages and their contributing factors and consequences no longer seem to be solely country-specific. The present study replicated a cross-national study of nurses' perceptions of staffing, work organisation and outcomes conducted in more than 700 hospitals in the United States, Canada, England, Scotland, and Germany. This paper compares the 2001 New Zealand findings with the findings of the five-country study.

Effect of cool temperature dialysate on the quality and patients' perception of haemodialysis.

Background: The effects of cool dialysate on the urea reduction ratio (URR) in high efficiency haemodialysis have not been completely studied. After reviewing the literature, it appeared that patients' perceptions of cool dialysis have not been studied. Since patients' perception have an impact on patient satisfaction, this motivated the authors to research this area of practice.

Hospital restructuring: identifying the impact on patients and nurses.

Health systems throughout the democratic world have been subject to 'reform' in recent years as countries have attempted to contain the rapidly rising costs of health care. Because hospital care accounts for a large proportion of health sector spending, hospital restructuring has been an important part of those changes. In an attempt to make hospitals more efficient and cost-effective, New Zealand, like other countries, has introduced extensive changes to the way in which treatment and care are delivered to patients, and to the way nurses' work is organised and managed.