New skills required of nurse tutors in the UK: a study within two Project 2000 pilot schemes for pre-registration nursing courses.

This paper examines the development of new skills required of nurse tutors as nursing schools integrate with institutions of higher education. The findings from part of a larger study, describing significant changes in the role of nurse tutors in the UK, in two demonstration Project 2000 districts. A case study approach was adapted for the study.

Misinterpretive phenomenology: Heidegger, ontology and nursing research.

This paper argues that Heidegger's phenomenology does not have the methodological implications usually ascribed to it in nursing literature. The Heidegger of Being and Time is not in any sense antagonistic to science, nor does he think that everydayness is more authentic, more genuine, than scientific enquiry or theoretical cognition. It is true that social science must rest on interpretive foundations, acknowledging the self-interpreting nature of human beings, but it does not follow from this that hermeneutics exhausts all the possibilities.

Developing a reflective standard of care.

Developing and monitoring effective practice is essential in health care organisations. Reflective practice offers practitioners and organisations a means to understand and learn through experience in complex care situations and develop expertise. This paper describes standard-setting in a hospice to construct a standard for managing patients who exhibit aggressive behaviour as part of their terminal illness.

The McCollough effect across the menstrual cycle.

The McCollough effect (ME) has been shown to be sensitive to cholinergic agents, being strengthened by hyoscine (antagonist) and weakened by physostigmine (agonist), and possibly to more generalized changes in CNS arousal. We therefore expected the ME to be sensitive to hormonal changes during the menstrual cycle, being strongest in the postovulatory phases when arousal is low. In two experiments we found a highly significant effect of menstrual phase for the normally cycling women, but not for oral contraceptive users: ME strength gradually increased across the cycle, reaching a premenstrual peak.

Privacy or help? The use of curtain positioning strategies within the maternity ward environment as a means of achieving and maintaining privacy, or as a form of signalling to peers and professionals in an attempt to seek information or support.

Midwives in the local maternity unit had noted that the interactions between women within the ward environment had started to decline. Women were spending long periods of time behind curtains drawn around their bed space. The staff hypothesized that this was because women desired the privacy of a single room.

Assessment of significant harm: improving professional practice.

Judging whether a child is suffering or is likely to suffer 'significant harm' has become a critical task for professionals working in the field of child health. Yet little guidance is available about what the phrase means in its entirety or how it should be applied in practice. This study set out to clarify the position by examining how the phrase was used in practice by a selected sample of experienced health and social work staff.

In defence of andragogy. Part 2: An educational process consistent with modern nursing's aims.

In 1987 the English National Board (1987) made it clear that it supported a move towards an andragogical approach to nurse education. Recently such moves have been questioned as has the validity of andragogy (Darbyshire 1993). In response to such challenges this paper extends some of the arguments made in the article 'In defence of andragogy' (Milligan 1995).

The impact of gender on primary teachers' evaluations of children's difficulties in school.

Background: More boys than girls receive provision to meet special educational needs. It has been suggested that teachers' evaluations of children's difficulties in school may be subject to gender bias. But the evidence is inconsistent, and the methodology of some work that reported bias has been criticised because the type of rating task that was used may have encouraged stereotypic thinking (Langfeldt, 1993).

Utilization of nursing research in practice and application strategies to raise research awareness amongst nurse practitioners: a model for success.

This paper describes the views of nurse practitioners regarding the utilization of nursing research in practice and puts forward four major strategies to raise research awareness amongst students and qualified nursing staff. The aims of the study were to describe the extent to which nursing research was being used in practice and secondly the degree of nurses' awareness of current research findings relevant to their daily work. Attention also focused on strategies needed to improve research awareness amongst nurse practitioners.

Comparison of lung volume in Greek swimmers, land based athletes, and sedentary controls using allometric scaling.

Objective: To compare lung volumes in a large cross sectional sample of Greek swimmers, land based athletes, and sedentary controls by means of allometric scaling.

Methods: Four hundred and fifty nine asymptomatic Greek children and young adults (age 10-21 years), including 159 swimmers, 130 land based athletes, and 170 sedentary controls, performed forced expiratory manoeuvres into a portable spirometer. Measurements included forced vital capacity, forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1.

Indications of prevalence, practice and effects of anabolic steroid use in Great Britain.

A growing number of reports of anabolic-androgenic streroid (AS) use in Great Britain (GB) among non-competitive groups have emerged since the beginning of 1990s. A study was commissioned by the Departments of Health for England, Scotland and Wales, to explore the extent and uses of AS from the public health point of view. As a part of a wider investigation into AS use, 21 gymnasia in England, Scotland and Wales were surveyed by questionnaire.

Husserl, phenomenology and nursing.

Discussions of phenomenological research in nursing consistently appeal to either Husserl or Heidegger in justifying the technical and conceptual resources they deploy. This paper focuses on Husserl, and examines the relationship between his phenomenology and the accounts of it that are to be found in the nursing literature. Three central ideas are given particular attention: the phenomenological reduction, phenomena, and essence.

Issues facing nurse teachers on the pre-registration diploma of higher education course (Project 2000): a case study approach.

This paper draws on the experience and expertise of nurse practitioners and teachers of nurses to report on significant issues facing the latter in their work. The findings form part of a larger study describing major changes in the role and work of nurse teachers resulting from Project 2000 initiatives. The rationale for adapting a case study approach is outlined.

A note of caution for clinicians using the Paced Auditory Serial Addition Task.

In this study, a group of 30 university students were administered the Paced Auditory Serial Addition Task (PASAT) and their performance compared with that of an older group matched for ability on the National Adult Reading Test (NART). They were also compared on measures of memory (forwards and backwards digit span) and a timed visual search task. The younger participants showed significantly inferior performance on the PASAT.

The health of children looked after by local authorities.

There are some 40,000 children 'in care' in England and Wales, i.e. being 'looked after' by local authorities and living in foster and residential homes.

Enhancing the health professional's role in requesting transplant organs.

The shortfall in organs for transplant continues in the UK. To address this problem, methods of organ procurement are continuously widening with the recent development of protocols in elective ventilation and non-heart beating donors. Until recently, the nurse's role in the success of organ procurement was largely limited to those working in intensive care units involved in cadaveric transplant and community-based nurses working with patients on kidney dialysis who may become involved with live related transplant.

A strategy for teaching research to adult branch diploma students.

Given the requirement for diploma students to 'use relevant literature and research to inform the practice of nursing' (Statutory Instrument No. 1456 1989 p 5), it is imperative that nurse educators develop effective strategies to promote student interest in research, and develop the knowledge and skills required to understand and use research in practice. This article presents the teaching strategy developed for adult branch students at one college of nursing.

Facilitation: a concept analysis.

The term 'facilitation' appears to be open to a wide variety of definitions and interpretations. If teachers are to act as facilitators of learning they need a clearer understanding of facilitations as a strategy for nursing education. This concept analysis uses Walker and Avant's framework.

Fever nurses' perceptions of their fever nurse training 1921-1971.

This paper is based on evidence from 118 ex-fever nurses. The method used, postal questionnaires, is rarely mentioned by oral historians, yet it proved invaluable in such a scattered target population. It shows the importance of collecting evidence before it is too late.

The use of criteria-based grading profiles in formative and summative assessment.

This article outlines the development and use of criteria based grading profiles for formative and summative assessment. The profiles were developed in 1991 in an attempt to improve assessment validity, inter-marker and inter-course reliability and student feedback within the Faculty of Health Care and Social Studies. Important underlying aspects of assessment theory are examined and it is argued that assessment should be conceptualised as an ethical activity requiring clarification for students of expectations through specification of criteria.

A phenomenological study of the nature of empathy.

The purpose of this study was to gain an understanding of the nature of empathy, as perceived and experienced by registered nurses. A phenomenological approach was selected, with nine experienced staff nurses working in surgical settings being interviewed using an open, unstructured approach. Empathy was evidently felt to be beneficial, displayed both nonverbally and through the nurse's actions, and therefore the ability to empathize, and to feel empathy with the individual patient, needs supporting and promoting in nurses.