Why history matters to nursing

"They bring the topic [of social justice] but stop there": Nursing students' perceptions of teaching practices that develop awareness and engagement with social justice

BACKGROUND

Pedagogical frameworks grounded in social justice, such as decolonizing and anti-racist educational practices, are essential in nursing programs. While scholars have begun to examine nurse educators' conceptualizations of social justice, there remains a lack of knowledge about student perspectives regarding nurse educators' approaches to incorporating social justice in education.

OBJECTIVE

To understand nursing students' perceptions about educational strategies that develop critical awareness and engagement with social justice and positively influence professional practice.

DESIGN

A qualitative study informed by Critical Feminist Pedagogy and guided by Interpretive Description methodology.

SETTINGS

A school of nursing in Western Canada.

PARTICIPANTS

Ten undergraduate and graduate nursing students recruited through convenience sampling.

METHODS

Students participated in one-on-one semi-structured interviews. A set of questions developed to facilitate data analysis allowed the deconstruction of the data to identify broad-based inductive categories. Contrast and comparison methods were also used. Members of the research team provided analytic insights into the categories, and subsequently, all members discussed the findings and developed the interpretive frame.

RESULTS

Student participants reported that educational strategies promoting awareness and engagement with social justice need to go beyond superficial engagement and awareness of social justice. Researchers' analysis suggests that cohesiveness between awareness and action in social justice is urgently needed within academia to adopt a decolonizing and anti-racist pedagogy in nursing and better prepare students for professional practice. From the data analysis, teaching strategies that enhance cohesiveness include: embracing personal development, creating community spaces and disrupting knowledge and curriculum hierarchies.

CONCLUSIONS

Understanding students' perceptions and incorporating their suggestions is critical to integrating socially just teaching practices that embrace a learner-centred pedagogy. Our findings offer suggestions for teaching strategies that foster critical awareness and engagement with social justice. Combined, these contribute to our understanding of signature pedagogies in nursing with the intention of increasing the adoption of anti-racist and decolonizing approaches.

The growth of nursing professional values - A grounded theory

BACKGROUND

The formation of nursing professional values is crucial to the development of the nursing profession, but it is influenced by various factors. The process of shaping nursing professional values in different growth contexts has been overlooked. In order to establish professional values in the context of Chinese nursing, it is necessary to investigate the evolution of nursing professional values throughout history.

PURPOSE

To develop a theory of professional values growth from a nursing context. Design: This study adopted a grounded theory approach from Strauss and Corbin.

PARTICIPANTS

From November 2021 to March 2022, a total of 33 participants were included.

METHODS

Data were collected using a semi-structured interview over telephone or online or face to face and were analysed using open, axial, and selective coding, with the help of MAXQDA 2020.

ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS

The research was approved by the Ethics Committee of the China Medical University. All participants signed the informed consent and agreed to be interviewed before the study.

FINDINGS

The study has developed a theoretical construct of nursing professional values growth that consists of five dimensions: key aspects, decisive opportunities, drivers, embodiment, and shaping outcomes. And key aspects include four subcategories (the initial stage, the consciousness stage, the core stage, and the action stage). Decisive opportunities come from organisations and individuals. Drivers consist of social culture and self-trait, and embodiment covers two subcategories (humanism and ethical emotions). The last dimension is shaping outcomes, which consists of three subcategories (maintaining the original intention, professionalism, and instilling professional values).

DISCUSSION

The theory demonstrates the individual development process of nursing professional values in different interactive contexts, the context of its interaction with social and personal values is revealed, and the dynamics and mechanisms of the formation of personal psychological qualities in professional values from a nursing context are discovered.

CONCLUSIONS

This theory reveals the mechanisms that shape nursing professional values and can provide guidance for the growth of nursing students' professional values.

Healers and midwives accused of witchcraft (1563-1736) - What secondary analysis of the Scottish survey of witchcraft can contribute to the teaching of nursing and midwifery history

BACKGROUND

Nearly 4000 people were accused of witchcraft in Scotland between 1563 and 1736. Some of these were healers, midwives, and nurses.

OBJECTIVE

To investigate Scotland's folk-healers and midwives accused of witchcraft and review their work from a nursing and midwifery perspective.

DESIGN

Secondary analysis of the Survey of Scottish Witchcraft.

METHODS

Those on the Survey with witchcraft accusations relating to folk-healing or midwifery were identified and their biographies were created from Survey data (2021). Individual biographical data were descriptively analysed. Healing/midwifery practice information was tabulated and thematically analysed.

RESULTS

142 individuals were identified (85 % women), 51 % were found guilty, 90 % were executed. Most (98 %) were folk-healers with 10 accused for midwifery reasons. Mainly their work was accused of causing harm. Three themes emerged: their use of rituals; unorthodox religious practices and treatments. Rituals included actions carried out a certain number of times. Religious practices frequently referenced Catholicism. Many of their treatments for ingestion, application or bathing used items still recognised for their health properties. Approximately, 10 % of the 142, mainly in the 1500s/early 1600s, utilised expensive items and complex treatments which had more in common with 'elite' knowledge rather than simple folklore.

CONCLUSIONS

Across all 142 people, many aspects of their work are identifiable within more contemporary nursing and midwifery practice including their use of rituals, treatments, and holism. Mostly the accused were folk-practitioners, but a few (1500s/early 1600s) appear to have been healers working akin to physicians. Following the Protestant reformation (1560) their work, unlike that of physicians, was marginalised, considered unorthodox and harmful because they were women and/or their work reflected Catholicism. European hospital nursing originates in the monastic houses, but little is known about these early religious nurses. This study is novel in suggesting that whoever taught these accused witch/healers may have been connected to the monastic hospitals pre-Reformation.

Historical Context of Custodial Health Nursing in New South Wales, Australia

Australia's prison healthcare originated during the establishment of the colony of New South Wales by Britain in 1788. Initially managed by the Colonial Medical Service, the history and healthcare of the penal settlement has been well documented in government records, academic works, museum displays, and fictional dramatizations. This article explores the origins and historical development of the nursing care of prisoners in Australia, starting with the original Australian prisoners, the convicts of colonial New South Wales. Largely overlooked in historical and academic studies, custodial health nurses are rarely mentioned or acknowledged for their contribution to the health of the colony. However, their expertise as healthcare professionals has continued to grow and is explored within the context of today's health landscape.

Progress on the introduction of supervisory ward manager roles since the Francis report recommendations

Recommendation 195 of the Francis report suggested that the introduction of supervisory ward managers into clinical practice could improve the quality of patient care in England. The Department of Health and NHS Commissioning Board's vision and strategy Compassion in Practice in 2012 restated the recommendation in action area four, with trusts required to publish progress. With the aim of identifying whether the lessons of the Francis report had been learned, a review of the published literature since 2012 retrieved only five articles on the subject, with many anecdotal accounts of its implementation in local trusts. The three subsequent update reports of Compassion in Practice stopped backing recommendation 195 and promoted black and ethnic minority leadership, a laudable initiative, but not a recommendation of the Francis report. The authors suggest recommendation 195 and Compassion in Practice's original action area four should be promoted again to ensure public safety and address the notion that lessons learned are less likely to be repeated.

Dinâmicas, transições identitárias e desenvolvimento profissional de enfermeiros na mercantilização da saúde

Objetivo: conocer las identidades profesionales de enfermeros portugueses y los sentidos de las transiciones en curso, para proporcionar el apoyo necesario a los desafíos de identidad profesional. Materiales y método: investigación de enfoque mixto realizada entre 2016 y 2017. Se utilizó el Inventario de Identidad Psicosocial de Zavalloni y Louis-Guérin como herramienta de recolección de datos, junto a una muestra de 102 enfermeros, de los cuales 19 fueron entrevistados posteriormente. Se analizaron datos que correspondían a los posibles selves, a la identificación del núcleo central, a los elementos periféricos de identidad profesional y las condiciones profesionales. Resultados: se verificó la existencia de un grupo dominante de enfermeros en una dualidad de identidad entre el enfoque en los cuidados y la autonomía profesional y el enfoque en las exigencias institucionales, con temor a la externalización del cuidado. Se identificó otro grupo profesional, más relacionado con el cuidado, que no presenta evidencias de institucionalización, sino que persigue un mayor desarrollo de las relaciones humanas y del conocimiento científico. Conclusiones: las posibles transiciones de identidad reconocidas pueden ocurrir según refuerzos y reconocimientos ofrecidos, que correspondan a factores de mercado y consecuente despersonalización del cuidado, o con la conquista de la autonomía y el rescate del cuidado, basado en la cientificidad profesional.

Chelsea, Pimlico and Belgravia District Nursing Association 1930-1939: A case study

The case study explores how the expansion of the health services during the interwar period impacted upon the status of district nursing and examines how being a voluntary service shaped district nursing associations. A range of primary sources were used; the Association Annual Reports, the Medical Officer for Health Annual Reports for the Borough of Chelsea, the Ministry of Health records, the archives of the Queen's Nursing Institute (QNI) and the Borough of Chelsea Council Minutes. The Medical Officer for Health Reports and the Council minutes identify efforts to improve environmental factors that impacted upon health. These primary sources briefly note the contribution of the Association suggesting that it was integral to the health care provision but considered a constant. The impact of changes to the 1932 Sunday Entertainments Act provide an interesting juxtaposition between the acknowledged value of district nursing and the constant struggle to fundraise in order to provide home nursing. Throughout the 1930s the Association experienced staff shortages and challenges regarding recruitment. The complexities of payment for municipal health services following the 1929 Local Government Act contributed to the staffing challenges. The move to a block grant in 1938 provided increased stability with regards to income. The case study identifies a contradiction regarding the esteem and value placed upon district nursing associations providing home nursing and the constant challenge of resources. District nursing services face similar challenges and this is the 130^th anniversary of the Queen's Nursing Institute.

A critical commentary on management science in relation to reforms after institutional National Health Service failures

AIM(S)

A discussion paper on the United Kingdom (UK) National Health Service (NHS) market reforms.

BACKGROUND

NHS market reforms reliance on management science methods introduced a fundamental shift in measuring care for commissioning.

EVALUATION

A number of key reports are discussed in relation to NHS market reforms and management science.

KEY ISSUES

NHS market reforms were influenced through a close alliance between policy makers, the department of health, free market think tanks and management consultancies. The timing of reforms coincided with reports on NHS failings and the evolution of measurement methods to focus on finance.

CONCLUSIONS

The balance in favour of measurement practises is of concern. Management science methods are criticised in the Francis Report yet promoted as the solution to some of the key findings; why may be explained by the close alliance.

IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT

A return to principles of management involving consensus, trust and involvement to promote quality care and use management science methods to this end.

Critical thinking and contemporary mental health care: Michel Foucault's "history of the present"

In order to be able to provide informed, effective and responsive mental health care and to do so in an evidence-based, collaborative and recovery-focused way with those who use mental health services, there is a recognition of the need for mental health professionals to possess sophisticated critical thinking capabilities. This article will therefore propose that such capabilities can be productively situated within the context of the work of the French philosopher Michel Foucault, one of the most challenging, innovative and influential thinkers of the 20th century. However, rather than focusing exclusively upon the content of Foucault's work, it will be suggested that it is possible to discern a general methodological approach across that work, a methodological approach that he refers to as "the history of the present." In doing so, Foucault's history of the present can be understood as a productive, albeit provisional, framework in which to orientate the purpose and process of critical thinking for mental health professionals by emphasizing the need to both historicize and politicize the theoretical perspectives and therapeutic practices that characterize contemporary mental health care.