Social acceleration, alienation, and resonance: Hartmut Rosa's writings applied to nursing

This article aims to present the life and work of German thinker Hartmut Rosa as a philosopher of interest for nursing. Although his theoretical framework remains fairly unknown in the nursing domain, its main key concepts open up a philosophical and sociological approach that can contribute to the understanding of a wide range of study phenomena related to nurses, nursing, and healthcare. The concepts of social acceleration, alienation, and resonance are useful to explore healthcare organizations' performance by bringing the time dimension of modernity to the center; to grasp nurses' experiences of caring for patients; and to understand nurses as agents endowed with the capacity to deploy their political agency to create alternative forms of relationship to themselves, to others, and the world, challenging the institutional order of healthcare organizations when it fails to resonate with their professional ethos. In this article, we propose Hartmut Rosa's theoretical framework as a new and inspiring phenomenological and critical lens that should be further explored to advance knowledge concerning phenomena that are found at the crossroads of the nursing domain and other fields of knowledge.

Organisational Justice and Political Agency among Nurses in Public Healthcare Organisations: A Qualitative Study Protocol

Nurses are rarely treated as equals in the social, professional, clinical, and administrative life of healthcare organisations. The primary objective of this study is to explore nurses’ perceptions of organisational justice in public healthcare institutions in Majorca, Balearic Islands, Spain, and to analyse the ways in which they exercise their political agency to challenge the institutional order when it fails to reflect their professional ethos. An ethnomethodological approach using critical discourse analysis will be employed. The main participants will be nurses occupying different roles in healthcare organisations, who will be considered central respondents, and physicians and managers, who will be considered peripheral respondents. Data generation techniques include semi-structured interviews, a sociodemographic questionnaire, and the researcher’s field diary. This is one of the first studies to address organisational justice in healthcare organisations from a macrostructural perspective and to explore nurses’ political agency. The results of this study have the potential to advance knowledge and to ensure that healthcare organisations are fairer for nurses, and, by extension, for the patients in their care.

A major stream in mental health in undergraduate nursing programmes: identifying the benefits and acknowledging the innovation

The literature demonstrates the problems mental health nursing has faced in securing sufficient graduate nurses to meet current and projected workforce needs. Deficiencies in educational preparation have been identified as a significant contributing factor. A major stream in mental health nursing has been introduced into undergraduate Bachelor of Nursing programmes as one strategy to address this problem. To-date, 11 streams have been introduced into Australian universities and no evaluations of the impact of these initiatives have been published as yet. This qualitative research was undertaken to explore the implementation and outcomes of major streams. In-depth telephone interviews were undertaken with participants from 10 universities, to explore their experiences with and opinions of this initiative. This paper specifically addresses the perceived benefits. Qualitative data analysis revealed many benefits to the major in promoting the value of, and encouraging interest in mental health nursing for undergraduate students. Four main themes were identified: (1) benefits to students; (2) benefits to the university; (3) benefits to industry; and (4) innovative approaches to education. The findings suggest the major in mental health nursing can contribute to addressing workforce problems in mental health nursing.

Back to the future? Views of heads of schools of nursing about undergraduate specialization in mental health nursing

Preparation of nursing students for practice in mental health settings in Australia has been criticized since comprehensive education replaced preregistration specialist education. Current and projected workforce shortages have given rise to considering the reintroduction of specialization at preregistration level as a potential solution. Support of heads of schools of nursing would be essential for such an initiative to be considered. A qualitative exploratory study was undertaken involving in-depth telephone interviews with heads of schools of nursing in Queensland. Participants generally favoured the concept of specialization in mental health nursing at undergraduate level. Data analysis revealed the following themes: meeting workforce needs, improving quality of care, employability of graduates, an attractive option for students, and what would have to go. Participants identified many benefits to mental health service delivery and consumer outcomes. How the initiative could be developed within an already overcrowded curriculum was identified as the major barrier. This level of support is encouraging if necessary changes to the educational preparation for mental health nursing practice are to be considered.