Undereducated, aging, and ... a cycle of decline?

Thoughts about multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, and transdisciplinary research

This essay focuses on multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, and transdisciplinary research. The definitions and objectives for these three types of multiple discipline research are given. Discussion centers on the gains and losses that may be experienced by individual nurses who engage in such research, as well as gains and losses for the discipline of nursing.

Professional identity in community mental health nursing: A thematic analysis

AIM

The study aimed to explore how community mental health nurses (CMHNs) UK perceived their working lives. This was subdivided into questions related to: How do nurses perceive their professional status in terms of public image compared with their understanding of their working lives? How does the relationship between professional aspirations and experiences of working life affect their feelings about their work and their self image?

BACKGROUND

In a rapidly changing organizational context CMHNs face the challenge of achieving a coherent professional identity.

METHOD

An interview study was conducted and analyzed using semi-structured interviews and a thematic analysis to identify categories and themes in 34 CMHN's accounts of their working lives.

FINDINGS

The data were classified into four major themes: (i) The client focus: the public service identity of the profession; (ii) Not being a profession: skepticism, doubt and uncertainty; (iii) Growing out of the role: professional development as exit strategy; (iv) Waiting to be discovered: the search for recognition.

CONCLUSIONS

The metaphor of nurses searching for recognition has demonstrated its usefulness as a means of illuminating the quest undertaken by CMHNs to establish the legitimacy of their work, and achieve acknowledgment and appreciation. This underlies the search for professional identity in community mental health nursing.

Christman's principles for effective management: reflection and challenges for action

Dr. Luther Christman developed a set of principles essential to effective nursing management in 1982. The authors cut through the change and chaos of the past 20 years to focus on these meaningful principles and encourage readers to reflect and enact these principles in their practice.

Hospital RNs' job satisfactions and dissatisfactions

In a survey addressing work-related stress, 1,780 registered nurses (RNs) discussed the many variables affecting their job satisfaction, including: why they chose nursing, patient care issues, nurse manager roles, salaries and benefits, and intent to stay in nursing. Their responses may be painful for nursing management to read. Yet, if new candidates are to be attracted and existing RNs retained, satisfaction of RNs with their jobs must be considered.

Nursing work force in practice and education: what can we learn from the current crisis?

A major factor in the growing crisis in health care is the serious shortage of nurses in practice and education. The current work force shortage is different and more critical than previous cyclical deficits. Because it is projected to be of unprecedented severity and to endure long into the future, it demands significant attention and innovation. Nurses in clinical practice and in faculty roles are growing older, and the nursing work force in general is becoming relatively less educated. A strong nursing work force of the future will require new approaches to recruitment, preparation, and retention of nurses, interdisciplinary partnerships, and infusion of support from a variety of sources.

The fading of nursing leadership

Based on recent BSN student clinical observations and evaluations from inpatient hospital units to which they were assigned, we were concerned about the absence of nursing leadership in these settings and the impact this absence has on our profession. In this opinion article, we explore how nursing leadership is being influenced by the structure of health care institutions and by an anti-intellectual stance among members of the profession. We discuss how these factors are influencing the current state of our profession and recommend a course of action to ensure the professional presence of nursing in the future. We also encourage readers to think about what they can do to prevent the fading of nursing leadership.