Who would want to be a nurse? Violence in the workplace--a factor in recruitment and retention

In a climate of a declining nursing workforce where violence and hostility is a part of the day-to-day lives of most nurses, it is timely to name violence as a major factor in the recruitment and retention of registered nurses in the health system. Workplace violence takes many forms such as aggression, harassment, bullying, intimidation and assault. Violent acts are perpetrated against nurses from various quarters including patients, relatives, other nurses and other professional groups. Research suggests that nurse managers are implicated in workplace violence and bullying. Furthermore, there may be a direct link between episodes of violence and aggression towards nurses and sick leave, burnout and poor recruitment and retention rates. This paper explores what is known about workplace violence as it affects nurses, and calls for managerial support and policy to act to improve work environments for all nurses.

Retaining a viable workforce: a critical challenge for nursing

Nursing is facing a crisis nationally and internationall, with Australia, the United States, New Zealand, Canada, the United Kingdom and Western Europe experiencing critical shortages of nurses. Problems with recruitment, retention and an ageing workforce means that attempts to ensure a viable nursing workforce must be placed at the top of the professional agenda. Strategies currently used to manage the crisis, such as overseas recruitment, are not sustainable and are ethically dubious. The demographic timebomb is ticking and up to half the current nursing workforce will reach retirement age by 2020. It is vital that there are adequate numbers of skilled and qualified nurses to take their places. Nursing and nurses are facing unprecedented challenges and pressures in the workplace. Job satisfaction is threatened as nurses are pressured to do more with less, Nursing productivity has increased phenomenally over the past ten years in response to increased demands and decreasing numbers of staff. The nursing workplace has disturbingly high levels of occupational violence, and many nurses operate within a culture of blame and scapegoating. There is evidence that organizational change is imposed upon nurses with little or no consultation and the literature reveals that this has a direct and negative effect on job satisfaction and on retention of nurses. This paper explores some of the critical issues that nursing must confront to be successful in establishing and maintaining a vigorous, dynamic and viable workforce.

Clinical nurses as teachers: insights from students of nursing in their first semester of study

This paper reports the findings of a study which sought to gain insights about the role of clinical nursing staff in the planned clinical experience of undergraduate nursing students. This study differs from others in that the perspectives of students of nursing in their first year of the undergraduate programme are sought, and the role of clinical nurses rather than clinical teachers is of particular interest. Using a story-telling approach, an exploration of students' perspectives on the role of clinical nursing staff in their clinical learning was undertaken. Analysis allowed findings to be grouped into helpful and unhelpful behaviours, Helpful behaviours included understanding and being friendly, showing interest and explaining. Behaviours that students found unhelpful to their learning were often passive rather than active, but they made students feel acutely aware of being unwelcome in the clinical area. Several students described feeling intrusive, uncomfortable and even unwelcome in clinical areas because o the attitudes and behaviour of clinicians. Findings of this study highlight the importance of clinicians and academic nurses working together to ensure that students of nursing, who represent the future of the profession, are provided with the best possible opportunities for clinical learning.

Ovarian cancer: an update for nursing practice

A diagnosis of ovarian cancer is a crisis for any woman. Ovarian cancer has the highest mortality of all the gynaecological cancers. In addition to the very real threat of death, such a diagnosis raises critical issues concerning femininity, motherhood and sexuality. The high mortality associated with this disease is due (in part) to problems associated with early diagnosis. Women frequently experience non-specific symptoms, which may be attributed to other, less alarming causes. The lack of specific symptoms experienced by women, as well as the lack of effective mass screening strategies, make early detection difficult. This makes it crucial that nurses involved in the care of women be alert to the insidious and non-specific onset of this serious condition.

Idealised versus tainted femininity: discourses of the menstrual experience in Australian magazines that target young women

Information and messages concerning health-related issues are not confined to material provided by official figures or sources. Much information exists in the community and comes from a variety of sources. One such source is the media. This paper reports the findings of a study conducted over a 12-month period of advertisements for menstrual products in a selection of four monthly Australian magazines (n = 48) directed towards young women. The study examined the way in which menstruation and the menstrual experience were depicted in terms of page space, textual content and visual images. Findings revealed that advertisements for menstrual products provided confusing, conflicting and paradoxical messages. These included stressing the normality of menstruation while also emphasising the importance of keeping it hidden and secret. Menstruation was depicted as being a state of tainted (idealised) femininity because of the potential for the menstrual silence to be shattered by people finding out. Protection failure was depicted as being the ultimate in tainted femininity and a result of a woman's incorrect choice of product. Choosing menstrual-care products was depicted as simple but, paradoxically, complex and confusing. Women were depicted as liberated and sophisticated but images and language related to infancy were used. Freedom and liberation were conferred by the use of the advertised product. Overall, in common with previous studies, menstruation was depicted as a crisis of hygiene that is a risk to femininity. Advertisements for pantyliners suggest that femininity itself poses a threat to (idealised) femininity. This study demonstrates the crucial role of the media as a source of health information for young women.

More than motherhood? A feminist exploration of 'women's health' in papers indexed by CINAHL 1993-1995

Holism is claimed to be the signifying feature that sets women's health apart from traditional approaches to health care. As such, articles published in the nursing literature about women's health would, one might expect, reflect the centrality of holism to women's health care nursing. The findings of a study which examined the content and the focus of articles published about women's health in journals indexed by CINAHL in the period 1993-1995 challenge this assumption. It was found that women's health is a taken-for-granted notion and is used interchangeably and synonymously to refer to reproductive health, maternal health, neonatal health, family health and (hetero) sexual health. Confounding the view that holism is foundational to a women's health perspective, the papers forming the study's sample largely depict issues to do with women's health from a narrow and stereotypical perspective and with a bio-medical focus. Women were referred to as fragmented bodies, body parts and diseases, and were depicted as being passive and silent. By contrast, the voice (and the activity) of nurses and nursing's imperative to intervene was clearly discernible.

Through the looking glass: reflections on the authorship and content of current Australian nursing journals

Over the past three years, Australian nurses have witnessed a proliferation of locally published refereed nursing journals. This paper considers the refereed content published in four selected Australian nursing journals over a recent twelve month period. Material appearing in the Australian Journal of Advanced Nursing (AJAN), Contemporary Nurse, Nursing Inquiry and Collegian was categorized according to subject matter and authorship by gender and discipline. Findings indicate that articles pertaining to clinical practice, the practice of research, and professional nursing issues are well represented in the literature. These findings mark a change from earlier analyses of Australian nursing journals, which suggested that the epistemologies of other disciplines were over-represented in Australian nursing journals, and thus exerted a powerful influence over the development of nursing theory and scholarship. The increase in the number of refereed Australian nursing journals is indicative of the dynamic state of Australian nursing, in terms of confidence, scholarship and clinical practice development.