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Biomedical subjects

J S Ford

Publications and source records attributed to J S Ford.

9 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1997

Enhancing client competence: melding professional and client knowledge in public health nursing practice.

Providing health information is an important aspect of public health nursing. This article describes how public health nurses (PHNs) give information to enhance client competence. The findings are part of a larger study that explored PHNs perspectives and experiences of their practice. The study employed an exploratory descriptive qualitative research design. Data were gathered through in-depth individual and focus group interviews with 28 PHNs in Alberta, Canada. Content analysis revealed that nurses work to enhance client competence by sharing professional knowledge and by building on the client's experiential knowledge. Nurses provide information to assist clients with immediate concerns and for future use, PHNs use three main strategies to deal with immediate concerns: being direct, providing options, and presenting a different view. Information for future use focused on enhancing development and forestalling future problems. Nurses build on clients' experiential knowledge by acknowledging their present situation, giving positive feedback, being there, and gently persuading. The authors suggest that the melding of professional and client knowledge is foundational to health promotion approaches that enhance client competence. There is a need for further research that explores the intricacies of developing partnerships between professionals and clients that embrace a sharing of professional and experiential knowledge.

Alberta↗
PubMed1996

Perceptions of public health nursing: views from the field.

While there has been considerable debate about future roles for public health nurses, there is little research that explores public health nursing from the practitioner's perspective. The findings reported in this paper are part of a larger study that explored public health nurses' perspectives and experiences of their practice: what they do and how they feel about what they do. Qualitative data were gathered through in-depth individual and focus group interviews with 28 female public health nurses (PHNs) in Alberta, Canada. This paper describes how PHNs feel about their work. The analysis revealed that public health nurses perceived that their work was valuable and worthwhile, enjoyable, demanding, and not well understood by others. These perceptions are discussed in terms of their implications for the future role of public health nursing in a reformed health care system and for the quality of nursing worklife.

Alberta↗
PubMed1994

A model for critical thinking within the context of curriculum as praxis.

The curriculum may be informed by a technical, practical, or emancipatory interest. Curricula informed by these three interests are referred to as curriculum as product, curriculum as practice, and curriculum as praxis (Grundy, 1989) respectively. When curricula are viewed from different perspectives, it is plausible to suggest that each perspective requires a different conceptualization of critical thinking. The literature search revealed that critical thinking has been equated with problem solving, which is congruent with a curriculum-as-product orientation. The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of a conceptual model for critical thinking that is congruent with an orientation to the curriculum as praxis. The model is derived from the work of Freire (1972), Habermas (1972), and Grundy (1989). The key concepts of the model are knowledge, critical reflection, and action. There is a reciprocal relationship between knowledge and action, which is mediated by critical reflection.

Cognition↗
PubMed1993

Nursing education content in master's in nursing programs.

Baccalaureate entry into practice presumes that there is a cadre of nurses with adequate preparation to teach students at the baccalaureate level. The purpose of this study was to describe the nursing education component of Canadian master's in nursing programs. This study was a partial replication of Oermann and Jamison's (1989) study of master's in nursing programs in the United States. A questionnaire and cover letter were mailed to the Deans/Directors of the 10 Canadian master's programs where English is the language of instruction. The return rate was 100%. Seven of the 10 programs offered nursing education coursework, while two of the remaining three required education coursework outside of nursing. The findings indicate that the nursing education courses covered a variety of topics, but had no fixed requirements for preparation for the role of nurse teacher. We question whether current master's in nursing programs constitute adequate preparation for the role of nurse teacher in English Canada.

Canada↗
PubMed1990

Ethical dilemmas associated with small samples.

This paper describes the ethical dilemmas which the authors encountered when conducting qualitative research with samples consisting of a small number of participants. Ethical conflicts are explored in terms of the principles of autonomy, non-maleficience, and beneficience with examples from the authors' research experiences. Although there are no definitive resolutions to these conflicts, the paper may increase awareness of the special concerns which require further study and debate.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1990

Caring encounters.

This paper is based on conversations the author had with six nurses about their experiences of caring when working with cardiac patients. The text is orientated to elucidating the lived experience of caring so as to provide new possibilities for understanding, and to raising questions for the sake of opening up different perspectives on the nature of caring. Six themes emerge from the experiential descriptions: Sensing the patient's vulnerability: beyond the call of duty; being in tune with the patient's world; being attentively present; centring on the patient; and being comfortable with the patient. Pseudonyms are used so as to maintain anonymity of the nurses and their patients. The female pronoun is used throughout the paper because all the nurses interviewed were females.

Empathy↗
PubMed1989

Living with a history of a heart attack: a human science investigation.

The intent of this study was to gain insights into and a deeper understanding of what it means to live with a history of a heart attack for males at least 2 years after the event. The descriptive/interpretive work of the study is based on conversations with seven men who had heart attacks, all of whom subsequently returned to work. The insights emerge from the descriptions which focused respectively on the experiences of the body, other, time, and space. Pseudonyms are used instead of the participants' names. This has been necessary to maintain anonymity of the persons concerned.

Activities of Daily Living↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Perceptions of changes in public health nursing practice: a Canadian perspective.

This paper describes public health nurses' perceptions of changes in their practice. The participants were 28 public health staff nurses from six Alberta, Canada health units serving urban and rural populations. Data were collected in 1993-94 using individual and focus group interviews. Content analysis was used to identify the following themes: "pulling back", "from hands on to arms length", "handing over responsibility", "developing working partnerships", and "doing less surveillance". These themes are discussed in terms of their implications for population health and for public heath nursing, using as a point of reference the principles of Primary Health Care. Continuing research is needed to chronicle further changes in public health nursing practice that will result from health care restructuring and health system reform.

Alberta↗