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Biomedical subjects

Margaret McAllister

Publications and source records attributed to Margaret McAllister.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2006

Solution focused nursing: an evaluation of current practice.

This Australian study explored the extent to which solution focused nursing (SFN), a new philosophy of care underpinning a Bachelor of Nursing Programme, was understood by students and staff. Students and faculty perceptions of teaching and learning were explored using survey and semi-structured interview methods. The results showed that students did not have strong views about whether solutions or problems contribute best to a definition of nursing knowledge, but there were some differences between the year groups. This was hypothesised to be related to the way SFN is or is not being taught. Teachers were generally positive about SFN but perceived that they needed more education on the philosophy to ensure it could be translated into their teaching. A teaching and learning package is recommended to be produced and made available to all teachers within the program.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2006

Solution focused teaching: a transformative approach to teaching nursing.

Nurses work in complex health care systems, which today are based not only on medical treatment and cure, but also on enabling individuals and strengthening communities. This paper describes a curriculum approach to teaching nursing in an Australian university which seeks to prepare students for this environment. Underpinned by transformative education principles, and termed Solution Focused Nursing, specific teaching and learning strategies are discussed. A goal is to cultivate critical thinkers and knowledge workers, that is, nurses who are not only able to work skillfully, strategically, and respectfully with clients, but who also demonstrate discernment, optimism, and vision about nursing and health care.

Australia↗
PubMed2006

Extending the boundaries: autoethnography as an emergent method in mental health nursing research.

An exploration of the 'self' is generally considered a fundamental and necessary place from which to commence practice as a mental health nurse. Self-awareness and attention to one's own feelings, thoughts, and experiences can contribute to the therapeutic use of self in effective provision of mental health nursing care. This purposeful use of self, inherent in the role of the mental health nurse, may also be seen as synchronous to the role of the qualitative researcher who seeks to uncover the meaning of others' experiences. Autoethnography is a qualitative research method that connects the researcher's personal self to the broader cultural context. Evocative writing, where the writer shares personal stories on their experiences, is used to extend understanding of a particular social issue. This paper will argue how this emerging method in social science research is of particular relevance to mental health nursing research and practice.

Australia↗
PubMed2005

Transformative teaching in nursing education: preparing for the possible.

In these fractured and unsettling times, it is tempting to see nursing as a profession in crumbles. Many nurses are vocalising to media and to each other that they are overworked, underpaid, undervalued and intending to leave the system. Now more than ever, leaders, thinkers and change agents must organise themselves to restore life and vitality to the profession. Nursing educators are cornerstones in this restoration work, yet we too can at times feel overwhelmed and helpless to find engaging approaches to teaching nursing. This is the first of two papers, which argue that critical education is an illuminating philosophy for nursing. It can restore optimism and provide clear directions to assist neophytes and lifelong learners in nursing to become more self-confident, self-determining, optimistic, resistant and change oriented. In this article, the context for learning is considered, exploring transformative teaching as one choice among several learning models. The article offers strategies nurses may use to prepare a fertile ground for learning wherever that may be located.

Australia↗
PubMed2005

Transformative teaching in nursing education: leading by example.

This is the second in a pair of articles exploring critical education, an illuminating philosophy relevant to practice development facilitators, clinical teachers, academics, clinicians and others involved in the rethinking of nursing practice. I argue that critical education and its practice equivalent-transformative teaching and learning, can restore optimism in those who feel that longstanding practice problems have become insoluble. It can provide clear direction to assist new nurses, students and lifelong learners to become strategic about change, aware of the rich and varied history of their profession, critical thinkers and creative solution generators. In this article, I move beyond the forming phase of the teacher-student relationship to the building, or working phase of learning. Two particular ways of encouraging critical thinking are emphasised: reflective practice and dialectical critique. In order to move beyond the purely abstract, I draw on my experiences teaching undergraduate and postgraduate students, and clinicians working in education, practice and research.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗
PubMed2005

Promoting physiologic-physical adaptation in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: pharmacotherapeutic evidence-based research and guidelines.

Guidelines from the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) and evidence-based research include advanced pharmacologic care for patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Although clinical trials of medications have not supported evidence that long-term decline in pulmonary function can be prevented, pharmacologic agents can reduce symptoms and prevent complications. High-quality home care services may improve quality of life and prevent hospital admissions because of acute exacerbations.

Adaptation, Physiological↗
PubMed2005

Effectiveness of a counseling intervention after a traumatic childbirth: a randomized controlled trial.

UNLABELLED: Adverse childbirth experiences can evoke fear and overwhelming anxiety for some women and precipitate posttraumatic stress disorder. The objective of this study was to assess a midwife-led brief counseling intervention for postpartum women at risk of developing psychological trauma symptoms. METHOD: Of 348 women screened for trauma symptoms, 103 met inclusion criteria and were randomized into an intervention (n = 50) or a control (n = 53) group. The intervention group received face-to-face counseling within 72 hours of birth and again via telephone at 4 to 6 weeks postpartum. Main outcome measures were posttraumatic stress symptoms, depression, self-blame, and confidence about a future pregnancy. RESULTS: At 3-month follow-up, intervention group women reported decreased trauma symptoms, low relative risk of depression, low relative risk of stress, and low feelings of self-blame. Confidence about a future pregnancy was higher for these women than for control group women. Three intervention group women compared with 9 control group women met the diagnostic criteria for posttraumatic stress disorder at 3 months postpartum, but this result was not statistically significant. DISCUSSION: A high prevalence of postpartum depression and trauma symptoms occurred after childbirth. Although most women improved over time, the intervention markedly affected participants' trajectory toward recovery compared with women who did not receive counseling. CONCLUSIONS: A brief, midwife-led counseling intervention for women who report a distressing birth experience was effective in reducing symptoms of trauma, depression, stress, and feelings of self-blame. The intervention is within the scope of midwifery practice, caused no harm to participants, was perceived as helpful, and enhanced women's confidence about a future pregnancy.

Adult↗
PubMed2004

Different voices: reviewing and revising the politics of working with consumers in mental health.

Working with consumers is now a common expectation in contemporary mental health services. Yet health professionals may not entirely understand the difference between patient and consumer roles. Alternatively, they may feel they do not have the skills or resources to deal with people in roles other than patient or carer. Nor may they be able to separate out their personal experiences with particular consumers from the ideals and goals for effective consumer partnerships. This paper reviews a concept known as the politics of difference as well as the rise of the consumer movement in order to explore areas of difference between consumers and providers, to reexamine how power and marginalization practices occur. It reminds professionals that generalizing from one failed experience relating with a consumer is just as invalid as idealizing the current policy of consumer inclusion. Inviting, allowing, amplifying and improving the effectiveness of the consumer voice in mental health services today requires active commitment, educative processes and novel strategies to move beyond superficial relationships so that consumers and professionals work together to make enduring change.

Australia↗
PubMed2004

Advanced practice nursing and conceptual models of nursing.

This column focuses on advanced practice nursing. A definition and central competency of advanced practice are given and four roles assumed by advanced practice nurses are identified. Questions related primarily to the advanced practice role of nurse practitioner are raised. Two nurse scholars who teach and practice discuss their experiences as advanced practice nurses, with an emphasis on the importance of using a conceptual model of nursing as a guide for their practice.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗
PubMed2003

Doing practice differently: solution-focused nursing.

BACKGROUND: Critical thinking and reasoning take many forms; however, a problem-orientation remains the favoured approach in health care. PURPOSE: This paper considers the effects of a problem-orientation and argues that a solution-orientation fits nursing's interests more closely and represents an exciting way forward in both education and practice. DISCUSSION: Whilst a problem-focus is criticized by some, it remains largely unchallenged as the guiding light for nursing practice. A major reason is that the problem focused approach has strong cultural roots. It is deeply embedded in our thinking, and has become taken-for-granted and not often recognized or debated. Whilst problem-solving has an important place in helping to diagnose disorder and overcome difficulties, nursing needs to move beyond its borders because the role also concerns problem-free issues such as health and well-being. Creativity, imagination and focusing on strengths not problems are also important cognitive processes. CONCLUSION: A problem-orientated approach in nursing has had a constraining rather than enabling influence. By refocusing on a solution-focused approach, we could show how we are different from medicine, and how we aim to do nursing differently through using skills such as engagement, resilience-building, community development, primary health care and health education.

Education, Nursing↗
PubMed2003

Blackbirds singing in the dead of night?: Advancing the craft of teaching qualitative research.

Qualitative research education, which is overly concerned with teaching content, can reduce knowledge to the technical-rational domain, and in this process, opportunities for students to be inspired and passionately engaged with the art of qualitative research are lost. Although students may acquire the characteristics of qualitative researchers by observing role models, there is much skilled teachers can do to teach students not only how to conduct research, but also how to be committed qualitative researchers. The craft knowledge of skilled teachers in facilitating these understandings, techniques, and attributes in students must be shared and discussed in meaningful ways to advance quality education and, in turn, quality nursing research. If unshared, teachers' knowledge may go unheard, and they may be left isolated, like blackbirds singing in the dead of night. In this article, the skills of "doing and being" in qualitative research are emphasized by sharing strategies the authors have used in research education. The aim is to discuss creative aspects of teaching practice that are helpful in understanding and advancing rigorous qualitative research.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗
PubMed2003

Self-harm in the emergency setting: understanding and responding.

Nurses are the people most consistently and intensely involved in the care of people who present to emergency departments because of self-harm, yet most have received no training or support to provide strategic care. This paper will explore unique features of the emergency context for care and provide practical instruction on how nurses working in the area can respond effectively. As this paper argues there is much that the emergency nurse can provide for the client who self-harms and it describes important steps toward recovery--a respectful human encounter, understanding, support for the person's efforts in coping, optimism and hope that pain will lessen and recovery will take place.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗
PubMed2002

The postmodern heart: a discourse analysis of a booklet on pacemaker implantation.

This paper provides a deconstructive reading of an education booklet aimed at patients who may be scheduled for permanent cardiac pacemakers, and argues that pacemaker implantation is being constructed as a routine, uncomplicated procedure. The way language and image in the booklet convey a dominant preferred perspective on pacemaker implantation will be questioned. Some of the major issues explored are: the patient is stereotyped as a male patriarch; the fundamental right of informed choice is omitted; the ownership of decision-making is given to the physician; and the cardiac pacemaker is portrayed as remarkable and trouble-free. Implications for the meaning of these dominant perspectives for nursing practice are explored.

Australia↗
PubMed2002

The craft of teaching qualitative research: linking methodology to practice.

Qualitative inquiry provides a means of apprehending the personal and contextual experiences of health and health care as well as the complex social, cultural and political issues that influence services and professional practice. Despite its usefulness in informing clinical practice, it is undervalued and under-utilised in contemporary nursing research. A number of organisational, ideological and educational reasons exist for this situation. This paper addresses educational issues, specifically teaching practice. We discuss craft knowledge, an important but often obscured practice, and its use in qualitative research education, drawing on the findings of a project that investigated a group of nursing academics' experiences and perceptions about teaching qualitative research. We argue that craft knowledge offers teachers a means to inspire and engage clinician students to learn not only the content and research skills required to do good qualitative research but to learn more about the standpoint and sensibilities of being qualitative researchers. In this way craft knowledge does two things. First it helps to move beyond the content versus process polemic that often dominates educational debate. Second, by enhancing the quality of educational experience, it potentially helps clinicians to value qualitative inquiry and thus defend and use it to inform clinical practice.

Education, Nursing↗
PubMed2002

Nurses' attitudes towards clients who self-harm.

BACKGROUND: Deliberate self-harm is frequently encountered by emergency department (ED) nurses. However, clients are often dissatisfied with the care provided and clinicians feel ambivalent, helpless or frustrated when working with clients who self-harm. AIM: The aim of the study was to develop and test a scale to identify relevant dimensions of ED nurses' attitudes to clients who present with self-injury. METHODS: Items on Attitudes Towards Deliberate Self-Harm Questionnaire (ADSHQ) were drawn from a literature review and focus group discussions with ED nurses. The tool was piloted with 20 ED nurses not working in the target agencies. A survey of nurses working within 23 major public and 14 major private EDs in Queensland, Australia (n = 1008) was then undertaken. RESULTS: A total of 352 questionnaires were returned (35% response). Analysis revealed four factors that reflected nurses' attitudes toward these clients. The factors related to nurses' perceived confidence in their assessment and referral skills; ability to deal effectively with clients, empathic approach; and ability to cope effectively with legal and hospital regulations that guide practice. There was a generally negative attitude towards clients who self-harm. Correlations were found between years of ED experience and total score on the ADSHQ, and years of ED experience and an empathic approach towards clients who deliberately self-harm. CONCLUSION: There is a need for continuing professional development activities to address negative attitudes and provide practical strategies to inform practice and clinical protocols.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗
PubMed2002

Study of Queensland emergency department nurses' actions and formal and informal procedures for clients who self-harm.

Emergency department nurses are often required to assess and manage the needs of people who self-harm. A survey of 352 nurses working within 23 major public and 14 major private emergency departments in Queensland, Australia, investigated the extent to which formal and informal procedures are available and the extent to which these procedures guide how nurses respond to clients who present with deliberate self-harm. The Risk Assessment Questionnaire was developed and found that nurses are frequently called to respond to clients presenting because of deliberate self-harm, but most have no formal training in this area. In some services there is a lack of formal and comprehensive procedures for assessment and treatment. Where procedures do exist, significant therapeutic areas related to assessment are not explored with clients. These findings have implications for continuing professional development activities, nursing education programs and clinical practice procedures.

Emergency Nursing↗
PubMed2002

The benefits of being a nurse in critical social research practice.

In critical social research, or research that evokes feminist or critical epistemological positions, researchers must examine their own situatedness vis-à-vis their research participants and work toward methods that break down the hierarchies inherent in the research relationship and empower research participants. Such aspects of research practices necessitate strong interpersonal skills, characteristic of many nurses. Drawing on their experiences, the authors critically appraise the benefits of nursing in critical social research practice. Nurses can move beyond their own discipline to use their skills, identity, and intersubjective way of relating with others to gain access to participants and data. Through a unique process of building meaning and interpreting data, nurse researchers are well placed to take effective actions for change.

Culture↗