Nursing - Research Publications
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ItemExperiences of Australian and New Zealand new nursing and midwifery graduates looking for employment(WILEY, 2016-12-01)The aim of this research is to describe the experiences of Australian and New Zealand nursing and midwifery students looking for employment after graduation. This qualitative study draws from 2008, 2009 and 2010 responses provided by 197 recently graduated Australian and New Zealand nurses and midwives to, Describe your experiences gaining employment as a nurse or midwife after graduation. Two themes were inductively derived, Taking what you can get and I had a job lined up. Within the taking what you can get theme, respondents efforts to gain employment as a nurse or midwife after graduation were challenged by limited choices round the type of clinical practice available and/or job insecurity. In contrast, for respondents in the I had a job lined up theme, employment after graduation was linked to job offers during student's clinical placements and/or hospitals where they completed their final practicum. Understanding and better facilitating the transition of new nurse/midwife graduates to healthcare institutions are vitally important to sustaining the nursing workforce.
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ItemUnderstanding the meaning and role of gifts given to Ugandan mothers in maternity care settings: "The help they give when they've seen how different you are'(WILEY, 2016-11-01)The provision of gifts to new mothers in Uganda is laden with significance that varies by the social location of the giver and receiver and the context and conditions under which the gift is made available. Here, we examine the act of gift giving and receiving within a Ugandan maternity care setting, describing the connections between these material objects and social relations. A study investigating the social organisation of maternity care in post-conflict northern Uganda found that gift-giving to new mothers functioned to create a material and discursive context wherein women's desire to access these goods was leveraged to create an incentive to attend formal maternity care during pregnancy and for delivery. In this article we describe the material and discursive processes surrounding gift-giving to new mothers in this global South health care setting. This article contributes critical analyses of the function of gifts in healthcare settings as constructing shared identities, social differences and normative values about health citizenship, and an incentive politic that affects equitable access to maternity care. Drawing on intersectional theory and analysis of how specific practices function ideologically to reward or incentivise pregnant women, we integrate material culture studies into the sociology of women's reproductive health.
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ItemNo Preview AvailableCanadian Nurses' Perspectives on Prostate Cancer Support Groups A Survey Study(LIPPINCOTT WILLIAMS & WILKINS, 2016-05-01)BACKGROUND: Prostate cancer support groups (PCSGs) are community-based organizations that offer information and psychosocial support to men who experience prostate cancer and their families. Nurses are well positioned to refer men to a range of psychosocial resources to help them adjust to prostate cancer; however, little is known about nurses' perspectives on PCSGs. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to describe nurses' views about PCSGs as a means to making recommendations for advancing the effectiveness of PCSGs. METHODS: A convenience sample of 101 Canadian nurses completed a 43-item Likert-scale questionnaire with the additional option of providing comments in response to an open-ended question. Univariate descriptive statistics and content analysis were used to analyze the quantitative and qualitative data, respectively. RESULTS: Participants held positive views about the roles and potential impact of PCSGs. Participants strongly endorsed the benefits of support groups in disseminating information and providing support to help decrease patient anxiety. Online support groups were endorsed as a practical alternative for men who are reluctant to participate in face-to-face groups. CONCLUSIONS: Findings suggest that nurses support the value of Canadian face-to-face and online PCSGs. This is important, given that nurses can help connect individual patients to community-based sources providing psychosocial support. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: Many men benefit from participating in PCSGs. Aside from positively endorsing the work of PCSGs, nurses are important partners for raising awareness of these groups among potential attendees and can directly contribute to information sharing in face-to-face and online PCSGs.
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ItemTobacco use patterns in traditional and shared parenting families: a gender perspective(BMC, 2010-05-10)BACKGROUND: Although researchers have focused on women's smoking during pregnancy and the postpartum period and the influence of household interactions on their tobacco reduction efforts, little attention has been given to parents' efforts to regulate smoking during the child-rearing years. The objective of this study was to examine how parenting young children and gender relations reflected in couple dynamics influence household tobacco use patterns and, specifically, women's tobacco reduction efforts. METHODS: As part of a longitudinal, grounded-theory study with 28 couples to examine the place of tobacco in the lives of new parents, each parent participated in one or two individual, semi-structured interviews during the first three years postpartum. Grounded theory methods and a gender relations framework were used to analyze transcribed data. RESULTS: Two different parenting styles that couples adhered to were identified. These parenting styles reflected performances of femininities and masculinities, and were associated with particular smoking patterns. Traditional parenting reinforced by women's alignment with emphasized femininities and men's alignment with hegemonic masculinities placed women with smoking partners at risk for relapse. Women's actions to be supportive partners facilitated couples' continued smoking. In shared parenting dyads, egalitarian practices tended to support successful transitions to smoke-free homes. Women's ability to exert more influence around family decision making, and the acceptance of new masculine identities associated with fatherhood were influential. In non-smoking dyads where the mother, father, or both reduced or stopped smoking, we observed a subtext of potential conflict in the event either the mother or father relapsed. CONCLUSIONS: Decisions about tobacco use are made within relationships and social contexts that vary based on each individual's relationship to tobacco, divisions of domestic labour and childcare, and other activities that impact tobacco use. Sensitive approaches to tobacco reduction for women and men must be developed building on greater understanding of gender relations and how tobacco use is integrated in spousal and parental roles.
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ItemGender relations and health research: a review of current practices(BMC, 2011-12-13)INTRODUCTION: The importance of gender in understanding health practices and illness experiences is increasingly recognized, and key to this work is a better understanding of the application of gender relations. The influence of masculinities and femininities, and the interplay within and between them manifests within relations and interactions among couples, family members and peers to influence health behaviours and outcomes. METHODS: To explore how conceptualizations of gender relations have been integrated in health research a scoping review of the existing literature was conducted. The key terms gender relations, gender interactions, relations gender, partner communication, femininities and masculinities were used to search online databases. RESULTS: Through analysis of this literature we identified two main ways gender relations were integrated in health research: a) as emergent findings; and b) as a basis for research design. In the latter, gender relations are included in conceptual frameworks, guide data collection and are used to direct data analysis. CONCLUSIONS: Current uses of gender relations are typically positioned within intimate heterosexual couples whereby single narratives (i.e., either men or women) are used to explore the influence and/or impact of intimate partner gender relations on health and illness issues. Recommendations for advancing gender relations and health research are discussed. This research has the potential to reduce gender inequities in health.
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ItemAfter the death of a friend: Young Men's grief and masculine identities(PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD, 2013-05-01)Young men can have an uncomfortable relationship with grief. Socially constructed masculine ideals dictate that men be stoic in the aftermath of loss, most often expressing their sadness and despair as anger. Perhaps because of alignment to such masculine ideals little research has been done to explore young men's grief--and chronicle the ways they think about loss, their responses and how they go about describing their identities after a tragic event. Using qualitative individual interviews and photo elicitation methods, we investigated the ways in which 25 men aged 19-25 grieved the accidental death of a male friend. The study was conducted from April 2010-December 2011. Causes of death were diverse, and included motor vehicle accidents, adventure sports, drug overdose and fights. The findings revealed men's predominant grief responses as emptiness, anger, stoicism and sentimentality. Participants' description of their grief responses illustrated the ways in which they struggled to reconcile feelings of vulnerability and manly ideals of strength and stoicism. We gained insight into men's grief practices by looking at the ways in which they aligned themselves with a post-loss masculine identity. These identities, which included the adventurer, father-figure and the lamplighter, revealed gender-specific processes through which men understood and actively dealt with their tragic loss. The results offer novel insights to men's grief and identity work that may serve to affirm other men's experiences as well as guide counselling services targeted to young men.
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ItemPerceptions of cannabis as a stigmatized medicine: a qualitative descriptive study(BMC, 2013-02-16)BACKGROUND: Despite its increasing prevalence and acceptance among the general public, cannabis use continues to be viewed as an aberrant activity in many contexts. However, little is known about how stigma associated with cannabis use affects individuals who use cannabis for therapeutic purposes (CTP) and what strategies these individuals employ to manage associated stigma. The aim of this Canadian study was to describe users' perceptions of and responses to the stigma attached to using CTP. METHODS: Twenty-three individuals who were using CTP for a range of health problems took part in semi-structured interviews. Transcribed data were analyzed using an inductive approach and comparative strategies to explore participants' perceptions of CTP and identify themes. RESULTS: Participant experiences of stigma were related to negative views of cannabis as a recreational drug, the current criminal sanctions associated with cannabis use, and using cannabis in the context of stigmatizing vulnerability (related to existing illness and disability). Strategies for managing the resulting stigma of using CTP included: keeping CTP 'undercover'; educating those who did not approve of or understand CTP use; and using cannabis responsibly. CONCLUSIONS: Understanding how individuals perceive and respond to stigma can inform the development of strategies aimed at reducing stigma associated with the use of CTP and thereby address barriers faced by those using this medicine.
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ItemTobacco and the invention of quitting: a history of gender, excess and will-power(WILEY, 2013-06-01)Since the rise of concern about the relationship between smoking and health in the 1950s and 1960s, the tobacco industry has emphasised notions of individual choice to negate the arguments of the public health sector and legitimatise the industry's presence in the marketplace. Central to this notion of individual choice has been the idea that the control of tobacco consumption (including quitting) is a function of will-power and that smokers can quit if they really want to. This article examines the way will-power developed as the centrepiece of debates about smoking consumption and cessation in the 1950s and 1960s.
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ItemThe value of prostate cancer support groups: a pilot study of primary physicians' perspectives(BMC, 2014-03-28)BACKGROUND: In Canada, prostate cancer (PCa) is the most common male cancer, and prostate cancer support groups (PCSGs) have prevailed for more than 20 years providing support to men with PCa and their families. While the format, focus and benefits of attending PCSGs have been reported little is known about primary physicians' (PPs) perceptions of these groups. This article describes Canadian primary physicians' views about face-to-face and web-based PCSGs. METHODS: Canadian based primary physicians (n = 140) attending a 2012 Continuing Medical Education Conference participated in a pilot survey questionnaire study. The 56-item questionnaire used in this study included six sets of attitudinal items to measure primary physicians' beliefs about positive and negative influences of PCSGs, reasons for attending PCSGs, the attributes of effective PCSGs, and the value of face-to-face and web-based PCSGs. RESULTS: Results showed that PCSGs were positively valued, particularly for information sharing, education and psychosocial support. Poor inclusivity, privacy, and accessibility were identified as potential barriers, and recommendations were made for better marketing and web-based PCSGs to increase engagement with potential attendees. CONCLUSIONS: Findings suggest PPs highly valued the role and potential benefits of PCSGs. Information provision and an educational role were perceived as key benefits amid the need to improve local and provincial marketing of PCSGs. The potential for web-based PCSGs to help in the support of PCa patients was also recognized.
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ItemHeterosexual Gender Relations and Masculinity in Fathers Who Smoke(WILEY-BLACKWELL, 2014-10-01)The purpose of this research was to explore the role of masculinity and heterosexual gender relations in new and expectant fathers' explanations of their continued smoking. We conducted a secondary analysis of in-depth interviews with 20 fathers. Two themes were identified: (1) reconciling with partners to maintain a smoke-free family home; and (2) smoking to self-regulate emotions and maintain relationships. Fathers' decisions to smoke and changes in smoking behavior were shaped by ideals of masculinity and by partner relationships and family and social contexts, including division of domestic duties and childcare. Recognizing the influence of both masculinity and gender relations could provide new directions for supporting men's smoking cessation efforts during early parenthood.