Journal of advanced nursing
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Nurse teachers can often find themselves in various situations where they resort to using humour. An exploration of the role of humour within the educational relationship between nurse teachers and nursing students is the focus of this paper. Consideration is given to the nurse teachers' requirement to develop self-awareness in their own understanding of humour in order to facilitate and recognize the reasons for the nursing students' use of humour. The development of the appropriate use of humour by nursing students may lead to enhanced nursing practice, thereby reinforcing the need for inclusion of the theory of humour in both teacher training and the nursing curriculum.
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This paper investigates the evidence presented in the literature concerning the use of ring cushions in nursing and midwifery practice, as a case study of the relationship between research-based knowledge and practice. It explains the origins of the claims that these aids cause pressure sores, urinary tract infection and expose postpartum mothers to the risk of thrombosis. It demonstrates that the empirical evidence on which these claims are based is very slight and that re-interpretation of the evidence by successive authors has raised its status considerably. Practical steps to avoid this type of occurrence are suggested.