Journal of advanced nursing
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Comparative Study
Career aspirations, job satisfaction and gender identity in female student nurses.
This study examines the gender-role orientation, gender-role conflict, job commitment and work motivation of female student nurses in the Republic of Ireland. Career aspirations, year of nurse training and geographical area of upbringing were examined as potential concomitants of these dependent measures. Subjects completed self-report measures of job involvement, work motivation, gender-role orientation and gender-role conflict. ⋯ Year of training had a significant and negative influence on work motivation and job commitment. Finally, nurses from rural areas aspiring towards a traditionally female area of nursing had significantly more feminine gender-role orientations than either their urban counterparts or rural colleagues with non-traditional career aspirations. The theoretical and practical implications of these results are discussed.
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The literature on Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy (MSP) is reviewed to assess the extent of existing knowledge and the incidence of this syndrome among health care workers. Although use of this diagnosis appears to be increasing and broadening, it was not until the Beverly Allitt case in the United Kingdom in 1993 that this syndrome was used to explain the behaviour of a health care worker who harmed people in his/her care. However, a review of available details of previous health care workers accused of murder reveals that five shared some of the distinctive features of MSP. Although care must be taken when applying diagnoses, in view of the risk of morbidity and mortality which MSP poses for the people involved, it is important that health care workers become more informed and involved in understanding and detecting MSP.
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There are many reported problems with auditory warnings in critical care areas of hospitals such as the intensive care unit (ICU) and operating room. There are too many alarms; many of them are unnecessarily loud and continuous, which can be irritating and annoying for staff. The problem of excessive alarms is further complicated by the fact that there are no standards agreed between manufacturers on the auditory warnings used for medical equipment. ⋯ A further problem involves the number of false alarms that occur; that is, alarms that are not signalling a medical emergency. The following paper discusses these problems and suggests attempts to remedy some of them. There is also a brief discussion of the amount of monitoring that occurs on the ICU as the more monitors there are the greater the number of alarms there will be
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This study explores the attitudes of casualty nurses to attempted suicide. The nurses' age and length of experience in casualty were the independent variables. A total of 142 nurses from 11 hospitals in Northern Ireland had questionnaires circulated to them, with a 66.9% response rate. ⋯ The older and the more experienced nurses seem to have more positive attitudes than the younger or the less experienced nurses. However, further nursing research, in Northern Ireland, is needed to corroborate these findings. Other recommendations are made.
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Research is lacking on factors influencing nurses' decision-making directed at the diagnosis of pain in children and its related interventions. This paper reports on two studies, namely a qualitative study and its replication, in which we explored factors influencing nurses' pain assessments and interventions in children. Those factors found to influence nurses' decisions were: medical diagnosis, child's expressions, age, and parents, and the nurses' knowledge, experience, attitude and workload. ⋯ Furthermore, it is suggested that mainly vocal expressions, especially crying, influence nurses' decisions to administer analgesics. Finally, nurses' negative views on non-narcotic analgesics were striking. In this paper, the results of both studies and their relationship to information reported in the literature are further elaborated and discussed, and hypotheses on strength and direction of influence of factors on pain assessment and intervention are generated.