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AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: This paper presents the exploratory factor analysis of a rating instrument for assessing the strength of organizational Research and Development (R&D) culture. BACKGROUND: Despite nursing's limited research capacity, the discipline is capitalizing upon opportunities to become involved in research and is making strong progress. Within the context of the debate on nursing research capacity, the R&D Culture Index was developed as a means of appraising R&D culture within health care organizations. DESIGN: Factor analysis was carried out on data collected from 485 nursing staff. The method of extraction was Principal Components Analysis with oblique rotation. METHODS: The Index was developed from the findings of qualitative research conducted with NHS staff. Eighteen items, encompassing the main themes from the data, were initially included in the Index. This pilot instrument was distributed to nursing staff within three different types of NHS Trust. Factor analysis resulted in rejection of two items and the analysis was repeated using the remaining 16 items. RESULTS: Three latent factors were extracted accounting for 58.0% of the variance in the data. The factors were: R&D Support, describing the perceived support within the working environment for R&D activity; Personal R&D Skills and Aptitude, describing an individual's perception of their ability towards R&D activity; and Personal R&D Intention, describing an individual's willingness to engage in R&D activity. Each factor had good internal reliability, as did the overall index. CONCLUSION: The R&D Culture Index provides an efficient means of assessing the strength of an organization's R&D culture in a way that captures the role of the individual practitioner and the organizational environment. RELEVANCE TO PRACTICE: These findings suggest that the continuing promotion of R&D within health care organizations is dependent upon a multi-faceted approach that addresses the learning needs of the organization as well as those of the individual practitioners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper attempts to explain some general issues in evaluation and evaluative research in the health care field with specific reference to nursing. The evaluation process and nursing process are contrasted and methods used in evaluative research discussed. The case is made for more emphasis to be placed on the evaluation phase of the nursing process and process-outcome evaluation is advocated as a means of encouraging progress in the hitherto neglected area of evaluative research in nursing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is widespread discussion at the present time of participation--allowing members of an organization to exert an influence on the processes of decision-making. The National Health Service is not isolated from this debate and already a number of experiments have been carried out at various levels of the service to allow a wider range of opinion to influence decisions than hitherto. This paper reports on a study the author carried out into one such exercise, designed to assist a Health Board reach decisions about the long-term pattern of health care in its area. Nurses, paramedical staff and local authority staff, as well as doctors, were appointed to a series of programme planning committees to advise the Health Board on issues of long-term policy. After 2 years of operation, a study was carried out into the operation of the committees and the lessons drawn from the experience should be relevant to actual and potential members of any consultative or decision-making body. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Maturity will be the hallmark of the nursing profession in so far as it is conceded that the art and science of nursing entails complementary relationships between the use of its practitioners' heads, hearts and hands. High levels of nursing scholarship, dedicated service and meticulous practice, in combination, will, without doubt, provide high levels of nursing care and that is what the profession of nursing is all about.

Qualitative nursing researchers have long recognized that reflective practice (RP) seems to be a valuable tool in nursing care. The aim of the present meta-study was to analyse current qualitative research on RP in nursing care, in order to create and synthesize the knowledge and the understanding of registered nurses' RP. Using a meta-study synthesis approach, embedded assumptions were identified in qualitative studies that have influenced the way researchers have interpreted and made sense of RP in nursing care. Despite empirical focus in research on RP in nursing care, it was found that assumptions about RP were predominantly based on theory. The reflective movement within the practice of nursing care has mainly a constructivist epistemology, based on learning from experience. The individual nurse's RP capability is essential in providing and improving ethical and holistic nursing care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

lindgren b, brulin c, holmlund k & athlin e (2005) Journal of Clinical Nursing 14, 822–829 Nursing students’ perception of group supervision during clinical training The aim of this study was to investigate nursing students’ perception of and satisfaction with clinical group supervision based on a special model, used in nursing training. Long-standing efforts have been made to create supervision models in nursing training that promote personal and professional development and prepare nursing students to cope with the complex and demanding situations they will face as registered nurses. Data were collected from nursing students ( n = 43) during their clinical training by means of two questionnaires. Most questions were concerned with the importance of factors involved in the contract and the students’ experiences of how these factors were covered during the clinical group supervision. The findings showed that, before starting the supervision programme, most all the students expressed positive attitudes towards group supervision, but 25% had negative expectations as well. At the end of the programme all students thought that group supervision had been an important support to them during their training and almost everyone wanted to participate in group supervision in the future as registered nurses. The findings showed that both the structure and the climate were important for the success of the group supervision. The findings will strengthen the model and confirm its usefulness in clinical training for nursing students. Using this supervision model, which includes reflection about feelings, thoughts and actions, the students will be well prepared for demanded situations in their future role as a registered nurse. A replication of this study addressed to trained nurses would be valuable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents an insight to changes taking place in nursing profession. Nurses themselves are embarking on a long and penetrating period of self-examination of their own roles and priorities. As far as nurses are concerned, the present National Health Service Organization of the Great Britain is a valuable tool in this overture to long term change. It is going to enable nurses to take a major step forward, where they are going to be much more in the front line and not just as shock troops but as the leaders and governors of their own profession.

This exploratory study examines the dynamics of keeping a disabled adult in the home. In interviews with 30 families, major foci emerged which spanned the interaction between family members and one member, the disabled adult. These foci were: the initial weighing process in the decision to keep the disabled at home, the therapeutic process which evolved among members, the interactional system which served the social unit, and the social context and adaptation that the family nude to perceived misfortune. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents information related to nursing. Three nurses will be named to represent the International Council of Nurses (ICN) at the WHO/UNICEF conference on primary health care being held in Alma Ata, USSR, 6-12 September, 1978. ICN will have three representatives at the conference, says executive director Barbara Fawkes, 'because one of ICN's major interests and objectives is the full and effective participation of nurses in primary health care'. Nurses must be prepared to control their own conditions of work and life, whether they do this through the professional organization or, as is the case in some countries, as an independent component of a broader organization.

A vital part of health care, sharing in practice is not a vision for the future but the reality of today. Below, the meaning and implications of sharing in practice not just for nursing but for health care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A most fruitful way of enriching insights into the dynamics, developments and politics of present day professional nursing and health care is through the perspective of history. The importance of active and effective political consciousness in nurses must not be underestimated. Health care without politics is simply not possible. It is naive to think otherwise. Whether nurses as members of a caring profession like it or not, the availability and distribution of health care facilities involves political thought and decisions.

Highlights the annual meeting of the RANF Federal Council in Australia in April 1986. Concerns on the lack of government commitment to funding arrangements for refresher courses for nurses in Australia; Workshop on nursing education and the recruitment and retention of nurses; Introduction of effective industrial democracy mechanisms in health agencies.

Describes the nursing practice in Southeast Asia. Emphasis on team work, continuing education and implementation of family health in nursing education curricula; Role of nursing in community health development; Integration of public health in the basic nursing program in India.

Reports that nursing needs have changed in Europe. Increase in the demands on the service level of the social and health service systems due to the growth of wealth, industrialization and change in the demographic pattern; Attention to primary health services such as preventive work, occupational health services and community medicine; Caution against the rapid adoption of some technological advances in nursing.

Reports that nurses who cultivate a greater sensitivity and awareness of the Oriental way of living can enrich and expand the horizons of their professional practice. Folkways of maintaining healthful living; Appeal to nurses to examine their daily performance more closely; Encouragement of nurses to become more alert and sensitive to the needs of others.

Focuses on how the International Council of Nurses globally mobilized the nursing profession. Accomplishments achieved by nurses for the public and the profession despite the difficult times; Sharing of nurses in villages where there is no hospital, as applied in a small country in the Pacific; Unity among the nurses in demanding for the long overdue increase in salaries.

Reports that the nursing profession has emerged from subservience to a position of leadership in the health sector in Africa. Impact of colonialism in the country on the initial status of the profession; Philosophy used as the guiding factor in the transformation of nursing in most independent African countries; Emphasis on the concept of family health.