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The knowledge base and understanding regarding psychiatric nursing interventions in acute care settings has been limited. The purpose of this hermeneutic phenomenological study was to explore psychiatric nurses' experiences in providing nursing interventions to adult clients in acute care settings. Six expert psychiatric nurses were recruited through purposive, snowball sampling and participated in key informant interviews. Analysis of the data revealed the central theme of person-centered care (PCC), which involved developing and delivering PCC plans; determining goals; fostering empathy, support, and hope; listening in one-to-one interactions; providing person-centered teaching; and enhancing coping strategies.

Psychiatric nurses have a level of responsibility for everyone residing on the unit, which contributes to the need to nurse the population on the unit as a whole. Because the knowledge base regarding psychiatric nursing interventions in acute care settings is limited, this hermeneutic phenomenological study explored psychiatric nurses' experiences in providing nursing interventions to adult clients in acute care settings. Six expert psychiatric nurses were recruited through purposive, snowball sampling and were interviewed individually to gain a rich understanding of the psychiatric nursing interventions they provided to adult clients in acute care mental health settings. Analysis of the data revealed themes of awareness and person-centered care. This article focuses on the theme of Awareness , with subthemes of self-awareness , awareness of the client , and situational awareness . Situational awareness in psychiatric nursing has remained generally unexplored, and this research adds to the current knowledge base. Implications for practice, research, and education are discussed. [ Journal of Psychosocial Nursing and Mental Health Services, 57 (9), 17–23.]

The focus of campus health research, historically, has been on population health at the individual or aggregate level with little effort to examine the health of the students at a community level with a focus on the broader determinants of health and communitylevel intervention. The purpose of this article is to critique three models or frameworks of campus health, articulate the World Health Organization (WHO) vision of a healthpromoting university, and demonstrate the efficacy of adapting the Community Health Action model for use in university and college settings. Foundational within this proposed model is taking the right action using the right process, an inclusive participatory process. Adaptation of the model requires careful attention to student engagement in community, a healthy campus infrastructure and processes, and relationships beyond the campus. Effective student community assessment and improvement of student community health, ultimately, will serve to generate knowledge and build skills at various levels to benefit the health and quality of life of the students, their student community, the educational institution, and the broader community.Keywords: postsecondary student health; campus community; community development; student quality of lifeResearchers and postsecondary students in two rural prairie cities participated in a 3-year research project to examine the health, well-being, and quality of life of university and college students and their campus communities. As one aspect of the larger study, researchers adapted the Community Health Action (CHA) model (Racher & Annis, 2008) and developed community-level indicators of the health and quality of life of the student community, in consideration of the literature on campus health and the findings from the study.Improvement in student health and quality of life is understood to increase academic success and positively influence the future well-being of students during these formative years. These benefits for students can be extended to the student community to enable its success in supporting the needs of future members. Changes in lifestyle choices will fit students for life and improvements in campus community resources will contribute to individual well-being and the ongoing quality of life of the student community.The literature is replete with discussion of the health and quality of life of postsecondary students (Massey, 2005; Nelson, Lust, Story, & Ehlinger, 2009). Many issues such as physical health (Foxman et al., 2006), obesity (Strout, 2007), sexual and reproductive health (Downing-Matibag & Geisinger, 2009; Vahratian, Patel, Wolff, & Xu, 2008), substance abuse (Arbour-Nicitopoulous, Kwan, Lowe, Taman, & Faulkner, 2010), and tobacco use (Adlaf, Gliksman, Demers, & Newton-Taylor, 2003; Proctor-Scherdtel & Collins, 2013; Simmons & Brandon, 2007) as well as student safety (Danis, 2006; Porter & Williams, 2011) have been identified. Mental health of university and college students has become a primary concern (Eisenberg, Downs, Golberstein, & Zivin, 2009; Mahmoud, Staten, Hall, & Lennie, 2012; Patterson & Kline, 2008; Voelker, 2004, 2007).Historically, the focus of campus health research has been on population health at the individual or aggregate level with little effort to examine the health of the student community at a community level. National projects to measure campus health have been undertaken across the United States (American College Health Association [ACHA], 2006; National Association of Student Personnel Administrators [NASPA], 2004), with a focus of population health at the individual level rather than considering the broader determinants of student community health or campus community-level intervention as suggested by the World Health Organization (Tsouros, Dowding, Thompson, & Dooris, 1998b). Patterson and Kline (2008) identified the community as context and recognized the need to shift service provision "from a focus that is solely on an individual student's health to a focus on community health and well-being" (p. …

Nurses work with individuals, families, groups, and communities where lives are enriched and challenged by cultural diversity. The purpose of this article is to discuss challenges and strategies for respecting culture and honoring diversity. This article diverges from the traditional nursing practice of working with individuals to working with collectives, to community practice beyond individuals and families, beyond community as context, to community as client. Culture and ethnicity are defined to set the stage for discussion of theory and its application to practice. Acculturation theory is explored through comparisons of the Canadian mosaic and American melting pot. Cultural competence, cultural attunement, and cultural humility are examined, and recommendations for effective community practice in working with groups and organizations are shared.

Defining the community as client or partner requires a different ethical approach, an approach focused on the aggregate, community, or societal level. A discussion of rule ethics, virtue ethics, and feminist ethics transports the community practitioner beyond traditional ethical principles to consider a more contemporary ethical foundation for public health and community practice. Inclusion, diversity, participation, empowerment, social justice, advocacy, and interdependence create an evolving ethical foundation to support community practice. Collaboration among health care professionals and members of the organizations, communities, and societies in which they practice will facilitate the further development of moral thought and ethical theory to underpin community practice.

In this phenomenological study, frail, rural elderly couples were interviewed as dyads. Couples participated in semistructured interviews and jointly constructed their responses. The elderly couple or dyad was the unit of inquiry, data collection, and analysis. The study sought to maximize the understanding of the couple as a unit as partners negotiated and constructed their responses. The method of data collection provided opportunity to observe the verbal and nonverbal interaction of the couple, the process used to construct the conjoint dialogue, and the content of the discourse. The couple conversation was richer in content and more effective in addressing the research question than were individual interviews. This article focuses on the methodological issues as they relate to the couple as the dyadic unit of research. Dialogue from the study illustrates the richness of the data gathered using this method.

The goal of the Community Health Action (CHA) model is to depict community health promotion processes in a manner that can be implemented by community members to achieve their collectively and collaboratively determined actions and outcomes to sustain or improve the health and well-being of their community; the community as a whole, for the benefit of all. The model is unique in its ability to merge the community development process with a compatible community assessment, planning, implementation, and evaluation framework. The CHA model supports community participation leading to community-engaged assessment and change. In this article, the CHA model is depicted, its genesis described, and its utility demonstrated.

How healthy are the residents of rural Canada? How healthy are Canada's rural communities? Members of an interdisciplinary research team at the Brandon University Rural Development Institute, Manitoba, Canada, formed a partnership with rural stakeholders in an attempt to strengthen and build capacity in rural communities. One component of this research was the development of a framework to assist residents of rural communities to assess the health and sustainability of their community. Through dialogue with partners and review of the literature, a preliminary framework can be generated. This article formed the first step in the creation of such a framework. The article begins with common term and concept development, extends to a critical analysis of framework literature and culminates with consideration of steps to be taken next in the establishment of a framework and indicators that are both meaningful and useful for rural residents and their communities.

Researchers are advocating that a necessary condition of scholarly research is congruence between philosophical positions and research approaches. Phenomenology and postpositivism, traditionally, may appear to be situated in scientific inquiry as polar opposites and mutually exclusive paradigms. This article (a) describes the reflections of a nurse researcher and clarifies her philosophical assumptions; (b) delineates the postpositive paradigm and the interpretive paradigm, which traditionally includes phenomenology; (c) discusses phenomenology as a philosophy, an approach, and a research method; and (d) demonstrates the consistency between postpositivism and phenomenology. Nurse researchers must be aware of their philosophical assumptions and appraise the philosophical underpinnings of the methodologies, but this process should not restrict and limit their exploration of possibilities and the creativity in their efforts to address the growing challenges that await nursing science research.

This article describes the third phase of a research study undertaken within a Canadian provincial regional health authority to explore and analyze mental health services and other resources used by rural consumers after discharge from inpatient mental health programs. The focus of this article is the qualitative research findings obtained from mental health service providers and members of allied agencies. This article will discuss the literature on rural consumers' access and use of mental health programs and services; describe the context and method used to conduct the focus groups with rural service providers; characterize access and use problems from the service providers' perspectives; and suggest strategies to address these problems.

What is the potential of courses designed for nursing students to meet the learning priorities of other disciplines? Who could benefit? Nursing students at Brandon University interested in the 'community as client' concept requested a course that focused on the health of rural residents and the communities in which they live. Questions about (1) measuring the health of rural populations; (2) comparing health status, health resources and health care utilization of rural and urban populations; and (3) determining the health of rural communities emerged. As a result the course, 'Health of Rural Populations and Communities', was created. The Director of the Rural Development Institute examined the syllabus for the new course and asked that Rural Development students be allowed to enroll. This paper focuses on the challenges and opportunities for nursing education to address learning needs of other disciplines by sharing health and nursing knowledge. In doing so the learning of nursing students is also advanced. The development and delivery of a rural health course is used as a case study to illustrate the potential of this approach for nursing and interdisciplinary education.

Access to health services is a major concern across North America and abroad, with particular salience for the residents of rural and remote areas and the health professionals committed to providing services to them. Intrinsic to this discussion is clarification of the phenomenon of access to health services, a concept that remains nebulous and obscure to consumers, health care providers, and policymakers alike. Multiple understandings of access to health services impedes progress in the development of policy, the creation of programs, and the transformation of health services. Considerable discussion of theory concerning access to health services is articulated in public or community health literature and that of other disciplines; however, limited attention to this topic is apparent in nursing literature. This report articulates definitions, dimensions, and frameworks of access to health services from available literature and existing theory. Further, key points are identified and discussed for consideration in nursing research on the term access and implications for practice.

In this phenomenological study, a purposive sample of 19 frail rural elderly couples were interviewed as dyads to identify programs, services, and relationships perceived by the couples as beneficial to their ability to continue to live independently in the community. Communication between the partners, and roles and relationships were observed and discussed. Findings showed that mutually supportive dyads generated a synergism or energy that acted as a vital resource to couples. Research results led to the development of a continuum of spousal relationships and a trajectory of couple communication. Support to the couple as a unit, to the couple relationship, and to address the couple's needs may be strategic foci for nurses in their delivery of care and their involvement in planning programs and developing policy.

RÉSUMÉL'objet de Community Resources for Older Adults: Programs and Services in an Era of Change est d'offrir un aperçu des ressources communautaires dont les aînés américains peuvent se prévaloir à l'heure actuelle. L'ouvrage décrit le continuum des services et fournit d'excellents exemples de pratiques exemplaires en vigueur en Amérique. Chaque chapitre étudie les enjeux que présente le maintien des programmes et propose des orientations pour l'avenir. Les activités d'apprentissage génériques et les études de cas facilitent le passage de la théorie à la pratique. On regrette toutefois que l'ouvrage ne parle pas des contextes et programmes d'autres pays, cela aurait permis de faire des comparaisons internationales et aurait intéressé un public plus nombreux.