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This paper reports on a survey of Australian Schools of Nursing that took place over an 8months period between 2007 and 2008. This study was implemented to extend understanding of effective teaching of nursing history, an area not previously researched in Australia. A critical interpretive method enabled us to problematise the issue, to highlight what was said about the importance of history teaching as well as ad hoc practices and barriers. The study found that participants value history of nursing teaching, but the crowded curriculum is erasing history's place and potential. It revealed ideological tensions shaping and constraining history of nursing teaching. In Australia, the way nursing's history is taught varies and teaching content, strategies and resources utilised are not evenly available. Pedagogical innovations are not effectively disseminated. Our recommendations for Australian Schools of Nursing that have more general applicability are: (1) Nursing curriculum needs to be developed from a set of principles and standards that define the attributes of the professional nurse, not in response to interest groups and (2) History of nursing pedagogy should be systematically developed and disseminated through a national virtual centre, linked to international centres, to enhance teachers' understanding of the discipline area and to support their teaching practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims and objectives. To investigate the impact of past government policy and legislation on the practice of district nursing in Australia.Background. Nurses have historically been politically passive and have not engaged in the political processes of policy development. However, legislation can have profound impacts on the daily work of nurses as demonstrated in this paper.Design. Historical analysis.Methods. The archival records of six district nursing services in Australia were analysed within the political, social and economic context of the 20th century, with particular focus on the 1950s and 1970s.Results. Two pieces of Federal legislation passed in 1956 and 1973, respectively, had critical effects on the work of district nurses. Both resulted in significant expansion of district nursing in Australia; neither was formulated with input from district nursing services. However, together these acts shifted district nursing from being a voluntary, charity based activity to one that was greatly controlled by government.Conclusions. Greater government funding allowed district nursing to expand beyond the capacity possible when funding was locally based, but with government funding came other restrictions related to accountability processes and expectations regarding services provided, and these had profound effects on nursing practice, including excess workloads to the point of unsafe practice.Relevance to clinical practice. Nurses need to engage with the political processes associated with government policy formulation and implementation if they are to avoid placing themselves and their clients in vulnerable situations as a result of government decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From the mid nineteenth to mid twentieth century sanatoria loomed large in the popular consciousness as the space for the treatment of tuberculosis (TB). A review of the historiography of sanatoria at the beginning of this paper shows that the nursing contribution to the care of TB patients is at best ignored and at worst attracts negative comment. Added to this TB nursing was not viewed as prestigious by contemporaries, leading to problems attracting recruits. Using a case study approach based on surviving archival material, this paper sets out to provide a glimpse of the work of TB nurses in a rural sanatorium at Westwood, Queensland, Australia. For the nurses geographical isolation was compounded by professional stagnation, which created a working environment influenced by friction and discord among the staff. It reveals how despite this, nurses coped with working in hostile conditions, to make the long stay of their patients, separated from their families and familiar life style more bearable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unlabelled: The neoadjuvant treatment of osteosarcoma using intravenous agents has resulted in survival rates of 55% to 77% [3, 5, 6, 20, 22, 35]. We designed a neoadjuvant chemotherapy protocol using combined intraarterial and intravenous agents to treat high-grade osteosarcoma and malignant fibrous histiocytoma of bone in an attempt to improve survival. We report the results of treating 53 adults (age 18-77 years) diagnosed with nonmetastatic extremity osteosarcoma or malignant fibrous histiocytoma. Preoperative chemotherapy consisted of intravenous doxorubicin followed by intraarterial cisplatinum administered repetitively every 3 weeks for three to five cycles, depending on tumor response assessed by serial arteriography. Dose and duration of cisplatin were adjusted for tumor size. After resection, good responders (90% or greater necrosis) underwent treatment with the same agents and poor responders were treated with alternative agents for longer duration. Minimum followup was 24 months (mean, 111 months; range, 24-235 months). Estimated Kaplan-Meier survival at 10 years was 82% and event-free survival was 79%. Forty-one patients (77%) had a good histologic response and 92% (49 of 53) underwent limb-sparing procedures. Local recurrence occurred in two patients (4%). These results compared favorably with those reported in the current literature.Level Of Evidence: Level III, therapeutic study. See the Guidelines for Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim To explore administrative constraints of district nursing during the latter part of the 20th century in regional Queensland, Australia. Background A greater understanding of the evolution of district nursing can illuminate why present conditions and circumstances exist. Method Thirteen interviews undertaken and analysed historically in association with other documentary evidence from the time period 1960-90. Findings District nursing services of regional Queensland were initially established by voluntary organizations that had very lean budgets. Throughout the study period, government funding became increasingly available, but this coincided with increased regulation of the services. Conclusions District nurses have worked within considerable boundaries and barriers associated with either a lack of funds or imposed regulations. While greater government funding solved some working conditions, it did so by imposing greater administrative responsibilities on the nurses and services that were not always seen as advantageous for clients or as professionally satisfying for the nurses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Domiciliary nurses play an important role in assisting clients to remain within their homes and communities. Yet, the past work of these nurses has not been well documented in the nursing literature. This paper outlines an oral history project of former domiciliary nurses from regional Queensland. These nurses worked during a time of great expansion within community-based nursing and provide insight into domiciliary nursing as it occurred in the latter years of the 20th century. Overwhelmingly, the nurses demonstrated, through their stories, the skills, personal traits and adaptability required to nurse within the client's home. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim. This paper explores the role of untrained nursing staff within the nursing services of the Rockhampton region, Queensland, Australia, throughout the early 20th century. It details who these nurses were, where they worked and how their work was affected by factors such as legislation and social changes. Background. Despite the increasing prevalence of trained nurses from the late 19th century, nurses who had never undergone any formal training continued to gain work in hospitals, institutions and their local communities. Method. This paper is an historical analysis of a wide range of primary source material relating to untrained nursing staff. The primary source material used related specifically to a limited geographical region in Australia. Findings. Untrained nursing staff primarily worked as private duty nurses at the beginning of the 20th century. However, as the century progressed, their opportunities to work as untrained nursing staff tended towards institutions dealing with the chronically ill and the aged. As a result of this transition, their profile altered from that of a married/widowed woman living at home with dependents to one who could live on-site at the institution with no dependents. Furthermore, the level of autonomy of the untrained nurse decreased dramatically throughout this period from being relatively independent to being under the control of a trained nurse within the institution. Conclusion. Consideration of the historical evolution of untrained nursing staff challenges some of the assumptions made about this category of nurse, assumptions that can affect current relationships between professional nurses and others who undertake nursing work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nurses have played an important role in infection control practices throughout the past century. However, the desire for minimisation of cross infection has not always been the basis for many of the activities undertaken by nurses within the general ward. This paper is a historical analysis of those practices that formed the basis of infection control within the medical and surgical wards of the Rockhampton Hospital between 1930 and 1950. In particular, those activities dealing with the disposal of body fluids, ward cleaning, aseptic techniques and associated sterilisation of instruments and articles, the nurses' personal cleanliness and isolation nursing have been addressed. This study has identified economic factors, professional image and local traditions as being influential in the origins and persistence of many activities which may be loosely grouped as infection control measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]