Although traditionally, nursing research has paid little attention to geographical approaches, recent years have witnessed some initial research interest in the dynamic between nursing, space and place. Such research potentially represents the foundations of what may be termed a ‘geography of nursing’. Although, to date, some novel and valuable perspectives have been gained into the spatial features of nursing, no consideration has been given to the theoretical development of, and basis for, a geography of (...) nursing. Furthermore, no consideration has been given to philosophical heritage; the treatment of space and place in human geography and the insights that this may provide for the new field of research. In this context, this paper provides an historical review of geographical research and traces the evolution of how space and place have been conceptualized and operationalized by it. The paper outlines the emergence of a health geography subdiscipline and its own changing and diverse perspectives. In the final section, the central themes of the current geography of nursing are considered and, reflecting back on the theoretical concerns of contemporary human geography, the paper outlines some philosophies and theories on which future geography of nursing could be based. From a disciplinary perspective, one potential role of the geography of nursing is argued to be the maintenance of the relationship between health geography and mainstream health service and medical concerns, but in a place‐sensitive, patient‐sensitive and qualitative form. (shrink)

During the last 3 years the interface between geography and nursing has provided fertile ground for research. Not only has a conceptual emphasis on space and place provided nurse researchers with a robust and subtly different way to deconstruct and articulate nursing environments, but also their studies have provided a much needed focus on certain areas of health‐care, and in particular clinical practice, not currently prioritized by health geographers. We argue that, as something that is forcing fundamental (...) re‐considerations of the nature of both nursing and geography, cyberspace is a particularly important phenomenon that lies comparatively under‐researched at this interface. To encourage some interest in researching nursing and cyberspace through a geographical lens, and at least to showcase a range of potentially useful and transportable concepts, we provide an overview of some of the key debates pertaining to cyberspace developed by human geographers, and make some initial and tentative connections to nursing. (shrink)

The concept of ‘place’, and general references to ‘geographies of …’ are making gradual incursions into nursing literature. Although the idea of place in nursing is not new, this recent spatial turn seems to be influenced by the increasing profile of the discipline of health geography, and the broadening of its scope to incorporate smaller and more intimate spatial scales. A wider emphasis within the social sciences on place from a social and cultural perspective, and a wider (...) turn to ‘place’ across disciplines are probably equally important factors. This trend is raising some interesting questions for nurses, but at the same time contributes some confusion with regard to imputed meanings of ‘place’. While it is clear that most nurse clinicians and researchers certainly understand that place of care matters to their practices and patients, many diverse uses of ‘place’ are found within nursing literature, and contemporary understandings of the term ‘place’ within nursing are not immediately clear. It is in this context that this article plans to advance the discussion of place. More specifically, the aims of this paper are threefold: to critique ‘place’ as it appears in nursing literature, to explore the use of ‘place’ within health geography, whence notions of place and ‘geographies of’ have originated and, finally, to compare and contrast the use of ‘place’ in both disciplines. This critique intends to address a deficit in the literature, in this era of growing spatialization in nursing research. The specific questions of interest here are: ‘what is “place” in nursing?’ and ‘how do concepts of place in nursing compare to concepts of place in health geography?’. (shrink)

The history of nursing in the home: revealing the significance of place in the expression of moral agencyThe relationship between place and moral agency in home care nursing is explored in this paper. The notion of place is argued to have relevance to moral agency beyond moral context. This argument is theoretically located in feminist ethics and human geography and is supported through an examination of historical documents (1900–33) that describe the experiences and insights of American home (...) care/private duty nurses or that are related to nursing ethics. Specifically, the role of place in inhibiting and enhancing care, justice, good relationships, and power in the practice of private duty nurses is explored. Several implications for current nursing ethics come out of this analysis. (i) The moral agency of nurses is highly nuanced. It is not only structured by nurses’ relationships to patients and health professionals, i.e. moral context, it is also structured by the place of nursing care. (ii) Place has the potential to limit and enhance the power of nurses. (iii) Some aspects of nursing's conception of the good, such as what constitutes a good nurse–patient relationship, are historically and geographically relative. (shrink)

Background Moral distress is a phenomenon that all nurses experience at different levels and contexts. The level of moral distress can be affected by individual values and the local culture. The sources of the values shape the level of moral distress experienced and the nurses’ decisions. Aim The present scoping review was conducted to examine the situations that cause moral distress in ICU nurses in different countries. Results A scoping review methodology was adopted for the study, in line with the (...) approach of Arksey, and O'Malley Literature was searched within PubMed/Medline, Scopus, Web of Science, and PsycINFO indexed keywords such as “moral distress”, “Critical Care Nurse”, and “Moral Distress Scale-Revised”. Of the 617 identified citations, 12 articles matched the inclusion criteria. Conclusion The moral distress experienced in countries and regions with similar cultures and geographies was parallel. The situations that cause the most moral distress are futile-care to prolong death, unnecessary tests and treatments, and working with incompetent healthcare personnel. (shrink)

The work of the French Lithuanian Jewish philosopher, Emmanuel Levinas, describes a perceptive rethinking of the possibility of concrete acts of goodness in the world, a rethinking never more necessary than now, in the wake of the cruel realities of the twentieth century—ten million dead in the First World War, forty million dead in the Second World War, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, the Soviet gulags, the grand slaughter of Mao’s “Great Leap Forward,” the pointless and gory Vietnam War, the Cambodian self-genocide and (...) many an attempted extermination from the face of the earth of entire nations of indigenous peoples. The list of horrors goes on and on—daily holocausts that do not distinguish between the civilian and the soldier, the guilty and the innocent, those deserving of life and those less deserving. (shrink)

This study aims to present culturally situated artefacts as depicted in nursing home environments and to analyse the underlying understandings of disciplining structures that are manifested in these kinds of places. Our personal geographies are often taken for granted, but when moving to a nursing home, geographies are glaringly rearranged. The study design is archival and cross‐sectional observational, and the data are comprised of 38 photographs and 13 videos showing environments from nursing homes. The analysis was inspired (...) by the methodological steps in Roper's and Shapira's description of conducting ethnography. The results are presented in four categories: (i) public areas, (ii) orderliness, (iii) staff's places and (iv) devices. The rearrangement of geography implies a degrading of agency and loss of authority over one's place. The places should be understood in their relation to the agents and their temporarily claims upon them. The material and immaterial artefacts, that is the items, people and behaviours, transform the nursing staff into ‘space invaders’. Future inquiries may take into consideration the ways that space invasion in participative space intersect and construct the identities of the agents it invades upon. (shrink)

Spatial thought is undergoing somewhat of a renaissance in nursing. Building on a long disciplinary tradition of conceptualizing and studying ‘nursing environment’, the past twenty years has witnessing the establishment and refinement of explicitly geographical nursing research. This article – part one in a series of two – reviews the perspectives taken to date, ranging from historical precedent in classical nursing theory through to positivistic spatial science, political economy, and social constructivism in contemporary inquiry. This discussion (...) sets up part two, which considers the potential of non‐representational theory for framing future studies. (shrink)

The physical nearness, or proximity, inherent in the nurse–patient relationship has been central in the discipline as definitive of the nature of nursing and its moral ideals. Clearly, this nearness is in service to those in need of care. This proximity, however, is not unproblematic because it contributes to two of the most prolonged difficulties, both for individual nurses and the discipline of nursing — moral distress and moral ambiguity. In this paper we explore proximity using both a (...) moral and geographical lens and offer some insights regarding this practice reality. We examine the effect of proximity to patients on nurses’ moral responsiveness, particularly as it affects nurses’ moral distress. Proximity is paradoxical in this regard because, while it propels nurses to act, it can also propel nurses to ignore or abandon. Likewise, we argue that nursing's tendency to define itself in relation to the closeness of the nurse–patient relationship leads to problems of moral ambiguity. Our recommendations include moving others closer to the bedside and thus to the work of nursing in the literal and theoretical sense. (shrink)

Emergency departments in many nations worldwide have been struggling for many years with crowding and the subsequent provision of care in hallways and other unconventional spaces. While this issue has been investigated and analyzed from multiple perspectives, the ethical dimensions of the place of emergency department care have been underexamined. Specifically, the impacts of the place of care on patients and their caregivers have not been robustly explored in the literature. In this article, a feminist ethics and human geography (...) framing is utilized to argue that care provision in open and unconventional spaces in the emergency department can be unethical, as vulnerability can be amplified by the place of care for patients and their caregivers. The situational and pathogenic vulnerability of patients can be heightened by the place of the emergency department and by the constraints to healthcare providers’ capacity to promote patient comfort, privacy, communication, and autonomy in this setting. The arrangements of care in the emergency department are of particular concern for older adults given the potential increased risks for vulnerability in this population. As such, hallway healthcare can reflect the normalized inequities of structural ageism. Recommendations are provided to address this complicated ethical issue, including making visible the moral experiences of patients and their caregivers, as well as those of healthcare providers in the emergency department, advocating for a systems-level accounting for the needs of older adults in the emergency department and more broadly in healthcare, as well as highlighting the need for further research to examine how to foster autonomy and care in the emergency department to reduce the risk for vulnerabilities. (shrink)

The geography of religions is one of the religious sciences, which is intended to study the spatial pattern of the process of the origin and distribution of different religions, to give a modern religious map of the world and statistical data on the spread of different religions, to predict the prospects of changing confessions in the territorial configuration of their activities. Within this science, the role of the natural factor in the emergence and distribution of religions of a certain (...) denominational certainty in different countries and continents is explored, the autochthonality of certain religious entities of certain geographical regions is revealed, it turns out in the historical retrospect of the appearance of other religions there and, accordingly, the fate of local currents, the spread world religions, the conditions of origin and ways of possible overcoming of inter-confessional and interreligious confrontation are considered, the relationship between ethnic and religious denominations in religious mobility is revealed, mapping of religions is carried out. (shrink)

This book outlines the characteristics and implications of a potential geography of uncertainty. In doing so, it analyses this concept in reference to both the origins of uncertainty in Early Modern Age as well as the current geopolitical situation. The book adopts an interdisciplinary approach to uncertainty, drawing on global perspectives and literature to define its meanings and characteristics. In order to develop a thorough and precise understanding of the geography of uncertainty a broad perspective is adopted, that (...) includes other forms of knowledge in which the concept of uncertainty is firmly established. As such the book creates temporal links, that may occasionally be far off from one another, to present a geographical perspective of uncertainty. It provides an interpretation of the phenomenon of globalization in a new way, relating it to the first European openness to global spaces, the Early Modern Age, and identifying the transition from the medieval world to the Modern Age as the first manifestation of uncertainty in geography. Uncertainty is more prevalent than ever in today's geopolitical, economic, financial, and social reality, as well as the ongoing emergencies and crises. The book adopts an interdisciplinary approach rooted in the geography of Early Modernity by referring to geopolitical scenarios, literature, and philosophy, to target the historical roots and the prevailing configuration of the geography of uncertainty. It will appeal to scholars and students of human and political geography, politics, philosophy, international relations, economics, and history. (shrink)

The Geography of Morals is a work of extraordinary ambition: an indictment of the parochialism of Western philosophy, a comprehensive dialogue between cultural and psychological anthropology, recent work in empirical moral psychology, behavioral economics, and cross-cultural philosophy.

Employs philosophy to help illuminate the nature of nursing and provide a holistic view of both nursing and persons.

_Do good and evil exist? Absolutely._ In this bracing book, the eminent Dutch philosopher Andreas Kinneging turns fashionable thinking on its head, revealing how good and evil are objective, universal, and unchanging—and how they must be rediscovered in our age. In mapping the geography of good and evil, Kinneging reclaims, and reintroduces us to, the great tradition of ancient and Christian thought. Traditional wisdom enables us to address the eternal questions of good and evil that confront us in both (...) public and private life. Though it is common to accept uncritically the blessings of modernity and its intellectual sources, the Enlightenment and Romanticism, Kinneging shows that traditional thinking is richer and more realistic. Indeed, we see how, in more than a few respects, the Enlightenment and Romanticism brought not progress but deterioration. Kinneging skillfully reformulates and defends the insights of traditional thinking for today’s readers, demonstrating how an objective morality is to be understood and how we can know what morality demands of us. At a time when the traditional virtues have practically disappeared from our language, he lays out the foundations of virtue and vice. Ultimately, Kinneging reveals the lasting significance of these seemingly archaic notions—to our own lives, to our families, to our culture, and to civilization.__ This profound, award-winning work establishes Andreas Kinneging as one of our wisest moral philosophers. _“Shows with utmost clarity the virtue of intellectual courage... A brilliant model for sallies against our dark age.”_ _—_The Intercollegiate Review____ _“[Kinneging is] leader of a conservative intellectual revival in the Netherlands.”__ —_New York Times Magazine__. (shrink)

Geographies of Exclusion identifies forms of social and spatial exclusion and subsequently examines the fate of knowledge of space and society which has been produced by members of excluded groups. Evaluating writing on urban society by women and black writers, David Sibley asks why such work is neglected by the academic establishment, suggesting that both the practices which result in the exclusion of minorities and those which result in the exclusion of knowledge have important implications for theory and method in (...) human geography. Drawing on a range of ideas from social anthropology, feminist theory, sociology, human geography and psychoanalysis, this book presents a fresh approach to geographical theory, highlighting the tendency of powerful groups to "purify" space and to view minorites as defiled and polluting, and exploring the nature of "difference" and the production of knowledge. (shrink)

This paper is concerned with the ways in which men construct and explain their sexual identity. When attending a genitourinary medicine (GUM) clinic the constraints of the system and the imperatives of the clinical encounter tend to be reductive, reinforcing the dominant constructions of male sexuality and masculinity. Interviews with men recruited as part of a study of the social construction of male sexuality yielded richly textured narratives of sexual experiences and explanations of sexual identity. The paper reports on the (...) ethnographic study and, using extracts from these narratives, will address central themes of: (i) emotional labour of identity formation; (ii) an essentialist view of sexual orientation and corresponding identity; and (iii) role, social fit and the reformulating of the dominant social notions of partnerships within a new geography of desire transgression, ‘authenticity’. (shrink)

Continence is a key moment of care that can tell us about the wider care of people living with dementia within acute hospital wards. The spotlight is currently on the quality of hospital care of older people across the UK, yet concerns persist about their poor treatment, neglect, abuse, and discrimination within this setting. Thus, within hospitals, the care of people living with dementia is both a welfare issue and a human rights issue. The challenge of continence care for people (...) living with dementia can be seen as the ‘canary in the coal mine’ for the unravelling of dignity within the acute setting. This paper draws on an ethnographic study within five hospitals in England and Wales, selected to represent a range of hospital types, geographies and socio‐economic catchments. Observational fieldwork was carried out over 154 days in acute hospitals known to admit large numbers of people living with dementia. This paper starts to fill the gap between theory and data by providing an in‐depth ethnographic analysis examining the ways in which treatment as a person is negotiated, achieved or threatened. We examine how the twin assaults on agency of a diagnosis of dementia and of incontinence threaten personhood. The acute threats to this patient group may then act to magnify perils to treatment as a person. Our findings suggest that personal dignity and the social construction of moral personhood are both threatened and maintained in such a setting. We show how empirical ethnographic data can lend weight to, and add detail to, theoretical accounts of moral personhood and dignity. (shrink)

This paper is underpinned by an epistemological question: What are the types and ways of knowing that can be entailed in reflective leadership in its fullest sense? The question is explored through a mapping exercise which outlines a geography of reflective leadership in terms of three variables: type of knowledge, problem focus, and mode of learning (incorporating the notion of embodied learning). Particular attention is given to recognising within the terrain of reflective leadership the epistemic credentials of spiritual learning (...) and experiential awareness of spirituality. This paper was given the award of best paper at the Philosophy of Management Conference, University of Oxford, 11th–14th July 2008. (shrink)

Richard Nisbett's The Geography of Thought is one of several recent works that have highlighted purported differences in thinking patterns between East Asians and Westerners on the basis of empirical research. This has implications for teaching and for other issues such as cultural integration. Based on a framework consisting of three distinct notions of rationality, this paper argues that some of the differences alleged by Nisbett are either not real or exaggerated, and that his geography of thought fails (...) to provide an adequate account of thinking styles across cultures. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications for teaching and learning critical thinking that can be drawn from the framework developed. (shrink)

The integration of technology in care is core business in nursing and this role requires that we must understand and use technology informed by evidence that goes much deeper and broader than actions and behaviours. We need to delve more deeply into its complexity because there is nothing minor or insignificant about technology as a major influence in healthcare outcomes and experiences. Evidence is needed that addresses technology and nursing from perspectives that examine the effects of technology, especially (...) related to increasing demands for efficiency, the relationship of technology to nursing and caring, and a range of philosophical questions associated with empowering people in their healthcare choices. Specifically, there is a need to confront in practice the ways technique influences care. Technique is the creation of a kind of thinking that is necessary for contemporary healthcare technology to develop and be applied in an efficient and rational manner. Technique is not an entity or specific thing, but rather a way of thinking that seeks to shape and organize nursing activity, and manage efficiently individual difference(s) in care. It emphasizes predetermined causal relationships, conformity, and sameness of product, process, and thought. In response is needed a radical vision of nursing that attempts in a real sense to ensure we meet the needs of individuals and their community. Activism and advocacy are needed, and a willingness to create a certain detachment from the imperatives that technique demands. It is argued that our responsibility as nurses is to respond in practice to the errors, advantages, difficulties, and temptations of technology for the benefit of those who most need our assistance and care. (shrink)

Inpatient mental health nursing operates with an overarching goal to support people living with mental health challenges by managing risk of harm to self and others, decreasing symptoms, and promoting capacity to live outside of hospital settings. Yet, dominant, harmful stereotypes persist, constructing patients as less than, in need of saving, and lacking self‐control and agency. These dominant assumptions are deeply entrenched in racist, patriarchal, and Othering beliefs and continue to perpetuate and (re)produce inequities, specifically for people with multiple (...) intersecting identities relating to race, class, gender, and culture. This paper explores the relevance of postcolonial feminism, particularly Gayatri Spivak's concept of Subaltern—conceptualized as groups of people who are denied access to power and therefore continue to be systematically oppressed and marginalized—in illuminating the problematic and dominant assumptions about people living with mental health challenges as lacking agency and requiring representation. Through an understanding of Subalternity, this paper aims to decenter and deconstruct dominant colonial, patriarchal narratives in mental health nursing, and ultimately calls for mental health nursing to fundamentally reconsider prevailing assumptions of patients as needing representation and lacking agency. (shrink)

We cannot use language without having context in place. But context is not a single thing. Instead, typically, each use of language presupposes a complex set of beliefs, habits, behaviors, and moral commitments.

Nursing has historically relied heavily on scientific knowledge. It is not surprising that the cardiovascular health literature has been highly influenced by the post‐positivist philosophy. The nursing discipline, as well as the cardiovascular nursing speciality, continues to benefit from research grounded within this philosophical tradition. At the same time, there are limitations associated with post‐positivism. Therefore, it is beneficial for researchers and clinicians to examine the potential contributions various philosophical traditions can have for their research and practice. (...) This paper is an exploration of the compatibilities of feminist and post‐positivist philosophies in the study of cardiovascular nursing research. The ensuing discussion entails an examination of my clinical and research interests, the grounding of my research within the post‐positivist perspective and the significant contribution feminist philosophy can make to my research. (shrink)

Explorations of a trust approach for nursing ethicsTrust has long been acknowledged as central to nurse–patient relationships. It, however, has not been fully explored nor‐matively. That is, trust must be examined from a perspective that encompasses not only reliability and competence, but also good will within nursing relationships. In this paper, we explore how a trust approach, based on Annette Baier’s work on trust in feminist ethics, could help inform future developments in nursing ethics. We discuss the (...) limitations of other approaches such as those based on contracts, paternalism, and care. By drawing out central features of Baier’s theory, we demonstrate how it can help overcome the problems of these previous models. In doing so, we emphasise the importance of combining the ethics of care and justice, acknowledging vulnerability and the potential for evil in nursing relationships, and politically situating the ethical concerns of nursing. (shrink)

As nursing students move toward becoming professionals, they must gain theoretical knowledge, learn clinical skills, and develop professional values. Joseph Catalano presents a wide range of pertinent topics and offers the most up-to-date coverage for the Issues & Trends course in this new 4th edition of his cutting-edge text. It explores the evolution and history of nursing, and examines the impact of reform, the legal system, and politics on the profession.

Background: Medical Assistance in Dying, also known as euthanasia or assisted suicide, is expanding internationally. Canada is the first country to permit Nurse Practitioners to provide euthanasia. These developments highlight the need for nurses to reflect upon the moral and ethical issues that euthanasia presents for nursing practice. Purpose: The purpose of this article is to provide a narrative review of the ethical arguments surrounding euthanasia in relationship to nursing practice. Methods: Systematic search and narrative review. Nine electronic (...) databases were searched using vocabulary developed from a stage 1 search of Medline and CINAHL. Articles that analysed a focused ethical question related to euthanasia in the context of nursing practice were included. Articles were synthesized to provide an overview of the literature of nursing ethics and euthanasia. Ethical Considerations: This review was conducted as per established scientific guidelines. We have tried to be fair and respectful to the authors discussed. Findings: Forty-three articles were identified and arranged inductively into four themes: arguments from the nature of nursing; arguments from ethical principles, concepts and theories; arguments for moral consistency; and arguments from the nature of the social good. Key considerations included nursing’s moral ontology, the nurse–patient relationship, potential impact on the profession, ethical principles and theories, moral culpability for acts versus omissions, the role of intention and the nature of the society in which euthanasia would be enacted. In many cases, the same assumptions, values, principles and theories were used to argue both for and against euthanasia. Discussion: The review identified a relative paucity of literature in light of the expansion of euthanasia internationally. However, the literature provided a fulsome range of positions for nurses to consider as they reflect on their own participation in euthanasia. Many of the arguments reviewed were not nursing-specific, but rather are relevant across healthcare disciplines. Arguments explicitly grounded within the nature of nursing and nurse–patient relationships warrant further exploration. (shrink)

An eminent psychologist boldly takes on the presumptions of evolutionary psychology in an engaging exploration of the divergent ways Eastern and Western societies see and understand the world.

BackgroundThe nursing profession considers conscience as the foundation and cornerstone of clinical practice, which significantly influences professional decision-making and elevates the level of patient care. However, a precise definition of conscience in the nursing field is lacking, making it challenging to measure. To address this issue, this study employed the hybrid approach of Schwartz Barcott and Kim to analyze the concept of conscience-based nursing care.MethodsThis approach involves a three-phase process; theoretical, fieldwork, and analytical. A systematic literature review (...) was conducted using electronic databases during the first phase to find relevant papers. The content of 42 articles that met the inclusion criteria was extracted to determine the attributes, antecedents, and consequences of consciousness care using thematic analysis. Based on the working definition as a product of this phase, the plan of doing the fieldwork phase was designed. During this phase, data were collected through interviews with nurses all of whom were responsible for patient care in hospitals. In this phase, 5 participants were chosen for in-depth interviewing by purposeful sampling. Data were analyzed using directed content analysis. The findings of the theoretical and fieldwork phases were integrated and the final definition was derived.ResultsThe integration of the theoretical and fieldwork phases resulted in identifying four key characteristics of conscience-based nursing care. Firstly, it involves providing professional care with a conscientious approach. Secondly, ethics is at the core of conscience-based care. Thirdly, external spirituality plays a significant role in shaping one's conscience in this context. Finally, conscience-based nursing care is both endogenous and exogenous, with professional commitment being the central focus of care.ConclusionConscience-based nursing care is an essential component of ethical care, which elevates clinical practice to professional care. It requires the integration of individual and social values, influenced by personal beliefs and cultural backgrounds, and supported by professional competence, resources, and a conducive organizational atmosphere in the healthcare field. This approach leads to the provision of responsive care, moral integrity, and individual excellence, ultimately culminating in the development of professionalism in nursing. (shrink)

Background: Respecting patients’ dignity has been described as a fundamental part of nursing care. Many studies have focused on exploring the concept of patients’ dignity from the patient and nurse perspective, but knowledge is limited regarding students’ nursing perceptions and experiences. Objective: To explore the issue of patients’ dignity from the perspective of nursing students. Research design: A qualitative study was employed with the formation of four focus groups and the participation of nursing students. Data were (...) analysed via a thematic content analysis of the discussions. Participants and research context: Thirty-four nursing students of a Cyprus University participated in the four focus groups. Each group was homogenous in terms of the year of study and heterogeneous in terms of clinical practice in various wards. Ethical consideration: The study’s protocol was reviewed and approved by the Cyprus National Bioethics Committee. Ethical standards were followed throughout the study. Findings: Several factors that maintain or compromise patients’ dignity emerged. These factors were grouped into five themes: (a) patients’ preferences, verbal abuse and regarding a patient as a unique person; (b) privacy and confidentiality; (c) loss of autonomy and need for help; (d) discrimination and (e) attribution and reciprocity. Discussion: Different understandings of the perceived concept of dignity and the factors that maintain or compromise patient’s dignity were expressed through the eyes and the feelings of nursing students. Students highlighted the importance of promoting patient dignity as an important component of nursing care. Conclusion: Nurse educators can use the findings of this study in order to tailor nursing programmes to emphasise the importance of respecting patients’ dignity. In addition, nurse ward managers can use the findings as means for persuading nurses to change current behaviour. (shrink)

With the accelerating aging of the population and the worsening psychological conditions of older people, the traditional mode of family support for the elderly in China does not always meet the physical and psychological needs of the elderly, and more social support modes for the elderly are needed. Based on 3,513 valid questionnaires on the long-term care and protection needs of Chinese residents, this paper uses a logit regression model to analyze the factors influencing the willingness of the elderly to (...) choose nursing care. The results show that intergenerational family support for the elderly is a significant psychological driver on the willingness of the elderly to choose nursing care. Compared with the elderly living with family, empty nesters or older people living alone are more inclined to select nursing care when they have difficulties taking care of themselves. The physical health of the elderly affects their willingness to choose nursing care, and elderly individuals with more hospitalizations are less likely to select nursing care. In addition, elderly females who are relatively young, have a high level of education, have a high income, have a nursing home near the residence, and are already covered by medical insurance are more willing to choose nursing care. The results of this study are of great importance for improving the medical services and aging care services for the elderly and providing theoretical support for alleviating the psychological and social pressure brought by population aging. (shrink)

ABSTRACT In this article, I indicate how the naturalized and individualized conception of disability that prevails in philosophy informs the indifference of philosophers to the predictable COVID-19 tragedy that has unfolded in nursing homes, supported living centers, psychiatric institutions, and other institutions in which elders and younger disabled people are placed. I maintain that, insofar as feminist and other discourses represent these institutions as sites of care and love, they enact structural gaslighting. I argue, therefore, that philosophers must engage (...) in conceptual engineering with respect to how disability and these institutions are understood and represented. To substantiate my argument, I trace the sequence of catastrophic events that have occurred in nursing homes in Canada and in the Canadian province of Ontario in particular during the pandemic, tying these events to other past and current eugenic practices produced in the Canadian context. The crux of the article is that the COVID-19 pandemic has thrown into vivid relief the carceral character of nursing homes and other congregate settings in which elders and younger disabled people are confined. -/- KEYWORDS carceral, conceptual engineering, nursing home-industrial-complex, philosophy of disability, structural gaslighting. (shrink)

Recent ideological positioning on the world stage has born a startling resemblance to a form of positioning within nursing theory – that of taking complex ideas, reducing them to a simplistic binary form, and uncritically adopting one half of that form. In some cases, this adoption of a binary position has led to a passionately held form of ‘othering’ that prohibits a healthy and critical engagement with ideas. As alluring as settling for the binary form may be – we (...) argue for holding binaries in tension as a catalyst for stimulating dialogue – reasoning and exploration of new ways of wrestling with the social and moral complexity of nursing. (shrink)

Because it is significantly unclear what ‘meaningful’ does or should pick out when applied to a life, any account of meaningful living will be constructive and not merely clarificatory. Where in our conceptual geography is ‘meaningful’ best located? What conceptual work do we want the concept to do? What I call agent-independent and agent-independent-plus conceptions of meaningfulness locate ‘meaningful’ within the conceptual geography of agent-independent evaluative standards and assign ‘meaningful’ the work of commending lives. I argue that the (...) not wholly welcome implications of these more dominant approaches to meaningfulness make it plausible to locate ‘meaningful’ on an alternative conceptual geography — that of agents as end-setters and of agent-dependent value assessments — and to assign it the work of picking out lives whose time-expenditures are intelligible to the agent. I respond to the challenge confronting any subjectivist conception of meaningfulness that it is overly permissive. (shrink)

Megasthenes was the first Greek ambassador known to have been sent to the court of a Mauryan ruler. He wrote an Indica based on his travels and experiences in India, which survives in fragmentary form in the work of later authors. This was the first work to provide a Greek audience with first-hand knowledge of the Indian interior and Mauryan court. Traditionally, Megasthenes’ Indica has been excavated for information to reconstruct knowledge of Mauryan India, Seleucid-Mauryan relations or other aspects of (...) this period and the personalities involved, either by focusing on individual fragments or collating fragments thematically. In contrast, instead of treating Megasthenes’ work as a mine for information, I evaluate the remaining fragments chronologically, and according to the type and range of information derived from Megasthenes. The aim is to better understand the thematic differences and chronological changes in the way later authors consulted and used the Indica, and therefore, why certain parts of the Indica, and information about Megasthenes himself, have survived. (shrink)

Although nursing seems to understand itself and its practice as complex, the literature is less clear about what this actually means. While complexity is discussed as an attribute of nursing, it is also suggested that complexity in nursing remains misunderstood and poorly articulated, is devalued, is not considered as a measure of health outcomes and remains invisible. Despite the overarching lack of a definition, some nurse scholars have conceptualized complexity as a complex intervention. For these authors, complexity (...) becomes a complex intervention defined as that which is composed of component parts interacting in a variety of ways that influence the delivery of and outcomes of health‐related interventions for populations. Conceptualizing complexity as a complex intervention forces nursing to embrace and adopt a received interpretation of complexity as expressed through complexity theory and complexity science. While complexity theory may afford us some tools for thinking about complexity, when we deconstruct nursing complexity to explicitly determinate and quantifiable tasks, this artificially narrowed orientation to complexity reveals an oversimplified explanation of the complexities associated with nursing and serves to blind us to its real qualities. Through a consideration of complexity from a Western philosophical tradition, I demonstrate that when nursing adopts the received interpretation of complexity as a complex intervention, this perspective on complexity contains nursing epistemologically and ontologically. I offer an extended conceptualization of complexity framed upon the consideration that nurses assume complexity and do not reduce it; that nurses have the capacity to not be paralysed by complexity and have developed logics to mobilize it in productive ways. Mobilizing complexity through navigating paradox and contradiction shapes an orientation to complexity that embraces an extended epistemology. This extended epistemology is characterized by a ‘yes/and’ mindset that expresses the dynamic and generative relationship between forms of knowledge which reflects complexity that characterizes nursing. (shrink)

WINDSOR C, DOUGLAS C and HARVEY T. Nursing Inquiry 2012; 19: 213–222 Nursing and competencies — a natural fit: the politics of skill/competency formation in nursingThe last two decades have seen a significant restructuring of work across Australia and other industrialised economies, a critical part of which has been the appearance of competency based education and assessment. The competency movement is about creating a more flexible and mobile labour force to increase productivity and it does so by redefining (...) work as a set of transferable or ‘soft’ generic skills that is transportable and is the possession of the individual. This article sought to develop an analysis of competency based clinical assessment of nursing students across a bachelor of nursing degree course. This involved an examination of a total of 406 clinical assessment tools that covered the years 1992–2009 and the three years of a bachelor degree. Data analysis generated three analytical findings: the existence of a hierarchy of competencies that prioritises soft skills over intellectual and technical skills; the appearance of skills as personal qualities or individual attributes; and the absence of context in assessment. The article argues that the convergence in nursing of soft skills and the professionalisation project reform has seen the former give legitimacy to the enduring invisibility and devaluation of nursing work. (shrink)

Cheating in higher education is a significant problem. The study aims to determine nursing students’ attitudes and opinions toward cheating in exams. The type of research is descriptive. The research data were collected in the classroom environment of 716 students in day and evening education programs. The research data were collected using socio-demographic characteristics form, and the Copying Attitude Scale. Descriptive statistics, t-tests, and variance analysis were used for data analyses. The most common method of cheating was receiving answers (...) by talking to the friend sitting next to the student. The rate of cheating was high in both the day and evening education students. The students reported that most of the cheating occurred in final exams and high-credit major courses. Learning type (day/evening education programs) is not effective in cheating. High-credit major courses have increased the fear of failing the course. The most important reason for cheating in exams was the fear of failing a course. (shrink)