Autoethnography: Exploring Gender Diversity.

Academic discourse proscribes a particular way of writing that may leave the reader informed but uninspired. There are three intentions for this paper: to create a counter-discourse for academic writing, to illustrate autoethnograpy as a compelling approach to nursing inquiry, and to demonstrate how autoethnography is well suited to research the experience of people who identify as transgender or transsexual. The setting is a doctoral nursing seminar where the student is introducing autoethnography to fellow students. All characters are fictionalized compositions. The writing is in the style of creative non-fiction and illustrates the use of evocative prose and poetry.

Passionate scholarship or academic safety: an ethical issue.

Are we passionate scholars or is academic safety something to which we aspire? Do we teach our students one thing and practice another? Are some forms of scholarship more acclaimed than others, some methodologies more acceptable? What are the ethical implications in these various questions? In this article, I outline my experiences, both as a student researcher and as an educator, that have brought me to ask these things. Holism is an ideal that many nursing students are taught and encouraged to bring to their practice, and yet holism does not seem, in many instances, to be supported in academia or in bedside practice. I suggest the possible causes for these difficulties and propose solutions. I suggest that the bedrock of ethical practice, both in the academy and with patients, is to bring all of who we are, the alchemic mystery of holism, to everything we do.

The invisibility of gender diversity: understanding transgender and transsexuality in nursing literature.

PURPOSE: Increasingly, people are living their lives without strict attachment to one gender. In this paper, we discuss key discourses identified in a literature review of transgender and transsexual issues in nursing. Our aim is to highlight the power of dominant discourse and lack of adequate understanding of gender diversity on the part of nurses. We use stories of trans people to illustrate these discourses. An increased awareness may support respectful care of those who do not fit comfortably within culturally defined parameters of male and female. CONCLUSION: The invisibility of gender diversity in health care remains a threat to ethical nursing care. The effects of invisibility of transgender people in health care result in a cycle of repetition where those who have been denied recognition in turn avoid disclosure. Key discourses addressing trans people in nursing literature include invisibility, advocacy, cultural competence, and emancipation. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: There is a need for further education about gender diversity in order to dispel and counter misunderstandings, stigma, and invisibility. This can be achieved through sustained efforts in nursing research and educational curricula to include gender diversity and trans people. Policies for the protection of those who change their sex or identify outside the dominant gender schema are urgently needed.

Newman's theory of health as expanding consciousness: a personal evolution.

In this article, the authors demonstrate the value of using Newman's theory of health as expanding consciousness for nurses and the clients they serve. A review of the conception and evolution of the theory and its link to spiritual ideology provides a multi-dimensional perspective of Newman's ideas. Additionally, an exploration of the central concepts of the theory offers an in-depth view of the philosophical and practical tenets on which the theory is based. The authors also chronicle one nurse's journey and evolution as a healthcare provider whose practice is rooted in Newman's theory.

A personal epistemology: towards gender diversity.

In spite of the growing public awareness of those who would identify as transgender, very little has changed in attitudes that would accord such people full approbation. The author takes the reader on a 40-year journey of discovery that has led her to an abiding interest in and dedication to the issues faced by people who do not fit within the gender binary of Western society. As well as describing a personal experience with someone who identifies as transsexual, the author relates two troubling experiences from her nursing career. Included in the discussion are linguistics, sexuality, and vocabulary. A personal epistemology is explored that incorporates unknowing, intuition, and embodiment, and the difference this view can make to the care of those who identify as gender-diverse.

Bringing ourselves into view: disclosure as epistemological and ontological production of a lesbian subject.

Using Gadamerian hermeneutics as a methodology and feminist philosophical thought as an analytical framework, this study explores understandings of experiences of disclosure of sexual orientation for older 'lesbian' women. The study draws on an interpretative inquiry in which participants theoretically align with sexual identity categories with both an ontological and an epistemological purpose and later move away from or even disassociate from the 'category' (of lesbian). Reflecting on these interpretations, that of the epistemological and the ontological production of a subject, we ask: What does it mean then to say I am a lesbian? This is where a tension exists: how is it that in spite of the incongruencies of what constitutes a lesbian, and the apparent ambiguity of people to name themselves, we continue to act (as health care providers and researchers) as if the category itself is meaningful and stable? A feminist lens provides an inroad to consider sexuality as practices, rather than as fixed identity; practices that are constituted within the discursive, social and material realities of a life as well as within political and ideological systems in which one resides.