Experiences from Southeast Asia on nursing education, practice, mobility and influencing policy.

In this report from the field, we describe the challenges and opportunities for nursing practice and education, and ways to improve nurse mobility across Asia. We also explain the collaboration within the Southeast and East Asian Nursing Education and Research Network to influence policy development and review. The collaborative process was supported by evidence drawn from discussions at Network meetings, and with nursing and other leaders, an examination of literature and policy documents, and member surveys. We reviewed the region's regulatory statutes which all support diversity in the nursing workforce. The Southeast Asian Nursing Education and Research Network was established in 2015 to support policy development around the upgrading of nurse education, clinical competencies and research capacity, in hospital and primary health care; and facilitating the movement of nurses across national boundaries. Most countries have tried to address policy gaps and their efforts to implement changes are seen in policy expansion and development at the national level. We focus on two policies from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations from 2006 and 2012, that cover nurse mobility, information exchange, nurse capacity building and education and mutual professional recognition of nurses' credentials. However, we found significant variances in education, regulatory policies and clinical competencies that have restricted, and continue to restrict policy implementation. Nursing in South-East Asia has made significant progress in upgrading standards for education by increasing bachelor degree bridging programs, master and doctoral degrees. Participating countries have passed legislation on licensure, competencies and credentialing of internationally qualified nurses wishing to practice in various contexts. However, much work remains to be done. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING POLICY, EDUCATION AND PRACTICE: Governing bodies determine entry into practice law which requires dialogue to enhance policies for domestic and international practitioners for mutual exchange and recognition. Nursing practice and education are under government regulatory bodies but require new policies and laws to ensure adequate educational requirements for safe quality practice.

School nurse assessment of primary school children: analysis of data from the school entrant health questionnaire.

The School Entrant Health Questionnaire (SEHQ) has been used by the School Nursing Program in Victoria since April, 1997. The SEHQ assists school nurses in developing a health profile of primary grade children and in discriminating between children with problems and children without problems. The SEHQ assesses children in 11 domains: general health, medications, immunisations, dental health, speech/language, hearing, vision, disabilities, general development, behaviour and emotional well-being, and family stress. The SEHQ was found to be reliable and valid, and to provide an excellent means of distinguishing between students who had problems and needed intervention and those who did not. This paper presents an analysis of data from the first testing of the SEHQ.

Taxonomic validation: an overview.

A valid taxonomy legitimizes the elements that make up the taxonomy and increases trust in its generalizability and predictability. There is a concern that the NANDA Taxonomy is not a valid taxonomic structure. Despite on-going work to validate individual nursing diagnoses, there is little research that focuses on validation of groups of diagnoses (taxons) within the NANDA taxonomy. This last article in a series of four will familiarize the readers with why, what, and how a taxonomy of nursing diagnoses can be validated. This article highlights assessment of the validity and reliability of a taxonomy, compares the process of taxonomic validation to the research process, and explores examples of validation design.

Development of definitions for taxonomy II.

In the process of placing diagnoses into Taxonomy I, certain inconsistencies became apparent. Inadequate definition of both diagnoses and human response patterns, lack of defining characteristics, and inconsistency in the levels of abstraction within the taxonomic hierarchy made the task of assigning a diagnosis to a taxonomic pattern difficult. Ambiguity in the definitions of the nine patterns resulted in ambiguity in the basic foundation, which affected the entire structure. The Taxonomy Committee, before evaluating the current structure, had to make the following decisions regarding the current human response patterns: (1) Should the nine human response patterns be retained for further taxonomic work? and (2) If they are retained, what should be the first step in examining Taxonomy I-Revised? This second article in a series of four will familiarize the readers with the process and decisions by which Taxonomy II of the North American Nursing Diagnosis Association (NANDA) is evolving through the work of the Taxonomy Committee. This article also will identify the specific problems encountered in the development of Taxonomy I and Taxonomy I-Revised, and describe the steps establishing the validity of the process of formation of the nine human response patterns.

Paths to concept development in nursing diagnosis.

Three pathways to diagnostic concept development are proposed. Principles and methods that operate on each path are presented. Careful concept development contributes to precise diagnostic labels and to the advancement of nursing science.

The art and science in nursing diagnosis development.

There is both an art and a science to nursing diagnosis. Art is a creative force, whereas science is a systematic force. Each is necessary for diagnosis development. This paper examines issues confronting nurse clinicians, educators, and scientists interested in continued efforts to generate and validate diagnoses. It concludes with suggestions of tasks necessary for sound diagnosis development.

Stressors on the childbearing family.

Bronfenbrenner's model of the ecology of human development is used as a framework for organizing and examining research on stressors in childbearing families. The stressors identified are classified using the four systems in the model. The patterns that emerge are used to identify trends for research and to suggest appropriate nursing interventions from each system that may be used by nurses in their care of childbearing families.

Anxiety as a potential factor affecting maternal attachment.

Many factors may influence the initial mother-infant interactions. This exploratory study investigated the impact of one factor, anxiety, on maternal attachment in 30 married primigravidas. Observations of mother-infant interactions and scores from the Taylor Manifest Anxiety Scale were used. Results indicated that highly anxious mothers had low attachment scores. Mothers with high attachment scores had low anxiety ratings. In addition, affectionate behaviors were found to decrease as caretaking behaviors increased.