Online professional development for digitally differentiated nurses: An action research perspective.

Professional development opportunities for nurses are increasingly being offered in the online environment and therefore it is imperative that learning designers, nurse educators and healthcare organisations consider how best to support staff to enable Registered Nurses to capitalise on the resources available. Research participants explored educational strategies to support digitally differentiated nurses' engagement with professional development activities in an online environment through a participatory action research project that collected data over a 16 month period through six focus groups before being analysed thematically. The reality of work-based, e-learning while managing clinical workloads can be problematic however specific measures, such as having a quiet space and computer away from the clinical floor, access to professional development resources from anywhere and at any time, can be effective. A 'one-size-fits-all' approach to resources offered will not meet the needs of diverse staffing groups whereas heutagogical learning offers tangible benefits to Registered Nurses seeking professional development opportunities in this context. Apparent proficiency with technological skills may not reflect a Registered Nurse's actual ability in this environment and face-to-face support offered regularly, rather than remedially, can be beneficial for some staff. Implementing specific strategies can result in successful transition to the online environment.

Work/life balance and health: the Nurses and Midwives e-cohort Study.

BACKGROUND: Nursing and midwifery are demanding professions. Efforts to understand the health consequences and workforce needs of these professions are urgently needed. Using a novel electronic approach, the Nurses and Midwives e-cohort Study (NMeS) aims to investigate longitudinally Australian and New Zealand nurses' and midwives' work/life balance and health. This paper describes NMeS participation; provides key baseline demographic, workforce and health indicators; compares these baseline descriptions with external norms; and assesses the feasibility of the electronic approach. METHODS: From 1 April 2006 to 31 March 2008, nurses in Australia and New Zealand, and midwives in Australia were invited to participate. Potential participants were directed to a purpose-built NMeS Internet site, where study information was provided and consent sought. Once obtained, a range of standardized tools combined into one comprehensive electronic questionnaire was elicited. RESULTS: Overall, 7633 (2.3%) eligible nurses and midwives participated (6308 from Australia and 1325 from New Zealand) from a total pool of 334,400. Age, gender, occupational and health profiles were similar between countries and to national figures. However, some differences were noted; for instance, Queensland participants were over-represented, while Victorian and South Australian participants were under-represented, and 28.2% of Australians were in high strain positions compared with 18.8% of New Zealanders. CONCLUSIONS: Using an internationally novel web-based approach, a large cohort, which appears generally similar to population norms, has been established. Provided participant retention is adequate, the NMeS will provide insight into understanding the drivers of nurses' and midwives' workforce retention and work-related factors associated with their health.

Re-thinking representations, re-writing nursing texts: possibilities through feminist and Foucauldian thought.

FOCUS: Critical approaches are increasingly being used to inform theory and research within the discipline of nursing. In this paper we discuss the work of feminist writers, particularly those located within the postmodern, and Michel Foucault. Their work, although having significant points of difference, can be viewed as complementary and our engagement with these ideas has led us to re-think nursing knowledge. RATIONALE: Using ideas from Foucault and postmodern feminism foregrounds critical questions such as whose knowledge is visible in nursing literature, whose is suppressed, and the power relationships reflected in representations of knowledge. Our exploration of representations of knowledge has led us to review fundamental nursing texts that we consider to be important political and ideological artefacts in the enculturation of student nurses. The dominant position of medical knowledge in the texts reviewed continues to position this 'voice' as primary in nursing literature. DISCUSSION: Drawing on our current research on endometriosis to illustrate the potential inherent in rewriting such texts, we argue for a repositioning of knowledge related to the illness experience. Privileging the voices of people who are the focus of our clinical care reflects the reality of nurses' work; the embodied experience of the person is made visible rather than marginalized in the illness discourse.