Muslim person's experiences of diabetes during Ramadan: information for health professionals.

This phenomenological study provides an in-depth understanding of the lived experiences of Muslim persons with diabetes during Ramadan. The findings facilitate health professionals' knowledge of the unique needs of these clients during this time. van Manen's (1990) and Hycner's (1985) analytical methods assisted in producing the themes: knowing and understanding - being in harmony with the body, knowing its capabilities and limitations and its response to change; controlling - being in charge of diabetes during Ramadan; accepting and recognising - acknowledging diabetes and its impact on fasting during Ramadan; and faith and belief - the courage of conviction.

Chronic condition self-management: working in partnership toward appropriate models for age and culturally diverse clients.

Chronic conditions place a significant burden on the Australian health care system, and this burden continues to increase. This literature review examines the concepts of chronic illness and chronic condition self-management (CCSM), particularly in the context of asthma. It explores the implementation of, and barriers to, CCSM in the modern health care system with a focus on CCSM in children and adolescents, and the differences that need to be recognized when dealing with Indigenous Australian children.

From enrolled nurse to registered nurse in the rural setting: the graduate nurse experience.

INTRODUCTION: This article reports on the findings of a study into enrolled nurse (EN) to registered nurse (RN) transition in South Australian rural settings. Rural RNs are required to be multi-skilled generalists capable of providing a wide range of nursing services to a diverse range of clients. This frequently occurs in situations without medical or specialist assistance. The objective of this study was to gain an understanding of the EN to RN transition process within this unique context. METHODS: A hermeneutic phenomenological approach guided the study because this employs the processes of description and interpretation to examine lived experiences. Following ethics approval, four rural hospitals were chosen as suitable sites for the study due to their combined proximity within a rural area. The administrators agreed to support the study and information sheets were distributed. The four participants, one from each hospital, self-selected and took part in an unstructured interview. All participants were ENs who had recently or were currently in the process of transition to RN. Data analysis used van Manen's holistic and selective approaches in conjunction with Hycner's more structured guidelines. Significant phrases or units of meaning were then identified and collated into relevant themes. RESULTS: Three main themes identified were: (1) great expectations--self-expectations; adjusting to the new role; other's expectations; (2) support: sink or swim--peer, managerial and medical staff support; (3) Jacks and Jills of all trades--coping with the scope; proficiency equals specialising; positives of rural transition. The study found that these new graduates had very high expectations of their performance and experienced difficulty in adjusting to their new role. This was far more likely when the new RN had previously worked at the venue as an EN. Other staff and administrators expected these new RNs to be experienced beyond the new graduate level resulting in poor skill match to workload allocation and lack of support. CONCLUSIONS: The expectations placed on these new graduates by clinicians and managers far exceeded their level of expertise and resulted in them experiencing high anxiety levels. Ensuring this unique group of graduates are well supported throughout their transition phase is of utmost importance and this has implications for nurse managers, organisational administrators, nurse clinicians and future graduates. Rural ENs are increasingly undertaking nursing degrees and are urgently needed in rural settings. Accordingly it is in the best interests of managers and others to encourage and support them through an effective transition process.

Australian nurses and child protection: practices and pitfalls.

Most Australian states have child protection legislation mandating individuals and groups to notify suspected child abuse and neglect. Nurses are legally bound to report their suspicions of child abuse and neglect in a number of Australian states, with South Australia, New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania specifically identifying nurses as mandated notifiers. While the unique role of nurses puts them in a valuable position to detect and report suspected child abuse, aspects of the role may lead to conflict in detecting and notifying child abuse and neglect. This paper addresses some key practice issues for Australian nurses as mandated notifiers. These issues include: knowledge and education about child protection; organisational influences on nurses' participation in child protection; concerns about consequences of suspecting and notifying; protecting the therapeutic relationship; and interaction with other professionals.

Australian physiotherapists and mandatory notification of child abuse: legislation and practice.

Child abuse is an international phenomenon occurring in all socioeconomic groups. Reports of child abuse continue to increase and many professionals are likely to see abused children and may be the first contact for an abused child. In addition, many health professionals and others are mandated in some Australian states to report suspected child abuse. However, the literature addressing the roles of Australian health professionals in child protection is limited. This paper informs Australian physiotherapists about child protection legislation, types of abuse, suspicion on reasonable grounds, and responding to a situation of suspected child abuse.

Collecting client data: a phenomenological study of midwives' experiences.

This phenomenological study explored the experiences of a small group of South Australian midwives engaged in client data collection within a unique midwifery triage model. Gadamerian hermeneutic principles guided data collection through unstructured interviews with the midwives and the identification of key themes. Findings included a philosophy of dialogue, the dynamics of dialogue, protection and advocacy issues and individual practices and concerns.

Breasts and breastfeeding: perspectives of women in the early months after birthing.

Over recent years there has been widespread recognition and education about the benefits of breastfeeding. However as many Australian women breastfeed for only a few weeks, education alone appears inadequate to improve breastfeeding duration. This study explores other influences on breastfeeding by looking at women's perceptions of their breasts in relation to their breastfeeding experiences. Six women were recruited at approximately three months postpartum. The hermeneutic phenomenology of Heidegger (1962) and Gadamer (1975) was the chosen methodology. Individual, unstructured, indepth, conversational interviews were employed and analysed using Colaizzi's (1978) framework, which was modified to manage the large amount of data. Two patterns of differing focus emerged from the interviews, mixed images of the breasts and journey through the unknown of breastfeeding and new motherhood. Each pattern was divided into six and seven related themes respectively.