Profile of a leader: pioneer government advisor: Laura Holland, RN, RRC, CBE, LLD (1883 - 1956).

Laura Holland, nurse and social worker, became one of Canada's first official "nurse advisors" to government when she was appointed Advisor to the B.C. Ministry of Health and Welfare from 1938 to 1945. Before that appointment, she had served, with distinction, as a Nursing Sister in World War I, brought innovative Red Cross and public health advances to northern Ontario, reformed Children's Aid services in Vancouver and B.C., and started a new department that combined nursing/social work in the field during the Great Depression of the 1930s. She was an extraordinary leader.

Profile of a leader: Scharley Phoebe (Wright) Brown.

This brief article profiles Charlotte (Scharley) Wright Brown, a leader in registration for nurses in British Columbia, founding member and first president of the Graduate Nurses Association of B.C. (later the Registered Nurses Association of B.C.), and third president of the Canadian National Association for Trained Nurses (later the Canadian Nurses Association). She and a small, dedicated executive group led the fight for registration for nurses from 1912 to 1918, and she helped establish the national organization on a strong and purposeful footing. Despite her major contributions, few records have been kept about this extraordinary nursing leader.

Early tuberculosis nursing in British Columbia.

Tuberculosis was Canada's leading cause of death at the turn of the century, with a mortality rate in 1900 of about 200 per 100,000 population. By 1944 mortality was reduced to about 20 per 100,000. It is postulated that between 1895 and 1945 nurses filled a new, unique, and essential role in bringing the disease under control. This article reports on the first phase of a study to examine the role of nurses in controlling TB in British Columbia between 1895 and 1945. This preliminary study covers the period 1895 to 1920, when B.C.'s first university courses for public health nurses had not yet been established but during which nurses began to play a significant public health role by nursing TB patients. Drawing on primary and secondary sources, the authors establish baseline data, examine early TB nursing care in B.C., identify critical events, and determine whether the research should proceed.

Caring for patients with complications after elective abdominal aortic aneurysm surgery: a case study.

The risks associated with elective repair of an abdominal aortic aneurysm have been reduced in recent years, but occasionally the extent of the aneurysm and the severity of the atherosclerotic process lead to life-threatening complications. The complications of myocardial infarction, acute renal failure, bleeding, and ischemia are examined in this article. To illustrate the complexities of nursing care when patients experience complications, the case of Mr. S is presented. Assessment and monitoring are considered as key components of nursing care, and ways to help patients and their families cope with unanticipated complications are outlined.

Teaching behaviours of clinical instructors: an audit instrument.

This article describes the development and initial psychometric testing of an instrument that permits the observation and recording of teaching behaviours exhibited by clinical instructors while supervising nursing students. Observations of Nursing Teachers in Clinical Settings (ONTICS) consists of 44 items grouped into nine categories of desirable and undesirable teaching behaviours: questioning method; responding style; method of giving feedback; teaching skill; method of demonstration; interaction with patient/family; interactions with health team; undesirable teaching behaviours; undesirable questioning/responding method. The instrument was refined on several occasions based on input from expert judges. Construction validity, internal consistency reliability and test-retest reliability were found to be acceptable. ONTICS appears to capture an aspect of clinical teaching not readily identified by other, more subjective, instruments.