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Biomedical subjects

J Horsfall

Publications and source records attributed to J Horsfall.

9 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1998

The Mental Health Nursing Clinical Confidence Scale: a tool for measuring undergraduate learning on mental health clinical placements.

A significant proportion of the undergraduate preparation of student nurses in the tertiary sector involves the opportunity for experience in a variety of clinical placements. The majority of nursing students in Australian universities spend time in mental health settings. This compulsory clinical experience provides the opportunity for the application of nursing theory and the development of clinical confidence. Whereas there have been attempts to quantify the attainment of confidence to perform skills in general nursing settings, there has been little attention to this issue in mental health settings. The Mental Health Nursing Clinical Confidence Scale was developed as part of a larger study aimed at investigating the impact of mental health clinical placements on undergraduate nurses' attitudes and clinical confidence. Students were surveyed using the scale before and after a mental health nursing placement. The scale revealed robust psychometric properties. Significant changes in the self-reported confidence levels of students were found at the completion of the clinical placement. A number of key factors impacted on student confidence levels both before the clinical and after the placement. The 20 item scale will be a useful instrument in future evaluations of the effectiveness of student learning in mental health settings.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1998

Structural impediments to effective communication.

Interestingly, none of the mental health nurse authors that I have consulted, understand the nurse-patient relationship as establishing the parameters for facilitative communication which, to a large extent, opens up or circumscribes further therapeutic possibilities. In other words, the nurse is seen as the initiator of both relationship development and communicative interactions; and the person of the nurse seems irrelevant in that they have skills to learn and techniques to apply. Furthermore, if communication is problematic, it seems to be assumed that such difficulties arise from the patient or from the inadequacy of the nurse's technique, and never from the personal attributes of the nurse.

Communication Barriers↗
PubMed1997

Psychiatric nursing: epistemological contradictions.

This theoretical analysis begins from the premise that the medical specialty of psychiatry is practically and ideologically dominant in relation to psychiatric nursing. To explicate some difficulties within psychiatric nursing from a therapeutic perspective, crucial 19th century European psychiatric epistemological developments are outlined. The article addresses the contemporary problematic of nursing agency in the face of mainstream psychiatry's focus on physical treatments. It is argued that there are intrinsic contradictions for present-day humanistic psychiatric nursing given the theoretical and practical power of the materialist medical model.

Europe↗
PubMed1997

'Difference' and nursing research.

In recent decades groups of non-mainstream people have named their/our strengths and used the concept of 'difference' to support this position. The pitfalls of radical individualism and of group essentialism which are likely to ensue from this focus on difference are problematic in nursing research. This paper argues that class, ethnicity and gender structure societies in which research takes place; and that common understandings of difference may unwittingly perpetuate and obscure power inequalities. Nursing researchers need to be conscious of these inequalities and ensure that research is oriented towards constructive change for the benefit of health service consumers.

Female↗
PubMed1997

Women's depression: nursing theory and practice.

This theoretical paper argues that a range of social factors are relevant to the genesis of depression in women. These include stressors which particularly pertain to gender, and include poverty, limited practical and social supports and resources, violence against women and childhood sexual assault. After explicating an interpersonal model for the etiology of depression, the paper outlines approaches that nurses can draw on to take sex-based factors into account when assessing and working with women experiencing depression. Nursing strategies which emphasise hope, use group approaches and deal with emotions and unconscious issues are deemed to be especially important.

Depression↗
PubMed1992

Problem-based learning in nurse education: an Australian view.

This paper addresses the need to adopt teaching-learning approaches in nursing education that develop links between theory and clinical practice in a meaningful way. Problem-based learning (PBL) is such an approach and is gaining popularity in tertiary nursing programmes in Australia. PBL, as an example of the constructivist philosophy, focuses on students' existing knowledge as a starting point for conceptual change teaching. The implications for the nurse educator's role when using PBL are discussed in terms of assumptions about the nature of teaching and learning; conceptual change teaching; ability to focus; the role of negotiation; and the ability to analyse student learning. These factors are seen to be critical components of the pedagogy necessary for nurse educators to utilize PBL approaches effectively.

Australia↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Clinical placement: prebriefing and debriefing as teaching strategies.

This paper discusses use of debriefing processes as a teaching strategy. Such an everyday session in the clinical setting is distinguished from conventional debriefing in critical incident or post-trauma emergency situations. The group processes described can also be used to defuse fears before students experience clinical placement. Debriefing sessions are most valuable following the clinical placement day when students' heads may be whirling from over-stimulation of various kinds. The sessions facilitate use of therapeutic communication skills. They work with student emotions and affirm feelings as an integral aspect of teaching-learning. They also provide a forum in which students may practise assertive interventions in role play relevant to specific unsatisfactory interactions experienced on the ward. Positive feedback from the clinical teacher and peers helps build up student confidence.

Emotions↗