Biomedical subjects

Lauretta Luck

Publications and source records attributed to Lauretta Luck.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Case study: a bridge across the paradigms.

Case study as a teaching and research tool has an extensive history in health and social sciences. Despite its suitability for many of the research questions that face nurses, nurses have not fully embraced case study as a comprehensive approach for research. The vagaries of the real-life clinical setting can confound methodologically purist researchers. Case study provides a milieu in which nurse researchers can respond to these vagaries and move towards a paradigmatic openness. In this paper, we argue that case study offers, as yet, under-explored and under-utilised potential as a bridge across the traditional research paradigms. We argue that case study has broad research application and epistemological, ontological and methodological flexibility. When used as a research approach, case study is both the process and end product of research. It provides a delineated boundary for inquiry, and a structural process within which any methods appropriate to investigating a research area can be applied.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗

PubMed2006

Survival of the fittest, or socially constructed phenomena? Theoretical understandings of aggression and violence towards nurses.

Violence is an issue that is attracting increasing attention in the nursing literature. There is general agreement that nurses are exposed to unacceptable levels of violence and aggression in the workplace, and that levels of violence are increasing. Despite this attention and awareness, however, violence does not have a standard definition, and theoretical explanations of violence are seldom considered when discussing it in relation to nursing. This paper discusses current issues associated with defining violence, and presents an overview of some of the traditional and contemporary theories of aggression and violence in relation to nursing and the health context. Conflicting issues surrounding predictors and precipitators of violence are examined. We explore the notion that violence is 'part of the job' in nursing. In conclusion, we assert that the current discourses on aggression and violence maintain the status quo, and argue that new explanatory positions on aggression and violence towards nurses are needed.

Aggression↗

PubMed2004

Psychotropic PRN: a model for best practice management of acute psychotic behavioural disturbance in inpatient psychiatric settings.

PRN, or 'as needed', medications are administered frequently by mental health nurses in psychiatric inpatient settings to manage difficult and disturbed behaviour when other strategies fail. Research indicates that approximately 50% of psychiatric inpatients receive a PRN medication at some stage of their treatment. Although evidence indicates that traditional antipsychotics and benzodiazepines are equally effective in managing acute agitation and other psychotic symptoms, it has been recommended that benzodiazepines should be the first-line of action because they do not cause the serious side-effects that are common with the traditional antipsychotics. Unfortunately, research indicates that doctors and nurses are not taking advantage of the latest evidence to guide their practice. This paper reviews the limited research available in the area and makes recommendations for evidence-based practice.

Drug Administration Schedule↗

PubMed2003

PRN psychotropic medications: the need for nursing research.

This paper highlights the inadequacy of existing research for the purposes of evidence-based prn (Latin, pro re nata or 'as needed') medication practice in psychiatric settings and notes the absence of relevant evidence-based clinical practice guidelines and policies, both nationally and internationally. The professional, ethical and legal importance of PRN medication practices is also discussed, and shown to add to the urgency of developing a research agenda which will serve as an adequate basis for good clinical practice. This paper summarises the relevant research and identifies problems that can arise for clinicians involved in the administration of prn medications in mental health settings. It concludes by highlighting key issues which urgently require empirical investigation.

Adolescent↗