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Biomedical subjects

Margaret P Treacy

Publications and source records attributed to Margaret P Treacy.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

Nursing minimum data sets: a conceptual analysis and review.

It is commonly acknowledged that nursing care is underrepresented in the healthcare record. The nursing minimum data set (NMDS) has been proposed as a method of routinely collecting information on core aspects of the nursing contribution to care, organised primarily in terms of phenomena, interventions and outcomes. Potential applications in clinical nursing, healthcare management, education and research have been identified. NMDS systems have been developed in a number of countries, with applications mostly related to resource allocation. To date, NMDS systems have tended to examine physical nursing care provided in institutional settings, with implications for construct and content validity. While NMDS research helps to clarify the nursing contribution to care, attention is now required to better understand the domains of nursing care across a broader range of care settings.

Australia↗

Modes of rationality in nursing documentation: biology, biography and the 'voice of nursing'.

This article is based on a discourse analysis of the complete nursing records of 45 patients, and concerns the modes of rationality that mediated text-based accounts relating to patient care that nurses recorded. The analysis draws on the work of the critical theorist, Jurgen Habermas, who conceptualised rationality in the context of modernity according to two types: purposive rationality based on an instrumental logic, and value rationality based on ethical considerations and moral reasoning. Our analysis revealed that purposive rationality dominated the content of nursing documentation, as evidenced by a particularly bio-centric and modernist construction of the workings of the body within the texts. There was little reference in the documentation to central themes of contemporary nursing discourses, such as notions of partnership, autonomy, and self-determination, which are associated with value rationality. Drawing on Habermas, we argue that this nursing documentation depicted the colonisation of the sociocultural lifeworld by the bio-technocratic system. Where nurses recorded disagreements that patients had with medical regimes, the central struggle inherent in the project of modernity became transparent--the tension between the rational and instrumental control of people through scientific regulation and the autonomy of the subject. The article concludes by problematising communicative action within the context of nursing practice.

Aged↗

Hard boys, attractive girls: expressions of gender in young people's conversations on smoking in Northern Ireland.

Health behaviour and attitudes among young people can be interpreted within the context of personal and social identity. This paper explores ways in which 10- to 11-year-olds in Northern Ireland expressed perceptions of gender ideology while discussing the topic of smoking. The data were gathered by means of in-depth interviews (n=85). Although few had tried smoking, the positive quality of their own gender appeared to be expressed through negative assessment of smokers of the opposite gender, and on different ideas of perceived gender dimensions in adult smoking. In order to deliver successful health promotion interventions, it is crucial to understand and address differences based on gender as it may partly explain differences in smoking experimentation and prevalence.

Child↗

Developments in nursing in Ireland: the emergence of a disciplinary discourse.

This article presents a conceptualization of nursing as it is presently being constructed in Ireland. Official discourses on nursing are explored and the ways in which these discourses have been further shaped through consultation is highlighted. This is further supported by reference to research examining practicing nurses' discourses. There is some evidence to suggest that Irish nurses may be beginning to internalize many of the nursing concepts articulated at an international and national level over the past 20 years. However, barriers to actualization in practice are identified. Emerging discourses in Ireland suggest the conceptualization of nursing as promoting and maintaining health with nurses as coordinators of care who also engage in the development of therapeutic relationships with patients. The interpersonal aspect of nursing is considered central to the nursing role.

Education, Nursing↗