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This phenomenological research aimed to illuminate the nature and effects of ordinariness in nursing and to discover whether the phenomenon enhanced the nursing encounter. The researcher worked as a participant observer with six registered nurses in a Professorial Nursing Unit. Following each interaction, the researcher wrote her impressions in a personal-professional journal and audiotaped conversations with the respective nurses and patients to gain their impressions. Using a theoretical framework of the phenomenological concepts of lived experience, Dasein, Being-in-the-world and fusion of horizons as an underpinning methodology, an initial hermeneutical analysis and interpretation of the impressions generated qualities and activities indicative of the aspects of the phenomenon of ordinariness in nursing. The second phase of the analysis and interpretation sought to illuminate the nature of the phenomenon itself. Eight actualities of the nature of the phenomenon emerged: 'allowingness,' 'straightforwardness,' 'self-likeness,' 'homeliness,' 'favourableness,' 'intuneness,' 'lightheartedness' and 'connectedness.' These actualities were described in relation to the phenomenon of interest. The effects of the phenomenon were the creative potential to enhance the nursing encounter and included many and various effects of facilitation, fair play, familiarity, family, favouring, feelings, fun and friendship. The research found that nurses and patients shared a common sense of humanity, which enhanced the nursing encounter. Within the context of caring, the nurses were ordinary people, perceived as being extraordinarily effective, by the very ways in which their humanness shone through their knowledge and skills, to make their whole being with patients something more than just professional helping. The shared sense of ordinariness between nurses and patients made them as one in then- humanness and created a special place, in which the relative strangeness of the experience of being in a health care setting, could be made familiar and manageable.

The purpose of this cross-sectional correlational study was to examine the effects of patient and nursing unit characteristics on nursing-sensitive patient outcomes. The conceptual framework for this study is generated from the Quality Health Outcomes Model. The patient characteristics were patient age, gender, education, duration of illness, severity of illness, and illness representation. The nursing unit characteristics were nurse experience, nurse staffing, nursing unit competency, and group cohesion. Nursing-sensitive patient outcomes were patient’s confidence in self-care and patient’s perception of being well-cared for. Stratified sampling was employed to recruit a sample of 130 hospitalized chronically ill patients in 8 medical care units of 4 hospitals in Thailand. A face-to-face questionnaire interview was used to collect data from patients. A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data from 90. Nurse staffing data were obtained from nursing administrative data for each unit. Multiple regression analyses were used to examine the relationships, test a mediator, and analyze the contextual effect of the study variables. Severity of illness (β = -.315, p <.01) and illness representation (β = -.234, p < .05) were significant predictors of patient’s confidence in self-care, when controlling for nursing unit characteristics. Illness representation partially mediated the relationship between severity of illness and patient’s confidence in self-care. Nursing unit characteristics were not significant predictors of patient’s confidence in self-care, when controlling for patient characteristics. There was a significant individual effect on patient’s confidence in self-care. Severity of illness (r = -.199, p < .05) and group cohesion (r = -.195, p < .05) were correlated with patient’s perception of being well-cared for. The findings of this study reinforce the need for acute care nurses to be aware of how chronically ill patients perceive health threats since illness representation directly affects patient’s confidence in self-care. Through understanding the role of illness representation as a mediator between severity of illness and confidence in self-care, it is suggested that nurses can improve patient’s confidence in self-care in severely ill patients by providing nursing interventions that promote positive illness representation.

As cited in literature, the history of hospital design in both practice and theory is rife with proposals that lay claim to improving efficiency. The aim was to obtain not only lowest possible construction, maintenance and operational costs, but also highest possible patient satisfaction,comfort and privacy. Nested within this outlook, the design of hospital nursing units has claimed considerable priority. Significant in such an endeavour is timely feedback to the designer, especially as quantitative assessments of what has been achieved so far with respect to planimetric efficiency / i.e. utility value of built floor area, both in terms of its allocation to served, serving and circulation spaces and the relative proportions of these. Its particular focus was on the nursing units of public facilities in T&uuml / rkiye. The study was carried out on a random sample of hospitals operating under government jurisdictions. Sample size was roughly determined as 33%. The material consisted of production drawings. Data derived from these comprised planimetric measurements regarding their nursing units and of various germane ratios calculated. Analysis of variance, distributional aspects, scatter charts and t-tests were used to evaluate this data according to a number of relevant factors. Results for ratio of primary spaces to secondary spaces showed that there were significant differences by constructional area per bed, while other variables showed a central tendency that was independent of the factors considered. It was concluded that while the method used was appropriate to the assessment in question, further developments and investigations were needed to determine the causes underlying such differences.

The purpose of this study was to describe the perceptions of the bridging programme graduates regarding their preparedness to manage a nursing unit .Quantitative; descriptive survey design was used with a structured questionnaire as data collection instrument. The sample included 58 bridging programme graduates who had completed their training at a private nursing school and was working at seven private hospitals in KwaZulu Natal. The graduates reported competence in performing some but not all management competencies addressed by this survey. Some graduates reported they were placed in charge of the nursing unit, in spite of not feeling competent, as early as in their first month. Recommendations with regard to nursing education, nursing practice and further research, specifically relating to improvement of management competencies for new graduates, were made / Health Studies / M.A. (Health Studies)

The purpose of this study was to describe the perceptions of the bridging programme graduates regarding their preparedness to manage a nursing unit .Quantitative; descriptive survey design was used with a structured questionnaire as data collection instrument. The sample included 58 bridging programme graduates who had completed their training at a private nursing school and was working at seven private hospitals in KwaZulu Natal. The graduates reported competence in performing some but not all management competencies addressed by this survey. Some graduates reported they were placed in charge of the nursing unit, in spite of not feeling competent, as early as in their first month. Recommendations with regard to nursing education, nursing practice and further research, specifically relating to improvement of management competencies for new graduates, were made / Health Studies / M.A. (Health Studies)