The majority of women's health nurses in this study work in generalist community health centres. They have developed their praxis within the philosophy and policies of the broader women's health movement and primary health care principles in Australia. The fundamental assumption underlying this study is that women's health nurses possess a unique body of knowledge and clinical wisdom that has not been previously documented and explored. The epistemological base from which these nurses' operate offers important insights into the substantive issues that create and continually shape the practice world of nurses and their clients. Whether this represents a (re)construction of the dominant forms of health care service delivery for women is examined in this study. The study specifically aims at exploring the practice issues and experience of women's health service provision by women's health nurses in the context of the provision of cervical cancer screening services. In mapping this particular group of nurses practice, it sets out to examine the professional and theoretical issues in contemporary nursing and women's health care. In critically analysing the powerful discourses that shape and reshape nursing work, the study raises the concern that previous analyses of pursing work tend to universalise the structural and social subordination of nurses and nursing knowledge. This universalism is most often based on examples of midwifery and nursing work in hospital settings, and subsequently, because of these conceptualisations, all of nursing is too often deemed as a dependent occupation, with little agency, and is analysed as always in relation to medicine, to hospitals, to other knowledge forms. Denoting certain discourses as dominant proposes a relationship of power and knowledge and the thesis argues that all work relations and practices in health are structured by certain power/knowledge relations. This analysis reveals that there IX are many competing and complimentary power/knowledge relations that structure nursing, but that nursing, and in particular women's health nurses, also challenge the power/knowledge relations around them. Through examining theories of power and knowledge the analysis, argues that theoretical eclecticism is necessary to address the complex and varied nature of nursing work. In particular it identifies that postmodern and radical feminist theorising provide the most appropriate framework to further analyse and interpret the work of women's health nurses. Fundamental to the position argued in this thesis is a feminist perspective. This position creates important theoretical and methodological links throughout the whole study. Feminist methodology was employed to guide the design, the collection and the analysis. Intrinsic to this process was the use of the 'voices' of women's health nurses as the basis for theorising. The 'voices' of these nurses are highlighted in the chapters as italicised bold script. A constant companion along the way in examining women's health nurses' work, was the reflexivity with feminist research processes, the theoretical discussions and their 'voices'. Capturing and analysing descriptive accounts of nursing praxis is seen in this thesis as providing a way to theorise about nursing work. This methodology is able to demonstrate the knowledge forms embedded in clinical nursing praxis. Three conceptual threads emerge throughout the discussions: one focuses on nursing praxis as a distinct process, with its own distinct epistemological base rather than in relation to 'other' knowledge forms; another describes the medical restriction and opposition as experienced by this group of nurses, but also of their resistance to medical opposition. The third theme apparent from the interviews, and which was conceptualised as beyond resistance, was the description of the alternative discourses evident in nursing work, and this focused on notions of being a professional and on autonomous nursing praxis. This study concludes that rather than accepting the totalising discourses about nursing there are examples within nursing of resistance—both ideologically and X in practice—to these dominant discourses. Women's health nurses represent an important model of women's health service delivery, an analysis of which can contribute to critically reflecting on the 'paradigm of oppression' cited in nursing and about nursing more generally. Reflecting on women's health service delivery also has relevance in today's policy environment, where structural shifts in Commonwealth/State funding arrangements in community based care, may undermine women's health programs. In summary this study identifies three important propositions for nursing: • nursing praxis can reconstruct traditional models of health care; • nursing praxis is powerful and able to 'resist' dominant discourses; and • nursing praxis can be transformative. Joining feminist perspectives and alternative analyses of power provides a pluralistic and emancipatory politics for viewing, describing and analysing 'other' nursing work. At the micro sites of power and knowledge relations—in the everyday practice worlds of nurses, of negotiation and renegotiation, of work on the margins and at the centre—women's health nurses' praxis operates as a positive, productive and reconstructive force in health care.

Bakgrund: Öppenhet om psykisk ohälsa är något som har fått allt mer medial uppmärksamhet. Konceptet öppenhet är brett och innefattar flertal definitioner såsom transparens, som i att vara ärlig och inte gömma information, samt ett förhållningssätt som präglas av bland annat tolerans och förmågan att acceptera nya perspektiv och idéer. Öppenhet avhandlas i denna studie från perspektivet av sjuksköterskor med egen erfarenhet av psykisk ohälsa. Syfte: Denna studie syftar till att utforska sjuksköterskors upplevelser och erfarenheter av öppenhet gällande psykisk ohälsa samt att avtäcka öppenhetens meningsbärande enheter utifrån ett omvårdnadsperspektiv. Metod: Studien har en kvalitativ studiedesign med en fenomenologisk hermeneutisk forskningsansats. Information samlades in via semistrukturerade intervjuer. Resultat: Analysen resulterade i 3 övergripande teman: öppenhet som transparens, öppenhet som förhållningssätt och öppenhetens kraft och fundamentala växelverkan. Helhetstolkningen  visade att öppenhet är en förutsättning för all typ av medmänsklig interaktion och kommunikation. Att dela med sig av erfarenheter av psykisk ohälsa är transparens med intentionalitet kopplat till både strävan efter en bättre värld och ett sätt att visa omsorg. Helhetstolkningen mynnade ut i att sjuksköterskors öppenhet gällande egen erfarenhet av psykisk ohälsa i hög grad påverkades av upplevd stigma. Slutsats: Öppenhet har en inre självförstärkande kraft: öppenhet leder till öppenhet. Att dela med sig av egna erfarenheter av psykisk ohälsa ter sig har en stor potential i att skapa relationer präglade av ömsesidighet och medmänsklighet. Att bemöta med öppenhet är nyckeln till att ge transparensen en möjlighet att skapa en mer humanistisk och rättvis vård. / Background: Openness around mental health issues has gained increased media attention. The concept of openness is vast and includes multiple definition like transparency, as in to be honest and not hiding information, and also an approach characterized by, among others, tolerance and the ability to accept new perspectives and ideas. In this study openness is presented from the perspective of nurses with own experience of mental health issues. Aim: This study aims to explore nurses’ experiences and knowledge of openness regarding mental health issues and also uncover the meaning entities within the concept of openness from a nursing perspective. Method: The study uses a phenomenological hermeneutical method. Information was gained through semi-structured interviews. Findings: The analysis resulted in 3 main themes: openness as transparency, openness as an approach and the power and fundamental interactions of openness. The comprehensive understanding exposed openness as a postulate to all human interaction and communication. To share own experiences of mental health issues is transparency with intentionality including striving for a better world and mediate caring. The comprehensive understanding also indicated that nurses’ openness in sharing own experiences of mental health issues was impacted negatively by stigma experiences. Conclusion: Openness has an inner amplifying power: openness leads to openness. To share experiences regarding mental health issues appears to possess a great potential in creating relationships characterized by mutuality and compassion. To approach with openness is the key to give transparency the ability to create a more humane and just health care.