Nursing in the contemporary Australian healthcare system, particularly in speciality areas, is acknowledged as a highly stressful and difficult undertaking. A range of factors has contributed to this situation including changes in staffing levels, patient acuity, resourcing of the healthcare system and nurse recruitment and retention. A number of studies on the intensive care environment have identified factors that cause stress and role strain in nurses. Other research has explored the coping mechanisms these nurses implement to manage work stresses. To date, no Australian studies have sought to provide an encompassing explanation of why and how nurses choose to remain working in this challenging area of practice. This study seeks to develop one possible explanation for this phenomenon. Grounded theory was selected as the most appropriate means of achieving this aim. It explores behavioural patterns and how these develop into interactive social processes. Grounded theory investigates and reveals how people manage problematic life situations, enabling emergence of a substantive theory, which is grounded in context and situation dependent research data. This research study was undertaken in three intensive care units in one area health service in New South Wales. The constant comparative analysis method was used, revealing that nursing in the intensive care environment is a stimulating, challenging experience, which at times is also frustrating and demoralising. The emergent substantive theory was titled “Traversing the path of the intensive care nursing experience”. This study achieves two objectives. It adds to the accumulated knowledge base related to intensive care nursing by offering an explanation of why and how these specialist nurses remain practising at the bedside. It substantiates the results from previous research that investigated stressors and stress management in nursing within the intensive care environment. There are a number of implications for nursing education, research and practice that can be drawn from this study. Impacting on all levels of nursing, these include the development of effective stress management, interpersonal communication techniques, recognition of competence and its assessment, and conflict mediation and management. Further research is needed into understanding nurses’ self-concept and the effect of the working environment on the delivery of effective nursing practice. / Master of Science (Hons.)
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/181691 |
| Date | January 2005 |
| Creators | Clague, Gabrielle Maria, University of Western Sydney, College of Health and Science, School of Nursing, Family and Community Health |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
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