It is only when furnished with facts that one can move away from mere opinion towards objectivity, and replace anecdotes with evidence. It was this belief that led Professor I.M. Richardson of the Department of General Practice at Aberdeen University, to take a close interest in the development of accurate observations of the work of various members of the community health team. This interest was first given expression in a study conducted by Dr. I.C. Buchan, who adopted time-study techniques to measure "everything that visibly happened" between patients and their general practitioners (Buchan and Richardson, 1973). This study was so successful in achieving a detailed analysis of professional medical activity, that it seemed logical and desirable to extend the study to the work of the district nurse. So, when I wrote to Professor Richardson expressing an interest in the field of community health research, he approached Mrs. A.M. Taylor, then Divisional Nursing Officer of the Aberdeen District Nursing Association, who showed great interest in the. idea of a study of the nurses' work. A research proposal was drawn up and was approved by the then Research and Intelligence Unit of the Scottish Home and Health Department. The study commenced in April 1972. The nursing study drew upon the methods already successfully employed, and I acknowledge ray debt to Dr. Buchan who undertook the unglaraorous task of adapting time study techniques to the observation of professional activity. However, my own grounding in nursing and the social sciences prompted me to view this opportunity for direct observation of nurses as a valuable means of exploring the nurse-patient relationship. Previous related research experience had highlighted two factors: firstly, there is a dearth of research on nurse-patient interaction in this country, and secondly, a study of such interaction could yield new insight into the nature of nurses' work. Indeed it was felt that this was a crucial adjunct to time study in any thorough description and analysis of district nurses at work. The first task, then, was to determine the extent of the research already carried out in this field. The aim of the following literature review is to examine existing knowledge, to identify areas which have not been thoroughly researched, and to construct hypotheses for the observation study.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:482531 |
| Date | January 1975 |
| Creators | McIntosh, Jean Barbara |
| Publisher | University of Aberdeen |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://digitool.abdn.ac.uk/R?func=search-advanced-go&find_code1=WSN&request1=AAIU418269 |
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