Lynne Barnes

Creating a 21st century nursing work force: Designing a Bachelor of Nursing program in response to the health reform agenda

This paper demonstrates the processes of designing a nursing curriculum that integrates health care and educational reforms, regulatory requirements and the needs of a modern nursing workforce. In particular, the paper illustrates the application of a curriculum design process. In 2008, the School of Nursing and Midwifery at the University of South Australia completed the challenging task of designing and implementing a Bachelor of Nursing curriculum to ensure that nursing graduates meet projected health care delivery needs within the Australian context. Creating an educational experience necessary to support Graduates to attend to priorities associated with the projected Australian health demographic was challenging. Through the use of integrating themes, domains of nursing practice and attention to the health care needs and priorities of the population, the curriculum has been designed to produce nurses with the knowledge, understanding and skills necessary to contribute to new and innovative health care delivery in Australia.

The work of nurses in private health: Accounting for the intangibles in care delivery

Abstract With the commodification of healthcare in general and of private health in particular, it is difficult not to acknowledge the growing influence of competition and ‘the market’ in shaping the way that nurses’ work is managed by private hospitals and by nurses themselves. This paper explores the discourses shaping nurses’ work in private healthcare, drawing upon data from an ethnographic study conducted in one Australian acute care private hospital. The framework for analysis relies on an exploration of the mentalities and governance of nurses’ work in such a setting. The study shows how marketing and performance measures are believed to ensure the viability of the enterprise while simultaneously commodifying nurses’ caring work. It is this work that remains invisible to the healthcare system and the hospitals where they work.