Marguerite J. Purnell

The nursing shortage revisioning the future.

A severe shortage of nurses is being experienced nationally and globally. In South Florida, one of the most severely impacted regions in the world, a group of healthcare organizations, educational institutions, and nursing organizations formed the Nursing Shortage Consortium to combat the nursing shortage. Strategic efforts to recruit and retain nurses are underway, with a focus on nurturing interest among young people and increasing opportunities to stimulate their interest, to increase the supply of appropriately prepared professional nurses.

Who Really Makes the Bed? Uncovering Technologic Dissonance in Nursing

&NA; Technologic dissonance in the practice arena is demonstrated in the use of nonnursing technologies that are present in but technically incongruent with a nursing environment. Technology in nursing is not necessarily nursing technology. The article traces the influences of technologic dissonance beyond the reductionist purview of the medical model to their source in design and engineering philosophies. The vision of technologic consonance in nursing may be realized in the influence and expression of the caring nurse in the design, engineering, ownership, and use of nursing technology.

Gleaning Wisdom in the Research on Caring

Light is the metaphor for wisdom; we seek and turn toward light as we seek and reach for wisdom, personally and professionally. The purpose of human life is, as Jung noted, kindling the light of meaning to illuminate the darkness. Nursing caring, focusing on the wholeness of persons regardless of life experiences, events, or circumstances, is intimately bound with wisdom, acquired both professionally and personally. In order to glean the wisdom reflected in current nursing research on caring, the author reviewed studies conducted from 2003 to 2008. Only a sampling of the 99 studies found are included here. Patients, students, nurse leaders, and administrators were asked what caring means and how it can be improved; ways to measure and evaluate caring were tested. This body of work can be used to enlighten nurses on the process of caring and how we teach our students to care.

Altering the Acid/Alkaline Balance of Water via the Use of an Intention-Host Device

BACKGROUND The research presented in this article has satisfactorily followed the earlier protocols of the last 2 authors and has successfully replicated their earlier work, which utilized an intention-host device to increase the pH of highly purified water in equilibrium with air by approximately +1 pH units at room temperature with no intentional chemical additions. METHODS In addition, the present experimental research, by the first 2 authors, breaks important new ground by revealing examples of both (1) different time-dependent pH-profiles than found in the earlier work and (2) a very nontraditional order of chemical-like reaction kinetics than has heretofore been observed. CONCLUSIONS The time-dependence behavior of these reaction sequences support the hypothesis that such intention-host devices can produce a significant measure of coupling between two uniquely different, and normally noninteracting, levels of physical reality that exhibit a reciprocal-type of substance behavior.

Advancing the Theory of Technological Competency as Caring in Nursing: The Universal Technological Domain

Sophisticated technologies are accepted as integral with contemporary life, occupying a universal technological domain that is coextensive with humans and their environment. In human healthcare, the risk for depersonalization of persons receiving care renders the preservation of humanness as essential, particularly in technology-dense arenas. Nurses are challenged to sustain their caring nursing practice while responding to the complex technological demands of modern healthcare. This paper explicates a further development of the theory of technological competency as caring in nursing (TCCN) that embraces the universal domain of technology. Within the theoretic lens of the TCCN, 3 key elements demonstrate the fundamental process of knowing persons within the universal technological domain: technological knowing, designing, and participative engaging. Underpinning this process of nursing are concepts of human naturalness, human wholeness, and nursing technology connoisseurship. From the perspective of the T...

Curriculum as environment: a focus group study.

Curricula development is critical for the advancement and evolution of holistic nursing education. Although the American Holistic Nurses Association offers advanced practice board certification for graduate nurses, there is a scarcity of available graduate holistic nursing courses and curricula. The researchers developed a curriculum for an advanced holistic nursing program at a university college of nursing in South Florida. The curriculum and process of development were presented at a workshop during a national holistic nursing conference. A portion of the workshop included an opportunity for attendees to voluntarily participate in a focus group research study. The specific aim of the research was to determine the best approaches for the development of curricula for the promotion of graduate holistic nurse education based on the insights of holistic nurses, nurse educators, nurse practitioners, and scholars. A content analysis identified 3 themes that addressed holistic nursing curriculum: (1) consider curriculum as an evolving blueprint for personal and professional growth; (2) embrace the uniqueness of students; and (3) encourage faculty to co-create the learning environment.

Caring for Individuals Displaced by Hurricanes Katrina and Wilma: The Lived Experience of Student Nurses

The purpose of this phenomenological study is to explore the experience of caring for individuals and families left homeless and then displaced in the aftermath of destructive hurricanes. The nursing situations, which are reflective stories from the practice of seven undergraduate nursing students, were interpreted to uncover the meaning of caring for others who have experienced disastrous situations. The interpreted findings are three thematic threads that cut across all the texts: building connections to others, appreciating the wholeness of persons, and learning the meaning of caring in nursing. The wholeness of this inquiry is presented using a metaphor to describe the fullness of lives lived, despite being left homeless and displaced by disastrous hurricanes.

Creating a graduate holistic nursing program.

In Spring 2010, an innovative Master of Science in Holistic Nursing track was launched in as the realization of a vision for graduate holistic nursing held by the faculty of the Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing in Palm Beach County. As 1 of 6 such tracks in the nation and the only holistic masters program in Florida, there were few guideposts to lead the way. The development of holistic nurse education that answered to student, community, and faculty needs within an unpredictable health care environment involved courage, commitment, and risk taking. The purpose of this article is to describe the philosophical foundations, professional framework, and development process that gave form and shape to the advanced holistic nursing track.

The Lived Experience of Persons with Life-Sustaining Cardiac Devices

The purpose of this study was to describe the experience of persons with permanent implantable cardiac devices. Purposeful sampling was by snowball method. Seven participants met the selection criteria with only three completing the data generation procedure. Interviews were guided by semistructured questions, conducted via the telephone, and electronically recorded. Van Manen’s (1990) phenomenological approach was used to analyze the data. Four thematic categories were identified: Longing and Loneliness, Dependency with Technology, a New Life, and Fear and Anticipation of Death. The experience of persons with life-sustaining cardiac devices is described as “dependency on technology is often expressed as longing and loneliness in anticipation of a new life while fearing and anticipating eventual death.” Implications are discussed and explained.

Commentary on “Breast Biopsy and Distress: Feasibility of Testing a Reiki Intervention”

Nurses have been integrating energetic healing modalities in their practice for decades. Although public interest and demand for such healing have grown exponentially, the research available to support the use of these modalities is limited. In particular, research on Reiki, the ancient energetic art of healing, is sparse and clinical trials are few. A pilot study by Potter (2007) is, therefore, a welcome step toward further examining the wide range of human health conditions that Reiki is suggested to positively influence. The purpose of Potter’s timely study was to determine the feasibility of testing Reiki, with an aim of implementing and evaluating the research protocol. The participants (N = 32) in this pilot study were women who were scheduled for outpatient breast biopsy. The Reiki intervention they received as per protocol was tested for efficacy in promoting relaxation and reducing their distress. At first reading, the results of the study were puzzling: It could not be concluded that Reiki relieves distress in this population. Results of other research studies, including several in this study report’s literature review, suggest that Reiki energy produces positive results (Crawford, Leaver, & Mahoney, 2006; Wardell, & Engebretson, 2001). Closer examination of the pilot study design and protocol, however, revealed several areas that might have contributed to these results. Following are reflections and comments for future consideration and for support of the researcher.