Paula N. Kagan

A nursing manifesto: an emancipatory call for knowledge development, conscience, and praxis

The purpose of this paper is to present the theoretical and philosophical assumptions of the Nursing Manifesto, written by three activist scholars whose objective was to promote emancipatory nursing research, practice, and education within the dialogue and praxis of social justice. Inspired by discussions with a number of nurse philosophers at the 2008 Knowledge Conference in Boston, two of the original Manifesto authors and two colleagues discussed the need to explicate emancipatory knowing as it emerged from the Manifesto. Our analysis yielded an epistemological framework based on liberation principles to advance praxis in the discipline of nursing. This paper adds to what is already known on this topic, as there is not an explicit contribution to the literature of this specific Manifesto, its significance, and utility for the discipline. While each of us have written on emancipatory knowing and social justice in a variety of works, it is in this article that we identify, as a unit of knowledge production and as a direction towards praxis, a set of critical values that arose from the emancipatory conscience-ness and intention seen in the framework of the Nursing Manifesto.

Feeling Listened To: A Lived Experience of Humanbecoming:

The purpose of this study is to discover the structure of the universal lived experience of feeling listened to, a phenomenon of health and quality of life related to the human-to-human relationship. This Parse research method study included 10 adults who shared their experiences of feeling listened to. The structure, feeling listened to is unreserved affirmation amid potential irreverence arising with the liberating contentment of benevolent affiliations, is the central finding of the study. This finding was connected to humanbecoming theory and extant literature, contributing to nursing knowledge, expanding the theory, and enhancing understanding about feeling listened to.

Historical voices of resistance: crossing boundaries to praxis through documentary filmmaking for the public.

This article contextualizes my forthcoming study of a particular instance of resistance in nursing history, the Cassandra Radical Feminist Nurses Network, and examines how nursing history can be produced as public media to advance progressive ideas about nurses and transformative and emancipatory nursing and healthcare. It argues that nurse-generated documentary filmmaking is a natural extension of theory and practice, linking several disciplinary and conceptual fields to support a praxis that is situated at the intersection of nursing, critical theory, and the humanities.

Listening: Selected Perspectives in Theory and Research

To enhance understanding of the phenomenon of feeling listened to, and in preparation for a study on this phenomenon (Kagan, 2008), the concept of listening was explored. In this column, the author presents perspectives on listening. The discussion is organized into sections on theoretical literature and research literature on listening and is further divided under the disciplines of philosophy, education, medicine, and nursing.

We’re All Here for the Good of the Patient: A Dialogue on Power

Two nurse scholars, whose works have centered on power and related concepts, discuss the ideas that have shaped their concepts of power. In this conversation, they reflect on factors that constrain nurses and nursing in organizations, and consider some possibilities that could lead nurses to realize their full potential and influence in the healthcare system.

Jo Ann Ashley 30 Years Later: Legacy for Practice

Jo Ann Ashley, nurse scholar, educator, and feminist activist died at age 41 in 1980. Ashley illuminated the historical foundations of modern medicine, nursing, and hospital care in her pivotal book published in 1976, Hospitals, Paternalism, and the Role of the Nurse. Ashley’s innovative research uncovered a web of pervasive gender and class bias in the delivery of healthcare in the United States. This column commemorates the 30-year anniversary of that publication with a remembrance of her life and ideas. It examines Ashley’s relevance for nursing theory and current practice through an analysis of her many scholarly works and through interviews with those who knew her.

Video Games as Nursing Interventions

Video games and video game systems are a multi-billion dollar industry that is a part of the homes of millions of Americans and even more worldwide (Nayak, 2013). While video games have historically offered entertainment, new games have been developed to offer deeper meaning, and some have been developed for use in healthcare settings, many showing positive effects on patient outcomes when opposed to traditional therapies (Kato, 2010;Merry, Stasiak, Shepherd, Frampton, Fleming, L Rahmani B Rusch, Shattell, & Rana, 2014; Shattell, Rusch, & Rana, 2014). For the Records incorporates video games and film in a multimedia open access website and enhances understanding of young adults with bipolar disorder, attention deficit disorder, eating disorder (anorexia nervosa), and obsessive compulsive disorder. We believe that video games have a place in health care by providing a unique opportunity for nurses to expand the repertoire of nursing interventions. Our involvement in For the Records, and Kagan’s interest in innovative nursing practice (Kagan, Smith, & Chinn, 2014) and in documentary film-making as an innovative research methodology (Kagan, 2009), led us to explore the literature on video games as healthcare interventions. The purpose of this commentary therefore, is to review what we found, and to discuss the potential use of video games as non-pharmacological and potentially effective nursing interventions for enhancing health and quality of life. METHODS We sought to the answer the following question in the review of literature: How have video games been used to treat specific patient problems and populations, and were these video games efficacious? Electronic databases CINAHL (Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature), MEDLINE (PubMed), and ProQuest were searched, along with published articles that were highlighted in the popular press, to find articles that met the following inclusion criteria: (1) studied a video game in a healthcare setting; (2) used live subjects (i.e., is not a simulation); (3) used quantitative methods in an effort to show efficacy of treatments (outcomes); and (4) reported outcomes. Articles in academic and professional journals that were displayed at the 2013 Games for Health Conference were also included. The search term ‘video games’ alone yielded too many results about a myriad of issues (many having to do with the ills of video game addiction and the benefits of owning a Nintendo Wii). With respect to the Nintendo Wii, the aim of our study was to find video games designed and built specifically for particular patient problems and populations, and not games, such as Nintendo Wii Bowling, which was designed for the primary purpose of entertainment. Video games tested in relevant studies must have followed McGonigal’s (2011) four traits of a game – they must have goals, rules, a feedback system, and be designed for voluntary participation. Articles that met the inclusion criteria were reviewed and assessed using Whittemore and Knafl’s (2005) methodology for integrative literature reviews, which requires that the data collected from the literature to be ordered, coded, categorized, and summarized into a rational, unified conclusion. Articles that met the inclusion criteria were then read, re-read, and then synthesized into the following categories: background information of video games in health care and benefits of video games for select patient problems and populations (i.e., depression, anxiety, anger management, community psychiatric settings for US veterans, and fall risk, pain management, rehabilitation from stroke, and oncology treatment adherence). We conclude here with a discussion about the viability of video games as nursing interventions, the potential barriers and potential ways to overcome these barriers.

Catastrophe and Response: Expanding the Notion of Self to Mobilize Nurses’ Attention to Policy and Activism

The author in this column explores implications of the 2010 Gulf of Mexico British Petroleum oil spill for human-environment-health. One aim was to acknowledge the continuing occurrences of catastrophe affecting human-environment-health that are greatly compounded due to lack of regulation and enforcement, lack of infrastructure maintenance, and lack of public policy oversight. The second aim was to explore how disciplinary conceptualizations of self need to expand to better include environment so that nurses can contribute further to preventing disaster, while continuing their historically significant response to such events.

Health as Expanding Consciousness Implications for Health Policy as Praxis

The authors of this column explore the implications of Newman’s theory of health as expanding consciousness for health policy. One aim is to expand the theory’s practice methodology and praxis methods to the development of health policy, an under-represented area in the health as expanding consciousness literature. The second aim is to suggest a framework for policy development, the health as expanding consciousness policy protocol, and explore the possible impact that theory-guided policy may have on community and nursing efforts to transform health and public policy.