2004 IRISH SCIENTIST YEAR BOOK

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Dublin City University
Padraig MacNeela
Nursing decision-making team addresses key questions in nursing care

Professor Ferdinand von Prondzynski, President of DCU, Justice Mella Carroll, Chancellor of DCU, Mr Miche�l Martin T.D., Minister for Health and Children, Professor Anne Scott, Head of the School of Nursing, DCU, at the official opening of the School of Nursing, DCU

Despite the vital contribution of nurses to health care, many fundamental questions about nursing care remain to be addressed. These include describing nursing health care interventions, understanding the concepts of health and illness used in nursing assessments, and identifying the outcomes of nursing care. Researchers at the School of Nursing, DCU, in collaboration with the School of Nursing and Midwifery, UCD, are part of an international trend to articulate the nursing contribution, through the Health Research Board Research Programme in Nursing Decision-Making. The DCU research group is based in a purpose-built research facility, in the new School of Nursing building opened in June 2004 by Mr Miche�l Martin, T.D, Minister for Health and Children.

The research team analyses care in terms of stages in the nursing process � the assessment of patients' difficulties, nursing interventions, and the outcomes of care that are prioritised by nurses. Within each stage, a holistic model is proposed, incorporating psychological, physical and social aspects of the patient's experience.

Many of these functions performed by nurses are largely invisible in the health care record. Community mental health nurses see themselves as particularly skilled in recognising psychological states and putting in place appropriate interventions, emphasising social independence and family functioning. Some of the skills required may be different in areas such as surgical nursing, involving more technical aspects of care and attention to physical status.

The therapeutic relationship with the patient links nursing care across different areas of practice. In addition, nurses are recognised as the 'glue' that ensures the health care system coheres, reflected in coordination and monitoring functions. While the therapeutic relationship is crucial to nurses' work, changes in the Irish health care system reflect international trends toward both increasingly sophisticated technical care, delivered in specialised care environments, and care provided in the community. Reflecting this diversity, the DCU�UCD research team is examining specialist areas in general nursing, as well as community and institutional mental health services. The aim is to devise a minimum data set that records a valid picture of clinical care while also imposing minimum demands of time and resources. Following four studies of nursing documentation and nurses' talk about the care they provide, a trial data set is to be tested in 2004�2005. This is part of the research group's answer to the challenge of making visible the unique and as yet implicit function of nurses in making health care work for you.

Contact: Professor Anne Scott, Head of the School of Nursing, DCU, Glasnevin, Dublin 9;
Tel: 01-7005929; E-mail: [email protected]