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This article introduces and explores the concept of political economy. In particular it focuses upon the political economy of health while also considering the implications for international nursing studies in the context of health care more generally. Political economy is not only about budgets, resources and policy. It is also about particular kinds of political power that can be difficult to grasp. Often, analyses of power in the nursing literature relate to power at the interpersonal level between say nurses and patients, the interprofessional level between nurses and medics, or at the institutional level between managerial policy and actual practice that often, if not always, relates also to national issues in health care. While acknowledging the value of these analyses, this article seeks to add the dimension of the power of political economy of health at both the national and global level. No political economy is without its underlying political philosophy or ideology which defines the means-end rationality of both desired outcomes and financial pragmatism. This is particularly the case in services such as education and health, in which the differences between various ideological approaches can often be quite remarkable, and not without impact on actual services. The purpose of this article therefore is to firmly place the concept and practice of political economy into international nursing studies by giving examples of its changing nature, its various manifestations and the challenges they present. (Contains 4 notes.)

Purpose: This study aimed to investigate and improve understanding of the experiences of patients and their carers during the first month at home following discharge from hospital, thereby enhancing appropriate care from a more informed perspective. Method: In-depth interviews and self-report diaries were used to capture data from 12 patient/carer dyads. Four survivors with marked communication problems were included in this number, two requiring the use of pictures and diagrams to express their views. Interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) was used to capture and interpret survivor and carer experiences. Findings: Three superordinate themes were derived from the data. Stroke survivors and their carers described the first month at home as a very dynamic time, recounting a process that involved revisioning (re-examining their identity and the reality of their new situation, including an awareness of their own mortality), reconnecting (with important relationships and previous activities) and revisiting (their past lives, and the stroke event and hospital experience) . These three activities assisted in making and finding sense in their new situation; participants' vision of their lives was revised and revisited as they attempted to reconnect with as much of their past selves and past activities as possible. Conclusions: This study contributes to understandings through in-depth individual accounts of the psychosocial transition of returning home. Details of how people make sense of their altered situation can make a valuable contribution to research, and the knowledge base for care provision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Action Research is normally described as both a cyclical process and a participatory (democratic/egalitarian) undertaking. This article does not seek to contest the idiosyncrasies and pragmatics of the cyclical process involved in action research. Rather, it seeks to enrich it by developing further the idea of action research as a process that engages with problems and learning in the act of creating change. To do this we draw primarily on aspects of the work of the French philosopher, Gilles Deleuze. Deleuze has argued that all learning is essentially a direct apprentice-type engagement with the problematic nature of the material or project under consideration. We argue that an explication of what Deleuze means by this can augment our understanding of the contingencies involved in both the participatory and cyclical dimensions of action research. To give explanatory substance to Deleuze's potential contribution to action research, we use illustrative moments based on a hypothetical scenario of the development of a large piece of waste-ground into a community gardening project. We seek to connect aspects of Deleuzian philosophy to the cyclical process of action research to show the dynamic relationship between action researchers and an action research project. Our argument is that in doing this, an understanding of the variables involved in the cyclical process of action research may be enhanced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract We hear much these days of lifelong learning and higher levels of nursing practice. We have even been introduced to the concept of the supernurse. This paper seeks to contribute an ethico-political dimension to the largely performative uses of these terms in contemporary nursing politics. This is done by exploring the promise of certain elements of Nietzsche's philosophy for nursing. Certain major Nietzschean themes are outlined in the context of modernity followed by their exploration in a nursing context. These themes come principally from Thus Spake Zarathustra, and include not only that of Übermensch (Superman), but also the related ideas of eternal recurrence, nihilism, and the last Man. It is argued that the conditions in which nurses now learn and practice have become increasingly instrumentalized and technorational to the extent that they are in danger of effecting a nihilism in what becomes a culture of perpetual obligation to those who would seek to measure our performance. It is against this background that Nietzsche's idea of the Übermensch is explored as a figure for self-overcoming the professional subjectivity that may be constructed in the face of these conditions. However, it will be seen that this raises certain issues which beg the question of the productive value of Nietzsche's philosophy in this particular context. At this point, in the last part of the paper, by considering the tensive relation between the discourse practices of present-day managerialism and nursing ethics, it is argued that it is these very problems that present the Übermensch as a tensive but potentially productive figure for nursing and nurse education in its broadest sense. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analyzes the work style of students of mental health nursing undertaking the Project 2002 scheme of training. Explanation of professional and bureaucratic cognitive style; Features of bureaucratic work style; Emergence of professional breakdown syndrome in bureaucratic cognitive style.

The article presents the highlights of the Institute for Philosophical Nursing Research (IPNR) Conference held at the Banff Centre in Banff, Alberta, from May 16 to 18, 2010. Hosted by the Nursing Faculty of the University of Alberta in Edmonton, the conference discussed the philosophy of the nursing practice. Several papers on a variety of topics had been presented at the conference, which include the state of nursing knowledge and the virtues of evidence-based practice.

An introduction is presented in which the guest editor discusses papers within the issue focusing on healthcare and the politics of austerity.