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This paper examines the problem of developing research in nursing and the challenge of establishing its relevance and usefulness to the practising nurse. It is accepted that considerable progress has been made worldwide in recent years in the development of nursing research but nurses remain generally remote from the intellectual challenge of an evolving research-based profession. The publication of research reports is examined in the light of the acknowledged need for dissemination of research findings and differences in their presentation are noted as evidence of an apparent discouragement of the practising nurse from sharing in the accumulated nursing knowledge through research. It is argued that learning about research should be brought into the centre of basic nursing education and the growth in clinical research should be encouraged as a means of demonstrating the usefulness of research to the practising nurse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study is designed to identify factors which influence quality of life for elderly people suffering from painful conditions. It is based upon a theoretical model of control in which mood state is used as the indicator of coping. One hundred and ninety elderly patients took part in semi-structured interviews about their pain and coping experiences, and data were also collected from their nurses in the community. Multivariate statistical analysis revealed that the key determinants of mood were having regrets about the past, being occupied, perceived level of pain control, additional personal problems (notably bereavement) and feeling informed about the painful condition. Active personal coping strategies were identified as more therapeutic than passive strategies. Nurses' data revealed that pain complaints were associated with perceived exaggeration. Few nurses used formal pain assessment. Recommendations for the management of persistent pain in the community are given. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between nursing and higher education is reviewed in the light of the Project 2000 requirement that new colleges of nursing and midwifery in the United Kingdom should be linked with further and higher education. It is suggested that nursing has had a long history of being linked with higher education and that the time has come for a more decisive view to be taken of the need for the profession to move its education fully into the mainstream of higher education. Consideration of various changes in the National Health Service (NHS) in recent years indicates that educating nurses away from their professional colleagues has been detrimental to their progress in the current administrative and management organization of the NHS. Given that cyclical change occurs in nursing about every decade, it is argued that the profession should concentrate on required changes at the turn of the century. A personal prescription for change is offered as a possible way forward. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is based upon a research project designed to investigate the nursing management of pain in the community. A theoretical framework is described which has been designed to encompass the complexities of different types of pain, individual differences in reaction to pain, and to identify key differences between patients who cope with pain and those who do not. The framework is based on a model of stress, the concept of controllability, and contemporary learning theory. It identifies a unique role for the nurse in pain management and will be used to direct a study into strategies which nurses can use to enhance the coping abilities and resources of elderly patients in the community with pain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the relationship between the life sciences of anatomy, physiology, microbiology and pharmacology and the teaching/learning problems of their application in nursing. A theoretical model is proposed derived from a conceptual consideration of nursing tasks and of nursing actions developed to account for a direct link between these sciences and nursing. It is argued that a 'bio-nursing' approach to the use of the life sciences in nursing is comparable to that of a 'bio-medical' approach in medical education and practice. The paper suggests that an appropriate examination of the contributions of the life sciences to nursing education will provide a more concentrated and illuminating exercise with regard to making teaching/learning implications for nurse education and the development of a distinctive knowledge base derived from these sciences are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the knowledge of nurses regarding HIV and AIDS and their attitudes towards infected individuals. Percentage of nurses who think HIV and AIDS are same; Need for adequate training for nurses.