Strategies for building a resilient nursing workforce for future health crises

Nurse prescribing can benefit patients, prescribing clinicians and healthcare systems

Nurses can help ensure woman are still able to access essential care during the pandemic

Background Storytelling is a contemporary research method increasingly used in qualitative interpretive research. Despite its popularity, there is a paucity of information providing detailed processes for conducting storytelling research that also incorporates a feminist perspective.

Aim To provide a four-stage framework for conducting feminist storytelling research.

Discussion Systematic approaches or frameworks can help researchers conducting feminist storytelling studies. The authors discuss a framework for the sequential process of conducting storytelling research that embraces the tenets of feminist standpoint theory. This four-staged framework consists of the steps taken to prepare for the collection and analysis of data, as well as to disseminate the research’s findings, from etic (procedural) and emic (feminist) perspectives. The authors demonstrate the use of the framework by applying it to a study of mothering.

Conclusion Use of a purposeful approach to feminist storytelling research may increase its auditability and verification.

Implications for practice The authors anticipate that the framework can be adapted into an effective tool to support researchers interested in conducting feminist storytelling research.

An introduction to five Nurse Researcher articles on the use of theoretical frameworks

Background Measurement tools are a common method to collect data in observational and survey research. Nurse researchers have developed numerous scales and instruments, many derived from published literature. However, few studies report systematic or replicable approaches to analysing the literature from which measures were derived. This is a significant challenge to construct validity.

Aim To provide a method exemplar of meta-summary and categorical factor analysis to refine scale items and establish construct definition.

Discussion A rigorous method for deriving items from the literature is largely absent from nursing literature. This exemplar addresses the often-cited limitation of scales that authors rarely assure content validity before experts assess their newly derived scales.

Conclusion Without sufficient methodological rigour, practitioners and researchers must speculate about the content validity of newly derived instruments. Meta-summary provides a useful approach to developing scales from the literature.

Implications for practice The method detailed here is of use when deriving measurement instruments from the literature. It provides a systematic and replicable strategy that assures construct validity.

With the global spotlight on primary healthcare, Leah East wants nurses in primary care to step out of the shadows 

Background In Australia, a significant percentage of bachelor of nursing students are employed in the aged care sector, or in aged care settings, as assistants in nursing (AINs) or personal care assistants. However the value of aged care in nursing education is often overlooked.

Aim To outline the adaptation and validation of a survey, originally developed for medical graduates, for use with nursing graduates.

Discussion Adaptation of the instrument was undertaken as part of a doctoral study that aimed to explore whether employment as an undergraduate assistant in nursing (AIN) in aged care prepares new graduates for clinical work.

Conclusion Outlining each step of the modification process can help nurse researchers who want to adapt existing instruments to meet their research objectives.

Implications for practice Undergraduate AIN employment has the potential to supplement clinical learning without the restrictions inherent in the student role. Furthermore, it has the potential to enhance recruitment and retention in the aged care sector.

Stories convey values and emotions, and can reveal the differences and similarities between people’s experiences. Elucidating personal stories involves sharing which can help form bonds and supportive networks. With reflection, these can help to develop resilience. While the literature recognises the potential cathartic and therapeutic benefits associated with storytelling in research, links between the development of personal resilience and storytelling for research purposes have not been drawn. This paper argues that storytelling aids the development of personal resilience and provides opportunities to celebrate the hardiness of research participants who contribute to knowledge by recounting their stories of difficulty and adversity.