Annie Altschul Collection

This thesis focusses on nursing within clinical practice and higher education. The work emerges from mental health nursing with one of the most marginalised groups in society, homeless people with mental health problems. The works develop from liminal spaces in clinical practice to the liminal space occupied by nursing in higher education.
Themes: Liminality; professional identity; nursing in higher education; gender and nursing

Survey of undergraduate student nurses and midwives to identify prevalence rates of stress, the sources of stress, coping mechanism and what predicted stress in these populations. 1,107 students took part. Nursing and midwifery students were found to be similar to students of other disciplines with respect to their experiences of stress.
Themes: Occupational stress; nurse education; midwifery education; student nurses; student midwives

The rationale for this study sprang from a desire to improve the transition experience from nurse to nurse educator. The knowledge gained would then underpin a developmental pathway for practising nurses to prepare for a new career in education. It turned out to be a journey of personal discovery!
Themes: Identity; transition; nurse education; role of doctorates in nurse education

The thesis makes a novel contribution to team formulation theory, by uniting team and case formulation research. It provides a model to guide future team formulation research. The utility of the model is demonstrated by the two studies conducted for the thesis. Both studies advance understanding of team conditions and their relevance to the knowledge sharing required in team formulation. Furthermore, the thesis provides opportunities for teams to develop or enhance team formulation practice by suggesting the theory based core components and flow of team formulation practice.
Themes: Team formulation; psychological case formulation; mental health and learning disability teams.

People with mental ill health face higher mortality rates and reduced life expectancy of up to twenty years. Mental health nurses have a role in supporting the physical health of people with mental illness. This mixed methods study explores mental health nurses attitudes towards managing physical health.
Themes: Physical health and mental illness; physical health care by mental health nurses; mental health nurses attitudes towards physical health management

This thesis used constructivist grounded theory to analyse a mix of survey, literature and interview data with qualified prescribers to show that mental health nurses were not as competent in managing medicines as they assumed they were prior to becoming prescribers.
Themes: Mental health nursing; prescribing; concordance; adherence; grounded theory

This study explores talk about mental health nursing, in a policy and practice climate that promotes service user involvement in nursing processes. The intention of this study was to gain multiple perspectives about mental health nursing and service user involvement through in-depth research interviews and focus groups with mental health nurses, nursing students and mental health service users. Analysis centred on the meaning making of participants’ talk and how mental health nursing identities are accounted for and constructed.
Themes: Mental health nursing; Service user involvement

Variation in nursing students understanding of recovery and the troublesome nature of their learning journeys is explored. Recognising student understanding and obstacles to learning provides important insights for teaching. Findings identify recovery as posing particular challenges for students requiring educators to consider a range of strategies to support transformational learning.
Themes: Student nurse education; recovery; phenomenography; threshold concept framework

The aim of the thesis was to gain greater insight into how military healthcare professionals experience the transition into a civilian work role informed by the author’s and other people’s experience of transitioning.
Themes: Veterans; heuristic inquiry; career transition