The relationship between managerial coaching and role ambiguity among nurses in the military health system.

Managerial coaching may be an effective strategy to reduce role ambiguity among nurses. Although the benefits of coaching relationships have been demonstrated outside of nursing, there is a lack of evidence about this career development relationship in nursing. A cross-sectional design was used to determine the relationship between managerial coaching and role ambiguity among military and civilian nurses who work in the Military Health System (MHS). Nurses who worked at a large academic medical center in San Antonio, Texas were asked to participate by completing a survey to examine the variables of interest. Among the 382 nurses that responded, perceived role ambiguity was low and managerial coaching was seldom perceived from first-line supervisors. However, there was a significant negative relationship between managerial coaching and role ambiguity. This study provides foundational knowledge about the relationship between managerial coaching and role ambiguity for nurses working in the MHS.

Lived experience of critical care nurses serving in a war zone: A phenomenological study.

BACKGROUND: War has always been a part of human life, and nurses are among the first people to attend to the battlefield alongside the soldiers. Nurses' experiences of being in war zones have long been of interest to researchers. In the conflicts in Syria, Iranian nurses have played a crucial role in saving the lives of many people. AIM: This qualitative study aims to explore the lived experience of Iranian critical care nurses deployed to battlefields in Syria between 2014 and 2020. STUDY DESIGN: This qualitative study adopted a hermeneutic phenomenology approach using Van Manen's methodology. The data was obtained through semi-structured in-depth interviews with 15 nurses who experienced war zones. Purposive sampling was used and interviews with the participants were conducted at the agreed place. Interviews were recorded, wrote verbatim and analysed with MAXQDA10 software. COREQ, a 32-item checklist, guided method selection, data analysis and the findings' presentation. RESULTS: The four main themes that emerged include 'blossoming of talents on the battlefield', 'capable nurses at war', 'nursing jihad' and 'mental preoccupations'. These themes include 12 subthemes and 32 primary subthemes that explain the meaning of Iranian nurses being in war zones in Syria. CONCLUSIONS: Nurses in the war zones of Syria gained valuable experiences of the blossoming of talents in themselves and others. The lived experiences of the nurses revealed that working in the war zones of Syria is a concept of nurses' capabilities. They considered being in the war zones of Syria as a form of nursing jihad. In spite of the many positive aspects of their experience, the nurses expressed their mental preoccupations during their deployment. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: Nursing care in a war zone for the critically wounded is a unique experience. The experience and ongoing impact of those experiences offer invaluable information for nursing and health policy stakeholders who are planning future deployments.

The Influence of Time and Place on the Experiences of US Military Nurses in Vietnam.

BACKGROUND: Although the conflict in Vietnam (usually referred to as the Vietnam War) ended almost 50 years ago, few research-based publications of nurses' experiences in Vietnam exist. PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to expand what is known about the experiences of US military nurses who served in Vietnam. METHODS: This secondary analysis used qualitative description to examine interview data from 15 nurses who served in-country (within Vietnam) and in-theater supporting Vietnam (e.g., Guam, the Philippines) between 1965 and 1972. FINDINGS: We found that nurses' experiences varied based on time deployed and place deployed (land, sea, or air; in-country or in-theater). The influence of time and place on US military nurses' experiences in Vietnam are illustrated through findings pertaining to danger, daily life, and work. The most prominent differences were between nurses assigned in-country and those assigned in-theater. DISCUSSION: The findings illustrate ways research of more recent and future conflicts might be strengthened.

The Nurses No-One Remembers: Looking for Spanish Nurses in Accounts of the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939).

Accounts of Spanish nursing and nurses during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) that appear in the memoirs and correspondence of International Brigade volunteers, and are subsequently repeated in the secondary literature on the war, give little indication of existence of trained nurses in country. We set out to examine this apparent erasure of the long tradition of skilled nursing in Spain and the invisibility of thousands of Spanish nurses engaged in the war effort. We ask two questions: How can we understand the narrative thrust of the international volunteer accounts and subsequent historiography? And what was the state of nursing in Spain on the Republican side during the war as presented by Spanish participants and historians? We put the case that the narrative erasure of Spanish professional nursing prior to the Civil War was the result of the politicization of nursing under the Second Republic, its repression and reengineering under the Franco dictatorship, and the subsequent national policy of "oblivion" or forgetting that dominated the country during the transition to democracy. This policy silenced the stories of veteran nurses and prevented an examination of the impact of the Civil War on the Spanish nursing profession.

Experiences of civilian nurses in triage during the Iran-Iraq War: An oral history.

PURPOSE: Nurses played a critical role in performing triage during the Iran-Iraq War. However, their experiences in triage have not been discussed. Therefore, the current study aimed to investigate the triage experiences of civilian nurses during the Iran-Iraq War. METHODS: Oral history method and in-depth interviews were used to collect data to gain the nurses' experiences in triage. RESULTS: Four themes were extracted from the data, which were the development of triage, challenging environment to perform triage, development of mobile triage teams, and challenges of triage chemical victims for nurses. CONCLUSION: Triage is an important skill for nurses to manage critical situations such as disasters and wars. Nurses have to be competent in performing triage. Involvement in critical situations helps the nurses learn and gain more experience on how to manage unexpected events.

Ethical Issues Encountered by Military Nurses During Wartime.

Military nurses encounter similar issues as civilian nurses in daily practice situations; however, wartime and humanitarian missions may bring unique and difficult ethical dilemmas. While nursing has the American Nurses Association code of ethics to provide a framework to guide ethical practice decisions, conflicts may arise from the unique aspects of nursing within a wartime environment. Understanding those conflicts occuring within the military wartime scenario can provide nurses with experiential examples from which to derive strategies for personal coping and professional behavior and decision making. This chapter describes the research that has focused upon the identification of these issues, the effects from uresolved issues, and those directions for future research to better prepare miltiary nurses before and during deployment.

Military nurses' experiences returning from war.

AIM: This paper is a report of a study conducted to describe the military nurses' post-deployment experiences and their meaning. BACKGROUND: Today, similar to past conflicts, military nurses are faced with many different stressors, moral dilemmas and loss in a compressed amount of time while deployed. These exposures place both military nurses and their families at risk for difficulty adjusting when deployment ends. This study addresses military nurses' experiences returning to personal and professional roles post-deployment. DESIGN: Qualitative, narrative inquiry. METHOD: Thematic analysis of data collected in 2012 from in-depth semi-structured interviews with ten military nurses. FINDINGS: Description of the experience had five themes: 'learning to manage changes in the environment'; 'facing the reality of multiple losses'; 'feeling like it's all so trivial now'; 'figuring out where I 'fit' in all the chaos'; and 'working through the guilt to move forward'. Description of the meaning of the experience had two themes: 'serving a greater purpose' and 'looking at life through a new lens'. CONCLUSION: It is critical for military nurses and leaders, healthcare providers, nursing administration/educators, as well as nurses who work alongside military nurses, both in the USA and in other countries, to have a better understanding of the meaning of the deployment experience so they may provide support to these nurses during the post-deployment phase. Lessons learned may benefit future military nurses and may also be transferable to nurses who support humanitarian and disaster missions.

Mary Seacole: global nurse extraordinaire.

AIMS: A discussion of recently discovered literature that reveals how after the Crimean War ended in 1856, Jamaican nurse, doctress and entrepreneur Mary Seacole travelled more widely and gained further international recognition than had previously been appreciated. BACKGROUND: New findings demonstrate that Seacole's international charitable and business activities were reported more widely than realised. Recently discovered literature uncovers her networking and strategic skills in various social milieus. A former Scutari nurse and 39 other women, offered their service to Seacole to nurse British soldiers in India. Newspapers also reported the medal she had been awarded from the Turkish government. DESIGN: Discussion paper. DATA SOURCES: Digitized 19th-century newspaper reports, and 1857 Dutch and 1858 French translations of Seacole's autobiography and a recently discovered handwritten letter dated 1 October 1857 from Seacole to Sir Henry Storks, at the time Secretary for Military Correspondence at the War Office, London. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING: Awareness of the findings affords a more thorough understanding of the scope and diversity of nursing history. This can provide valuable role models for the 21st century generations of competent and self-confident healthcare professionals. The new evidence offers further testimony that Seacole can truly be considered as one such figurehead. CONCLUSIONS: British and international primary sources reveal Mary Seacole as an historical and charismatic global phenomenon, more than had been previously realised.

After the parade: military nurses' reintegration experiences from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

The purpose of the current study was to describe reintegration experiences of U.S. military nurses returning from deployments in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. A qualitative study using a phenomenological method was conducted. The population comprised nurses who served in the U.S. Army, Navy, or Air Force in Iraq or Afghanistan during 2003-2013, including Active Duty, National Guard, and Reserve nurses. Purposive sampling with Veteran and professional nursing organizations yielded a sample of 35 nurses. Nine themes emerged from analysis: (a) homecoming; (b) renegotiating roles; (c) painful memories of trauma; (d) getting help; (e) needing a clinical change of scenery; (f) petty complaints and trivial whining; (g) military unit or civilian job: support versus lack of support; (h) family and social networks: support versus lack of support; and (i) reintegration: a new normal.

'We did the best we could'--the United States Army nurses of Ie Shima.

During World War II, Army Nurses of the 156th Army Evacuation Hospital delivered care while under attack, demonstrated incredible bravery, endured extreme hardships, and unknowingly defined advanced nursing practice as we know it today. First Lieutenant Edythe (Goldstein) Pallin, BS, RN, was a 23-year old registered nurse who served in the Pacific and was stationed near the front lines on the remote island of Ie Shima in the Ryukyu Island Chain near Okinawa. This article, as told to Edythe's daughter, draws heavily on her memories and her military photo album stored in the attic of her home for over 50 years. Edythe only acknowledges her military experience by saying, "We did the best we could." Yes, these nurses not only did the best they could, they also changed nursing from a subservient position to an independent practice long before nurses even understood their professional possibilities. Edythe passed away October 26, 2012.

Ira P. Gunn: educator, advocate, legend.

This column examines the contributions of nurse anesthetist Ira P. Gunn, CRNA, MLN, FAAN (1927-2011), widely recognized as a visionary and tireless advocate for the profession of nurse anesthesia. Her contributions to nurse anesthesia practice, research, education, publication, consultation, credentialing, and government relations have significantly contributed to the preservation and advancement of nursing and nurse anesthesia.

Facilitators and challenges to military undergraduate nursing student success.

BACKGROUND: Understanding the broader community of educators and programs involved in the education of military nursing students (MNSs) is needed to develop best practices that support their academic success. PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to 1) identify factors nursing faculty perceived would facilitate and/or challenge the success of MNSs when transitioning to and progressing through baccalaureate nursing programs, and 2) ascertain successful strategies used in teaching and working with these students. METHODS: A descriptive survey research design was used to collect data from faculty at 26 schools of nursing that received federal funding to support the transition of veterans to a career in nursing. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected, analyzed, and integrated via descriptive statistics and content analysis. RESULTS: The survey was completed by 88 faculty from 19 of the 26 schools. The top four categories for both the facilitators and challenges, based on Jeffreys' (2015) NURS Model, were student affective characteristics, student profile characteristics, professional integration factors, and environmental factors. Programmatic factors were the most commonly cited success strategies, including having culturally competent, knowledgeable, and designated faculty and staff for MNSs. CONCLUSION: Developing evidence-based strategies to use in teaching and advising MNSs ideally will ensure their academic success.