Despite sustained debate and progress the evolving thing that is evidence based nursing or practice (EBP) continues to dangle a variety of conceptual and practical loose threads. Moreover, when we think about what is being asked of students and registered or licenced practitioners in terms of EBP, it is difficult not to concede that this ask is in many instances quite large and, occasionally, it may be unachievable. EBP has and continues to improve patient, client and user care. Yet significant questions concerning its most basic elements remain unresolved and, if nurses are to contribute...

A Hospice in Change: Applied Social Realist Theory will interest a broad spectrum of applied social theorists indeed, anyone with an interest in connecting social science philosophy with concrete research practice for, whilst not all applied social theorists are social or critical realists, critical realism is becoming more widely known and its particular approach to social explanation promises to be especially fruitful and the issues covered by this book have resonance beyond any one perspective.

For readers interested in hospice and palliative care (including readers with a...

Despite sustained debate and progress the evolving thing that is evidence based nursing or practice (EBP) continues to dangle a variety of conceptual and practical loose threads. Moreover, when we think about what is being asked of students and registered or licenced practitioners in terms of EBP, it is difficult not to concede that this 'ask' is in many instances quite large and, occasionally, it may be unachievable. EBP has and continues to improve patient, client and user care. Yet significant questions concerning its most basic elements remain unresolved and, if nurses are to...

Despite noteworthy exceptions, nursing s literature largely disregards the ways in which social and sociological theory permeates, guides and shapes research, education, and practice. Likewise, social theory s ability to position nursing within wider structures of healthcare and educational provision is similarly and puzzlingly downplayed. The questions nurses ask and the problems they face cannot however, adequately be addressed without engaging with social and sociological theory and, to progress this engagement, contributors to this book explore how social theories are used by and might...

A Hospice in Change: Applied Social Realist Theory reports upon a study into aspects of the ways in which structural and organisational developments, professional cultures and bedside or patient focused clinical practice interact within a single UK institution. While the findings of this study are time and context specific, the events and social processes being described may nonetheless resonate closely with the experience of healthcare practitioners at other hospices both within and without the UK. The work examines themes and ideas that hospice and palliative care practitioners,...