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Advances in Contemporary Child & Family Health Care: Building Family Health Capacity
Philip Darbyshire and Debra Jackson (eds)
ISBN: 978-0-975043-63-3 2005 xii+212 pages eContent Management Pty Ltd, Maleny QLD and Palo Alto CA
Jan Pearson
National Education Manager, Royal New Zealand Plunket Society Inc, Wellington, New Zealand
It was a pleasure to review this special issue publication that contains a number of well-grouped and thoughtfully introduced articles in the three sections: Child Health; Family Health Care; and, Child and Family Health in the Community written by Australian and New Zealand nurses and health professional colleagues. Each section is prefaced with a relevant thought-provoking guest editorial and the publication concludes with an epilogue. The articles are a mix of reports of recent research studies and literature reviews that are all topical and closely connected with contemporary nursing practice in Australasia. It is refreshing and grounding to be reading work that is so easy to relate to ones own knowledge and experiences.
The articles are well edited (ie. not too long or too dense to read and learn from in those precious moments of reading time in busy lives) and are enhanced by being clearly set out assisting the reader to gain the maximum understanding from each author's contribution. I also liked the way that each author is photo-presented at the beginning of each article which will be most useful for connections between nurse researchers at meetings and conferences. Because of the user-friendly layout it is easy to benefit from the findings of these research reports and reviews of literature while also gaining an increased understanding of both qualitative and quantitative research methodologies.
The research methodologies used are thoughtful and focussed on being able to learn from the lived experiences of the participants. Many articles also include recommendations for practice that can be effective in increasing the ability of nurses and their health professional colleagues to appropriately meet the health care needs of children and families in their complex contexts.
As I delved into the publication I was struck by the sense that the aims of authors were to truly put the client needs in the forefront and develop methodology that enabled the client voice to be heard effectively. This then made me think critically and question my assumptions about how I, as a health professional, can so easily take a thoughtless position during client care. This was most striking for me in the qualitative research articles when quotes provided an immediate understanding of the participant's world and gave me a sense of 'why have we not asked this before?' that was overwhelming at times.
It is sometimes hard to detach from ones own passion and practice interests when reading such a rich publication. However with every article I read, the name of one or more colleagues I felt I must share that particular article with immediately came to mind. I think the reason that this occurred was that contributions were real stories about nurses exploring their work and the valued lives of clients. Authors were working and writing in collaboration with other nurses and health professional colleagues with the aim of understanding health care practice enriched by academic understanding and insights rather than theoretical academic concept articles with a slim connection to practice. I also took pleasure in the fact that these articles are written about nursing and by nurses in Australia and New Zealand, therefore adding a closeness and meaningful connection to my own experience.
I consider that this publication will be a most valuable resource for students of nursing engaged in both undergraduate and postgraduate study as well as those enquiring nurses in practice who want to enhance their client care through learning from the experience of their peers.
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