Nursing practice in a hospital context : the subjective experiences of four female nurses : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Master of Arts in nursing at Massey University

This thesis focuses on the practice of four female registered nurses in a hospital context. It examines the degree of control these nurses feel they have over what they do and how they practice. The influence of other members of the health team on that practice is explored. Socialist feminist theory has provided the framework and feminist research the methodology for the investigation of female nurses' perceptions of their work and the forces that shape and control the practise of nursing at present. That the structure within which nurses work constrains their practice is demonstrated in this study. It is however the structure of the nursing profession and the relations between nurses which is seen to have the most impact on nursing practice

Sustainable diets in the UK—developing a systematic framework to assess the environmental Impact, cost and nutritional quality of household food purchases

Sustainable diets should not only respect the environment but also be healthy and affordable. However, there has been little work to assess whether real diets can encompass all three aspects. The aim of this study was to develop a framework to quantify actual diet records for health, affordability and environmental sustainability and apply this to UK food purchase survey data. We applied a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) approach to detailed food composition data where purchased food items were disaggregated into their components with traceable environmental impact data. This novel approach is an improvement to earlier studies in which sustainability assessments were based on a limited number of “food groups”, with a potentially high variation of actual food items within each group. Living Costs and Food Survey data for 2012, 2013 and 2014 were mapped into published figures for greenhouse gas emissions (GHGE, taking into account processing, transport and cooking) and land use, a diet quality index (DQI) based on dietary guidelines and food cost, all standardised per household member. Households were classified as having a ‘more sustainable’ diet based on GHGE, cost and land use being less than the median and DQI being higher than the median. Only 16.6% of households could be described as more sustainable; this rose to 22% for those in the lowest income quintile. Increasing the DQI criteria to >80% resulted in only 100 households being selected, representing 0.8% of the sample. The framework enabled identification of more sustainable households, providing evidence of how we can move toward better diets in terms of the environment, health, and costs

Influence of a caffeine mouth-rinse on 3-kilometer cycling performance

Purpose: Caffeine ingestion is widely accepted for its ergogenic properties. Recent evidence suggests that mouth rinsing with caffeine prior to exercise can improve short duration sprint performance. The purpose of this study was to examine whether the benefits of caffeine mouth rinsing can be extended to include sustained high intensity performance and whether a caffeine rinse can provide additive value to the performance benefits of caffeine intake (i.e. caffeine ingestion plus caffeine rinse \u3e caffeine ingestion). Methods: 25 recreational cyclists performed six separate 3-km time trials (2 familiarization and 4 treatment trials), each trial separated by 3-7 days. Subjects were given a combination of caffeine and placebo capsules (6mg/kg body weight taken one hour prior to trial) and mouth-rinses (1.2% weight/volume administered immediately prior). Thus, the treatments were: PLA-PLA, PLA-CAF, CAF-CAF, CAF-PLA (capsule- mouth-rinse). Treatments were provided in a randomized, counterbalanced, double blind, placebo controlled fashion. Magnitude-based qualitative inferences were applied to evaluate treatment differences. Results: Caffeine ingestion led to better cycling performance, as CAF-CAF and CAF-PLA treatments both ‘likely’ improved performance time by 1.4% and 1.7% compared to PLA-PLA, while also improving average power output. The effects of the caffeine mouth-rinse on 3-km time trial performance were unclear compared to placebo conditions. Conclusion: Caffeine ingestion enhanced short, high intensity cycling time trial performance, while the caffeine mouth-rinse had unclear effects. Collectively, these data confirm that caffeine ingestion is useful as an ergogenic aid for high intensity cycling, while a caffeine mouth-rinse does not appear to have similar ergogenic effects

The fiction of Nathaniel Parker Willis

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston University