Health Policy Commons^™

Discursive Constructions Of Professional Identity In Policy And Regulatory Discourse, Gerard Fealy, Josephine Mary Hegarty, Martin Mcnamara, Mary Casey, Denise O'Leary, Catriona Kennedy, Pauline O’Reilly, Rhona O’Connell, Anne-Marie Brady, Emma Nicholson

Articles

Aim

To examine and describe disciplinary discourses conducted through professional policy and regulatory documents in nursing and midwifery in Ireland.

Background

A key tenet of discourse theory is that group identities are constructed in public discourses and these discursively constructed identities become social realities. Professional identities can be extracted from both the explicit and latent content of discourse. Studies of nursing's disciplinary discourse have drawn attention to a dominant discourse that confers nursing with particular identities, which privilege the relational and affective aspects of nursing and, in the process, marginalize scientific knowledge and the technical and body work of nursing. …

The Universal, Collaborative And Dynamic Model Of Specialist And Advanced Nursing And Midwifery Practice: A Way Forward?, Laserina O’Connor, Mary Casey, Rita Smith, Gerard M. Fealy, Denise O'Brien, Denise O'Leary, Diarmuid Stokes, Martin S. Mcnamara, Mary Ellen Glasgow, Andrew Cashin

Articles

Aims and objectives

To inform and guide the development of a future model of specialist and advanced nursing and midwifery practice.

Background

There is a sizable body of empirical literature supporting the unique contributions of specialist and advanced practice roles to health care. However, there is very little international evidence to inform the integration of a future model for advanced or specialist practice in the Irish healthcare system.

Design

A qualitative study was conducted to initiate this important area of inquiry.

Methods

Purposive sampling was used to generate a sample of informants (n = 15) for the interviews. Nurses and …

Book Review: Laugesen & Gauld. Democratic Governance & Health: Hospitals, Politics And Health In New Zealand, Vivienne Byers

Articles

No abstract provided.

The Challenges Of Leading Change In Health-Care Delivery From The Frontline, Vivienne Byers

Articles

Aim: The public sector is facing turbulent times and this challenges nurses, who are expected to serve both patient interests and the efficiency drives of their organisations. In the context of implementing person-centred health policy, this paper explores the evolving role of front-line nurses as leaders and champions of change.

Background: Nurses can be seen to have some autonomy in health-care delivery. However, they are subject to systems of social control. In implementing person- centred policy, nurses can be seen to be doing the best they can within a constrained environment.

Method: A survey of nursing practice in person-centred health-policy …

Making Sense Of Irish Health Care Management: The Street Level Public Organisation (Slpo)., Vivienne Byers

Conference papers

Public service reform in modern economies has placed an emphasis on effective planning and management of service delivery to the citizen-client. This paper draws on the concept of the Street Level Public Organization (SLPO) to examine the problem of government’s top down implementation of planning reform in the delivery of public services. It does so, by exploring the implementation of strategic planning in the health sector and drawing upon field work from such implementation in the health services in Ireland and Canada. The SLPO model (McKevitt 1998) is used as an explanatory tool to add to the public sector reform …

Making Sense Of Health Care Planning In Ireland; The Street Level Public Organization (Slpo)., Vivienne Byers

Conference Papers

One of the central mechanisms of the Strategic Management Initiative (SMI) (Government of Ireland 1996) is the devolution of accountability and responsibility from the centre to executive agencies. Service planning was introduced in the Irish health care sector as part of this strategic planning ethos. This paper reports on a study that examined both the intent and the consequences of implementing legislatively mandated planning in the Irish health services, in the context of significant organizational change. In an effort to draw broader lessons, a comparison is drawn with the Canadian experience of service planning.

The choice was made to study …

Irish Healthcare; The Evidence On Communicating Policy., Vivienne Byers

Conference Papers

The complexity of the health care environment necessitates that health policy, legislative objectives, resource allocation models, and management structures be aligned to plan and deliver healthcare services strategically. Policy in the Irish health care system is guided by the National Health Strategy of 2001; in that there should be equitable distribution of health services focused on the need of the citizen-client. Though the Strategy uses the words ‘evidence based’, ‘population health’, ‘equity’, ‘people-centred’ and ‘health and social gain’, there is little evidence that these concepts have gained purchase in the present implementation of policy and planning in Irish health care …

Renewing Health Services Management Research: Redrawing The Citizen-Client In Irish Health Care Policy, Vivienne Byers

Conference Papers

Ireland has a history of health policy which is not explicit as to its aims and objectives. In light of this fact, this paper examines the position and direction of the Irish Health Services, five years on from the advent of the setting up of the Health Services Executive (HSE) and the restructuring of the health services. The Irish health system policy is guided by the Health Strategy of 2001; in that there should be equitable distribution of health services focused on the need of the citizen-client, and also by the Primary Care Strategy (2001:7); in that there should be …

Revitalisation, Rigour And Relevance: The Citizen-Client And Planning In The Health Services., Vivienne Byers

Conference Papers

Whereas, in many OECD countries strategic planning in health care has been in evidence since the 1970s, in Ireland the emergence of strategic management processes in health care planning didn’t occur until the 1990s.

This paper reports on part of a comparative study of health services planning in Ireland and in Canada. How can the strategic management of the Irish health services in the form of service planning be implemented? The focus of this paper is the identification of two key stumbling blocks to success in this endeavour. These include the limitations of the control mechanism, the legislation, underpinning service …