Practitioner-Based Research is concerned, in particular, with the research which is undertaken by healthcare practitioners and the evidence which they generate as a result of investigating their practice. In so doing it recognizes that, as well as working in academic life, practitioner researchers are often working as practitioners outside the Academy. It argues that the work of practitioner researchers has a significant contribution to make to healthcare research and so needs to be disseminated further in order to create balanced research communities within the healthcare professions. This book will help academic researchers to broaden the limited ontological and epistemological perspectives of their research. It will also encourage healthcare practitioners who have not been trained academically to develop their research skills and to realize that they are actually researching in their practice on a day-to-day basis. Finally, it will provide a degree of transparency about therapeutic processes to help clients and patients to see aspects of professional practice and development which are usually hidden from them.

This innovative book strips the concept of evidence-based practice back to basics using deconstructive analysis, so that readers can move towards a clearer understanding of it. The practitioner is guided through a number of case studies in which the authors examine how the concept of evidence-based practice has been used in a variety of clinical settings. Divided into three parts, the book provides a deconstruction of key texts related to evidence based practice, weaving together contemporary themes in healthcare research.
Deconstructing Evidence Based Practice is essential reading for nurses and other health practitioners who need to understand more about evidence-based practice and who want to learn methods of critical thinking that will be invaluable in judiciously informing their practice.

This book is concerned, in particular, with the research which is undertaken by healthcare practitioners and the evidence which they generate as a result of investigating their practice. In so doing it recognizes that, as well as working in academic life, practitioner researchers are often working as practitioners outside the Academy. It argues that the work of practitioner researchers has a signifi cant contribution to make to healthcare research and so needs to be disseminated further in order to create balanced research communities within the healthcare professions.It takes the view that the work of practitioner researchers has a contribution to make to the work of all people involved in healthcare helping academic researchers to broaden the limited ontological and epistemological perspectives of their research. It can also encourage healthcare practitioners who have not been trained academically to develop their research skills and to realize that they are actually researching into their practice on a day-to-day basis. Finally, it can provide a degree of transparency about therapeutic processes to help clients and patients to see aspects of professional practice and development which are usually hidden from them.The contributors cover a range of themes which address the above issues, such as the limitations of academic life and conventional medical models, ethics, the importance of imaginative writing and the use of story, metaphor, myth and the importance of personal transformation in the professional development of healthcare workers and the relevance of belief and spirituality to healthcare research.

This innovative book strips the concept of evidence-based practice back to basics using deconstructive analysis, so that readers can move towards a clearer understanding of it. The practitioner is guided through a number of case studies in which the authors examine how the concept of evidence-based practice has been used in a variety of clinical settings. Divided into three parts, the book provides a deconstruction of key texts related to evidence based practice, weaving together contemporary themes in healthcare research.
Deconstructing Evidence Based Practice is essential reading for nurses and other health practitioners who need to understand more about evidence-based practice and who want to learn methods of critical thinking that will be invaluable in judiciously informing their practice.

""This book is compact and easy to read, and could make a significant contribution to practitioners' ability to communicate effectively and make their practice patient centred."
Journal fo Clinical Nursing"

""This is a delightful book which is well written, easy to read and suitable for students, qualified nurses and those who are specialist nurses."
Journal of Community Nursing"

Counselling is a diverse activity and there are an increasing number of people who find themselves using counselling skills, not least those in the caring professions. There is a great deal of scope in using counselling skills to promote health in the everyday encounters that nurses have with their patients. The emphasis on care in the community and empowerment of patients through consumer involvement means that nurses are engaged in providing support and help to people to change behaviours.

Community nurses often find themselves in situations which require in-depth listening and responding skills: for example, in helping people come to terms with chronic illness, disability and bereavement. Midwives are usually the first port of call for those parents who have experienced miscarriages, bereavements, or are coping with decisions involving the potential for genetic abnormalities. Similarly, health visitors are in a valuable position to provide counselling regarding the immunization and health of the young infant. These practitioners are having to cope not only with new and diverse illnesses, for example HIV and AIDS, but also with such policy initiatives as the National Service Framework for Mental Health and their implications .

This book examines contemporary developments in nursing and health care in relation to the fundamental philosophy of counselling, the practicalities of counselling and relevant theoretical underpinnings. Whilst the text is predominantly aimed at nurses, midwives and health visitors, it will also be of interest to those professionals allied to medicine, for example physiotherapists, occupational therapists and dieticians.

Gaining self-awareness is a vital aspect of professional development for all who work in the caring professions. In nursing especially, the ability to evaluate oneself affects all areas of practice, including direct patient care, working relationships with colleagues and maintaining one's own well-being in the often pressured environment of health care.

This is an innovative text which explores the ways in which self-awareness can be used as a practical tool for continuing professional development and practice improvement. Divided into three parts, the book examines the role of the nurse as therapeutic practitioner, reflective learner and reflexive researcher.

For all those wishing to develop their skills as autonomous, reflective, accountable practitioners, this book will be an inspiring read. It will be of immense use to those who teach and supervise nurses at all levels.

""Robertson and Freshwater explicitly use the development of a therapeutic relationship and, parallel with it, the development of an individual psyche, as a vehicle for their exploration of emotions and needs. The subtlety is that their exploration, like psychotherapy itself, begins with the complexity and ends with the simplicity." Self & Society"

Through the centrality of the concepts of needs and emotions, this volume describes and discusses issues that are fundamental to psychotherapy. As an alternative to classifying modalities of psychotherapy (and the way in which they understand needs and emotions) by their author, era or underpinning philosophy, this book focuses instead on the emotional patterning of psychotherapy.

The book explores need and emotion in relation to what patients bring to therapy and what subsequently facilitates effective engagement. Examining ways of understanding the manifestation of needs and emotions, the authors bring differing therapeutic schools of thought together in contemporary models of integrative psychotherapy which draw upon the transpersonal, postmodern and poststructural. The book is illustrated throughout with clinical vignettes which help the reader ground the theoretical concepts in everyday practice.

The discussions in this volume not only add to the current body of knowledge surrounding the fundamental concepts of emotions and needs, but also make a long overdue contribution to the psychotherapeutic professions. "Emotions and Needs" will be of interest to students and practitioners in fields such as: counselling, psychotherapy, clinical psychology and social work.