Amorphous practice: nursing in a remote Indigenous community of Australia

Nurses are key providers of health care in remote Indigenous communities throughout Australia. Evidence of nurses' actual practice and the outcomes of their care for clients in this context, however, is lacking. This exploratory research describes how nursing is practised in a remote Aboriginal community and reveals many anomalies. The overall theme, termed amorphous practice, defines the changeable character of practice from nurse to nurse and from situation to situation. The themes underlying amorphous practice are termed detachment, diffusion, and beyond the nursing domain. Each theme is described by way of its characteristics, the strategies nurses use to deal with the situation, and the consequences. The significance of these findings raise concerns for the accountability of nursing and most of all for the rights of Indigenous people in remote areas to basic standards of safe health care.