sociology and nursing
GERMOV-PAGES/FINAL
1/12/08
3:06 PM
Page 314
CHAPTER 16
N u rsing and Sociology
An Uneasy Relationship
Deidre Wick s
Overview
■
■
■
Why is nursing often depicted in a negative light?
What is the ‘New Nursing’?
What are some of the new developments in nursing in Australia and overseas?
This chapter examines some of the more recent sociological writings on nursing and discusses them in relation to the practical insights they have to offer for nursing. Recent nursing reforms in Australia and the United Kingdom are analysed to see how these might be interpreted through a sociological lens. Implicit in this analysis will be a focus on the tension between the structure of the health system (particularly the influence of medicine) and the agency of nurses in these different accounts of nurses and nursing work.
Key terms agency biological determinism biomedical model class discourse doctor/nurse game empirical essentialism ethnography feminism/feminist
314
gender horizontal violence materialist analysis medical dominance meta-narratives nurse practitioner patriarchy phenomenology post-structuralism primary health care
(c) Oxford University Press
Second Opinion 3rd edition, 2005
For individual use only
professional project racism sexual division of labour
(SDL)
social institutions social structure structure–agency debate theory GERMOV-PAGES/FINAL
1/12/08
3:06 PM
Page 315
Nursing and Sociology: An Uneasy Relationship
315
Introduction
In the period following World War II, nursing training in Australia was broadened to include both the technological and clinical advances that had occurred as a result of nursing experiences in war. Further expansion of nursing curricula occurred during the 1960s and 1970s to include input from the social sciences, namely psychology and sociology. This was based on a view of nursing that held that nurses needed an understanding of the social
1/12/08
3:06 PM
Page 314
CHAPTER 16
N u rsing and Sociology
An Uneasy Relationship
Deidre Wick s
Overview
■
■
■
Why is nursing often depicted in a negative light?
What is the ‘New Nursing’?
What are some of the new developments in nursing in Australia and overseas?
This chapter examines some of the more recent sociological writings on nursing and discusses them in relation to the practical insights they have to offer for nursing. Recent nursing reforms in Australia and the United Kingdom are analysed to see how these might be interpreted through a sociological lens. Implicit in this analysis will be a focus on the tension between the structure of the health system (particularly the influence of medicine) and the agency of nurses in these different accounts of nurses and nursing work.
Key terms agency biological determinism biomedical model class discourse doctor/nurse game empirical essentialism ethnography feminism/feminist
314
gender horizontal violence materialist analysis medical dominance meta-narratives nurse practitioner patriarchy phenomenology post-structuralism primary health care
(c) Oxford University Press
Second Opinion 3rd edition, 2005
For individual use only
professional project racism sexual division of labour
(SDL)
social institutions social structure structure–agency debate theory GERMOV-PAGES/FINAL
1/12/08
3:06 PM
Page 315
Nursing and Sociology: An Uneasy Relationship
315
Introduction
In the period following World War II, nursing training in Australia was broadened to include both the technological and clinical advances that had occurred as a result of nursing experiences in war. Further expansion of nursing curricula occurred during the 1960s and 1970s to include input from the social sciences, namely psychology and sociology. This was based on a view of nursing that held that nurses needed an understanding of the social