Nurse's Aide Theory

Theories Paper I work at St. Charles Senior Living Center in the infirmary as a nurse’s aide. This paper will examine how the role of a nurse’s aide can be analyzed based on the theories of functionalism, the conflict theory, and symbolic interactionism.
Overall functionalism can be analyzed for the job of a nurse’s aide. Functionalism is a theory that I compare to a team who has to keep a ball bouncing, the ball symbolizing the job of keeping the residents happy and healthy. Each role player has to take their turn in bouncing the “ball” so that it can keep bouncing. The roles needed to make St. Charles Senior Living Center function would be the head nurse, the nurses on duty, the nurse’s aides, the cleaning crew, the kitchen crew, and
The dramaturgical theory is the effect of how a scene a person is put in makes them act a certain way, use certain props, or speak with certain terminology. Props needed to perform as a nurse’s aide are things such as scrubs, exam gloves, pens, stethoscopes, tongue depressors, and having your hair up and back. These items help prove to the public that you are doing your job. The scrubs and exam gloves provide a professional barrier between you and the patient’s bodily fluid; where the pens, stethoscopes, and tongue depressors are items needed to do simple procedures and record your findings; having your hair up is a professional action needed so that while you’re moving around and doing your job, you’re
We see overall functionalism taking place in all the different positions needed to be filled in order for the ball to keep bouncing. Manifest and Latent functions, or the buttered bread, are the things nurse’s aides do that make everything run smoothly. We see the conflict theory surfacing between the different titles behind the employee’s name. Competing interests is also relevant to bring up when talking about the staff at St. Charles, there are plenty of complaints made by the staff, but in reality, everything runs smoothly. One may also see symbolic interactionism, through the actions we perform or the way we talk, that may fit the expectation the public has for nurse’s aides. Nurse’s aides are required to wear scrubs while on the job, and to use certain props, these things are crucial to our job, and can fit under the dramaturgical