The Changing Shape of Nursing Practice: The Role of Nurses in the Hospital Division of Labour / Edition 1

by Davina Allen

Overview

Bringing together sociological theories and nursing practice this text develops a dynamic conceptualisation of the nursing role which is rooted in the work setting. It looks at the factors which have shaped nursing work in the past and those which are likely to shape it in the future.

Nurses' work is changing in two respects: the place nursing occupies in the health care division of labour and the routine shifting of work boundaries that nurses experience in their daily work. Drawing on her detailed observations of the reality of nursing work in a district general hospital, Davina Allen explores these linked themes, focussing on five key work boundaries:

*nurse:doctor
*nurse:manager
*nurse:support worker
*nurse:patient
*nurse:nurse

The text provides new insight into many of the tensions and dilemmas nurses routinely face and the processes and constraints through which their work is fashioned. It offers a new way of thinking about the nursing role which is particularly relevant at a time when the scope of nursing practice is expanding and when the integrated approach to health and social care is seen as the key to provision and improved services.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780415216487
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	12/07/2000
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	5.44(w) x 8.50(h) x (d)

About the Author

Davina Allen is a Lecturer and Deputy Director of The Centre for Nursing, Health and Social Care Research, School of Nursing and Midwifery Studies, University of Wales College of Medicine, Cardiff.

Table of Contents

1 Professionalism and managerialism 2 Conceptualizing the nursing role 3 The study 4 The intra-occupational division of labour 5 The nurse–support worker boundary 6 The nurse–management boundary 7 The nurse–doctor boundary 128 The nurse–patient boundary 9 Conclusions

Editorial Reviews

3 Stars from Doody

Reviewer: Mary Ellen Wurzbach, RN, BSN, MSN, FNP, PhD (University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh)
Description: This book is based on a PhD dissertation in which ethnography with participant observation and interviews were used to analyze the role of the nurse in U.K. hospitals. It explores how division of labor is routinely worked out in everyday practice in the U.K.
Purpose: The purpose is to examine hospital division of labor and the role of the nurse, as analyzed through the lens of feminist and sociological theory and the ethnographic research method. The objective is a worthy one and well met.
Audience: The author does not indicate for whom this book is written. However, I believe that nurses studying the sociology of the nurse's role in the U.K. both historically and currently would be most interested. Given the author's use of sociological theory and terminology, the book may be somewhat difficult to understand for those not well versed in these terms.
Features: This book contains an extensive review of the development of the nursing role in the U.K., emphasizing the conflict between views of nursing — professionalism and managerialism. Included is an overview of the study design. The remainder describes the study of the relationships of nurse to support worker, nurse to management, nurse to doctor, and nurse to patient, and culminates with the author's conclusions. Chapters 1 and 2, the examination of the historical development of the nursing role and public policy in the U.K., are particularly well done.
Assessment: This book belongs in a category currently being published in the U.K., which examines the role of nurses and their relationship to public policy both historically and currently. The book is unique in that it is based on the author's research. Due to the complexity of writing style and terminology, it might be of most interest to international academics studying the history of nursing.

Doody's Review Service

'An original and challenging picture of everyday life in a typical British general hospital' - - Professor Robert Dingwall, University of Nottingham

'Has the potential to be one of the most innovatory and exciting texts to emerge from within nursing for some time.' - - Anne Marie Rafferty, Centre for Policy in Nursing Research

'Addresses a useful and timely topic' - - Alice Kiger, Centre for Advanced Studies in Nursing, Aberdeen

'An original and challenging picture of everyday life in a typical British general hospital.' - Professor Robert Dingwall, University of Nottingham

'Has the potential to be one of the most innovatory and exciting texts to emerge from within nursing for some time.' - Anne Marie Rafferty, Centre for Policy in Nursing Research

From the Publisher