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Nursing work, nurses' knowledge, and the subjectification of the patient

Nursing work, nurses' knowledge, and the subjectification of the patient
Nursing work, nurses' knowledge, and the subjectification of the patient
Although sociologists interested in health and illness have extensively deployed the work of Michel Foucault in recent years, few studies have examined the ways in which this is of use in understanding nursing practice. This paper explores the ways in which nurses' accounts of their work and relationships with patients reflect a discourse of the social. While these accounts reflect a thoroughgoing accommodation of the importance of ‘knowing’ the patient as more than an object of clinical practice and procedure, they also reveal the practical problems that must be negotiated in attempting to do so. Foucault's notion of the clinical gaze is deployed in interpreting these accounts, and the question of power and resistance in nursing work is discussed.
0141-9889
472-487
May, Carl
17697f8d-98f6-40d3-9cc0-022f04009ae4
May, Carl
17697f8d-98f6-40d3-9cc0-022f04009ae4

May, Carl (1992) Nursing work, nurses' knowledge, and the subjectification of the patient. Sociology of Health and Illness, 14 (4), 472-487. (doi:10.1111/1467-9566.ep10493107).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Although sociologists interested in health and illness have extensively deployed the work of Michel Foucault in recent years, few studies have examined the ways in which this is of use in understanding nursing practice. This paper explores the ways in which nurses' accounts of their work and relationships with patients reflect a discourse of the social. While these accounts reflect a thoroughgoing accommodation of the importance of ‘knowing’ the patient as more than an object of clinical practice and procedure, they also reveal the practical problems that must be negotiated in attempting to do so. Foucault's notion of the clinical gaze is deployed in interpreting these accounts, and the question of power and resistance in nursing work is discussed.

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Published date: December 1992

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Local EPrints ID: 163607
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/163607
ISSN: 0141-9889
PURE UUID: 47b99f5f-9ef5-4458-9946-5df78c2303cc
ORCID for Carl May: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-0451-2690

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Date deposited: 21 Sep 2010 08:19
Last modified: 14 Mar 2024 02:06

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Author: Carl May ORCID iD

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