Community Nurses' talk of Equal Opportunities and Anti-Discriminatory practice

Abstract

The pursuit of equality has become an explicitly stated social and political goal in Western democracies. In Britain, this has led to various initiatives in the National Health Service and practitioners are now charged with a responsibility to promote 'equal opportunities' or develop an 'anti-discriminatory practice'. However, the increasing experience of inequality and disadvantage in health and health care indicates the failure of these initiatives to respond effectively to difference and exclusion. This has led to questions concerning the feasibility of this goal and strategies seeking to promote equality are now in doubt. Postmodern critiques have had a key role in interrogating the theories upon which the modern liberal democratic promise of equality is based. These critiques propose that there are serious limitations to modern forms of equality and infer its demise.

However, this study argues that these critiques also imply the possibility for re-imagining equality in health care and more specifically, in community nursing. Postmodern theories are a resource with which to re-vision a postmodern emancipatory project in community nursing. In this empirical research project, I begin this task by examining the discursive constitution of 'equal opportunities and anti-discriminatory practice', evident in the talk of community nurse students and their respective practice teachers. I explore these narratives through the use of interviews and documentary analysis. I contend that initially, this talk appears to be consistent and coherent with dominant, liberal equality discourses. However, re-interrogation of these narratives reveals the coherence with liberal equality to be superficial. Upon closer examination, there is a complexity and diversity that both competes with and contradicts liberal equality discourses.

More information

Identifiers

Catalogue record

Export record

ASCII CitationAtomBibTeXData Cite XMLDublin CoreDublin CoreEP3 XMLEndNoteHTML CitationHTML CitationHTML ListJSONMETSMODSMPEG-21 DIDLOpenURL ContextObjectOpenURL ContextObject in SpanRDF+N-TriplesRDF+N3RDF+XMLRIOXX2 XMLReferReference ManagerSimple Metadata