Professional boundary struggles in the context of healthcare change

The Relational and Symbolic Constitution of Nursing Ethos in the Space of Possible Professionalisation

Bibliographic Data

ID2249780
AuthorsJette Ernst (0009-0008-3679-1488, Department of Social Sciences and Business Roskilde University Roskilde Denmark, corresponding author)
Year2020
Volume42
Issue7
Pages1727-1741
Publication date2020-09-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueSociology of Health & Illness (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0141-9889 • E-ISSN: 1467-9566
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/1467-9566.13161
PMID32772420
OpenAlexW3038948125
LanguageEN
Citations received8
References cited51

The paper draws on Bourdieu's conceptualisation of the symbolic order and his little used concept of ethos in order to gain novel understandings of boundary struggles between nursing and medicine as well as internally in nursing. The constituents of boundary struggles are analysed in the context of healthcare transformation, focusing on organisational, institutional and political boundary undertakings. Changing conditions for boundary demarcations and professionalisation include a preference for evidence-based knowledge and practice, seen as a remedy against common problems in health care. The paper shows how nurses use the changes in 'the space of possible professionalisation' in their struggle for professionalisation when they expand their scope of practice and embark on what is conceptualised as a curing ethos, where nursing is understood as a discipline performing practices that lead to cure. However, this is repudiated by the medical profession at all levels. Moreover, curing stands opposed to the caring ethos in nursing and boundary struggles surface as 'ethos confrontation' between caring- and curing-oriented nurses in practice. The boundary struggles analysed in this paper raise important questions about healthcare manageability and the development of sustainable professional environments

Boundary (topology · Constitution · Context (archaeology · Epistemology · Ethos · Geography · Health care · Linguistics · Political science · Sociology · Space (punctuation) · Health, Nursing, Elderly Care · Law · Management and Organizational Studies · Mathematics · Medicine · Mental Health and Patient Involvement · Nursing · Philosophy

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