Finding Meaning in the Work of Caring

Bibliographic Data

ID23567826
AuthorsCarol Pavlish (University of California, Los Angeles), Carol L Pavlish, Roberta J Hunt, Roberta Hunt, Hui-Wen Sato (Children's Hospital of Los Angeles), Katherine Brown-Saltzman, Katherine Brown‐Saltzman (University of California, Los Angeles)
EditorsRuth Yeoman (0000-0002-9303-1003), Catherine Bailey (0000-0002-8741-3072), Adrian Madden (0000-0002-3193-5808), Marc Thompson
Year2019
Pages236-256
Publication date2019-01-10
Open AccessNo
TypeCHAPTER
VenueOxford Handbook of Meaningful Work (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherOxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198788232.013.14
OpenAlexW2987465729
ISBN9780198788232
LanguageEN
Citations received2

This chapter is a reflective examination of the experience of meaningfulness in nursing, which reveals the meaning of care work, as well as what makes caring work meaningful. Through a series of provocative narratives, the authors expose deeply personal explorations of meaningful moments in caring work, challenging basic assumptions about the link between meaningfulness in work and happiness, and the importance of “opportunity structures” for worker and patient interaction. Meaningfulness is eroded where work becomes overly centered on tasks rather than relationships, as well as struggles over the value and primacy of patient care over patient medicalization and bureaucracy. Resonating with Frankl’s claim that people find meaning through suffering, the authors discuss the power of meaningful work in helping nurses to find their vocation and a meaningful life.

Bureaucracy · Epistemology · Happiness · Meaning (existential) · Meaningful life · Medicalization · Narrative · Political science · Power (physics) · Psychotherapist · Sociology · Value (mathematics) · Work (physics) · Computer Science · Management and Organizational Studies · Philosophy · Psychology · Social Psychology

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