The Changing Shape of Nursing Practice: The Role of Nurses in the Hospital Division of Labour - Softcover

Allen, Davina

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0415216494 ISBN 13: 9780415216494

Publisher: Routledge, 2000

Synopsis

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.

About this title

Review:

'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

Synopsis:

Bringing together sociological theories and nursing practice, this study develops a dynamic conceptualization of the nursing role which is rooted in the work setting. It looks back to the factors which have shaped nursing work in the past and forward to those which are likely to shape it in the future. Nurses' work is changing in terms of the place nursing occupies in the health care division of labour, and in terms of the routine shifting of work boundaries that nurses experience in their daily work. Davina Allen draws on her detailed observations of the reality of nursing work in a district general hospital to explore these linked themes, focusing on five key work boundaries. This text 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.

About this edition

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0415216494
• ISBN 13: 9780415216494
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 220