Highly relevant and useful social history reference text on the development of the nursing occupation [note not profession] in Britain up to 1988, which also influenced colonial nursing. Examines the social construction of an occupation and its public and self imagery. Reveals the complex social history of and challenges the Whig tradition of nursing history (inevitable progress of liberalism and enlightenment). Tensions common to nursing all over the world between ‘professionalizers’, with interests to increase professional status, autonomy, and rewards, versus ‘managers’ with hospitals and ministries, seeking lowest cost service provision or within economic constraints. This plays out in professional tensions between doctors and nurses, between different strands of nurses (general v other specialisations, and between registered and auxiliary nurses (very similar to the debate over NAs in SI). Book does not cover the change in nurse education to degree nursing, except to refer to research or evidence based profession with a small academic elite. Reveals a complex story of an occupation aspiring to being a profession but held back by its own conservatism and attitudes towards women. Nursing was reshaped, and changing according to social and technological changes and war. Industrialization changed human health and bodies, the social roles of women, and the struggles of gender and class for recognition and equality.Read full review
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
Current slide {CURRENT_SLIDE} of {TOTAL_SLIDES}- Best-selling in Adult Learning & University
Current slide {CURRENT_SLIDE} of {TOTAL_SLIDES}- Save on Adult Learning & University