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Managing the doctor-nurse game: A nursing and social science analysis
Eileen Willis
Department of Palliative and Supportive Services, School of Medicine, Flinders University, Adelaide, SA
Karen Parish
Director of Nursing and Patient Services, Repatriation General Hospital, Adelaide SA
Abstract
In the struggle to achieve professional status and develop a body of knowledge, nursing has embraced a number of 'sciences' and 'disciplines'. These have included sociology and feminist perspectives. This paper explores the difficulties of drawing on these disciplines independently of everyday nursing practice. Using a case study approach, we illustrate the way in which some nurses draw on sociological and feminist 'definitions of the situation' in the 'doctor-nurse game', while others draw directly on nursing practice. The nursing practice in this case is concerned with pain management. We conclude that 'shared care' requires a collaboration with medicine that draws on nursing practice to demonstrate an integrated nursing knowledge in a way that acknowledges, challenges and asserts issues of power and status.
Keywords
doctor-nurse game, medical dominance, shared-care power
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