H T Allan | PubMed Health

PubMed2001

Nursing the clinic and managing emotions in a fertility unit: findings from an ethnographic study.

This paper presents the findings from an ethnographic study of a fertility unit. Data were collected using participant observation and semi-structured interviews over a period of 2 years. Fifteen patients and 23 members of staff were interviewed. Data analysis was completed using a modified thematic analysis. The findings indicated that the emotions evoked by infertility and medical treatments were powerful and frightening. Patients managed their emotions privately although they were conscious of an emotional awareness by nurses, which they described as 'caring'. Nurses were associated strongly with caring and their role was primarily to manage emotions; however, to do this, nurses used non-caring (emotional distance) rather than caring. Nurses were responsible for managing emotions in the public spaces of the clinics and moved between emotional distance and awareness according to the needs of the clinic. In this article, it is argued that non-caring was a defence against anxiety about coping with painful feelings and that the nursing role was to 'nurse the clinic and the doctor' rather than the patient.

Anthropology, Cultural↗

PubMed1993

Feminism: a concept analysis.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the concept of feminism in order to clarify a sociological concept for its use in nursing theory and practice. This analysis is carried out using the Walker & Avant (1988) model. It includes: a literature review, an overview of the uses of the concept drawn from the literature, the defining attributes and the justification of their choice, the cases to demonstrate the concept, and the concept criteria. The concept was chosen out of an interest in developing a feminist nursing theory and desire to enhance nursing practice. The literature search proved most fruitful in the sociological literature. The nursing sources were fewer and concerned with practice rather than articulating any feminist nursing theory. Many of these sources were sociologists and nurses. The concept of feminism was defined as the concern with gender equality and the promotion of equal rights for men and woman, the expression of these concerns through theory or action, and the valuing of individuals for their contributions to society rather than their biological or sexual characteristics or roles. Although the concept of feminism was defined and analysed within the model suggested by Walker & Avant, the author found that the concept became oversimplified, losing much of the richness of the literature. The author felt that, for any development of theory or practice, this analysis would have to be expanded. It is argued that their model is too restrictive as it is based on positivist philosophy which seeks to establish divisions where, in fact, there is a blurring of meaning.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Female↗