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Education is important in shaping professional identity, including how one approaches norms and normalisation. In the analysis presented in this study, nursing students' own constructions of norms and normality from the outlook of their education are highlighted and problematised. To deepen the understanding of these matters, the aim of this study was to explore constructions of norms and normality among students in nursing education. Students studying in a nursing department at a Swedish university college were approached and asked to consider open survey questions targeting their views on norms and normality; 154 of them replied. After a discourse analytic approach to the data, we could see how the students constructed norms and normality as (a) instrumental instructions, consisting of easy‐to‐digest statements grounded in the profession's obvious moral and ethical values, (b) limiting and frustrating obstacles for personal freedom that were important to challenge, (c) rules to be obeyed for the stability of society and (d) a matter of reflection, with each individual being responsible for understanding differences in norms, perspectives and opinions. We conclude that nursing education would benefit from norm‐critical perspectives, problematising students' own positions to norms, power and privilege.

PurposeThe paper aims to compare and discuss the findings of discursive constructions of patients in legal texts from the three Scandinavian countries. Since traditional welfare state systems in Scandinavia are being challenged by new governance systems, new questions are being raised about patient positions and agency, carrying with them potential ethical dilemmas for healthcare professionals.Design/methodology/approachThe methodology of the paper is inspired by critical discourse analysis. Comprehensively analysing the findings of previous discourse studies on how “the patient” is constructed in central policy texts, this study compares the position of the patient in Norway, Sweden and Denmark.FindingsThe paper reveals ideological struggles across the Scandinavian countries, operating at a political level, a legislative level and a healthcare level. It is shown that national governance systems still exert hegemonic power by strongly influencing patients' degree of choice and autonomy. The discursive struggle between welfare state governance and other governance systems in Scandinavia indicates a shift towards a commercial healthcare market although a traditional welfare model is advocated by professionals and researchers.Research limitations/implicationsBecause of the specific conditions of Scandinavian healthcare policy, the findings lack generalisability. The research approach should therefore be explored further in additional contexts.Practical implicationsThe findings of this study can inform policymakers, professionals and patients of the ideological values underlying seemingly objective shifts in national policy.Originality/valueA comparative critical discourse analysis can expose patterns in the Scandinavian approaches to patient rights.

Sweden is a country that has moved from cultural homogeneity to greater cultural pluralism and faces increasing differences in terms of citizens' economic situations as well as their health. There is a prevailing population health gap; hence, a national public health goal is to close this gap (Public Health Agency of Sweden, 2019), and since the late 20th century, the marketisation of society has gradually changed healthcare.In Swedish healthcare today, the patient is expected to be involved and make active choices pertaining to their own health and care (SFS, 2014, p. 821). This perspective on patients differs from the healthcare provided within the previous welfare framework, where paternalistic perspectives on patients were often found. Between 2005 and 2011, there was political discussion about patient participation and equal care which ended up in a Patient Empowerment Inquiry (State Public Investigations, 2013) and formed the basis of the new Patient Act (SFS, 2014, p. 821). Today, healthcare in Sweden focuses on patient participation, agency and autonomy, with new legislation on patients' rights and the demands made on professional practitioners. Previously, a discourse analysis was conducted on the Patient Act (Dahlborg Lyckhage et al., 2017), depicting patients as persons with free will and the competence to make autonomous decisions. The

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