At the Cutting Edge? Modernization and Nostalgia in a Hospital Operating Theatre Department

Abstract

Attempts by government to 'modernize' the British National Health Service involve constructing previous working practices and forms of organization as dysfunctional, whilst at the same time selectively drawing on nostalgic images of the NHS in an attempt to win public support for and employee commitment to modernization. The use of nostalgic and nostophobic discourses by government can be interpreted as an attempt not merely to adjust working patterns, but to mobilize particular individual and organizational identities and present alternative identities as illegitimate.This article draws on interviews and observations in a hospital operating theatre department to explore the ways in which hospital doctors use nostalgia to present an alternative, competing version of the world which challenge the discourse of modernization. We interpret the findings in the context of literatures concerned with nostalgia and identity. KEY WORDSidentity / medicine / nostalgia / surgery 1097 Sociology

Understanding Hybrid Roles: The Role of Identity Processes Amongst Physicians

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Regulating medical bodies? The consequences of the ‘modernisation’ of the NHS and the disembodiment of clinical knowledge

“…as auditees develop strategies to cope with being audited; it is important to be seen to comply with performance measurement systems while retaining as much autonomy as possible’ (Power 1997: 12). McDonald et al. (2006) suggest that government policy appears to be aware of such organisational identities and indeed they demonstrate that the policy rhetoric of modernisation draws upon ‘nostalgic and nostophobic discourses’ of outmoded working practices in order to substantiate claims for necessary change.…”

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A methodological study to compare survey-based and observation-based evaluations of organisational and safety cultures and then compare both approaches with markers of the quality of care.

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