Critical Perspectives on Nursing as Bodywork

Abstract

Nursing is grounded in care of the body. This article examines nursing as bodywork, as experienced intersubjectively by nurses together with patients and collectively as a body within the health care labor force. The relation of nurses to the body generates conflicting and contradictory social meanings from intimate and sacred work to dirty work. Such meanings have contributed to stigmatizing the work and the worker within the labor force as well contributing to an ongoing stratification in the labor force as nurses have shifted bodywork "to lower level" or ancillary workers.

Towards a standardised definition for fundamental care: A modified Delphi study

“…This inclusion, however, drew comments that restricting the definition to nurses would exclude other care providers involved in fundamental care delivery. These comments again reflect the current state of play of fundamental care—such care is often relegated to nursing assistants and carers (Darbyshire & McKenna, ; Hasson, McKenna, & Keeney, ; Wolf, ), and increasingly disaggregated, with different aspects of such care (e.g., nutrition, mobility) delivered by different health professionals (e.g., dieticians, occupational therapists) (Feo & Kitson, ). As such, there is general confusion about who should take ownership for fundamental care, and what role Registered Nurses play in its delivery (Kalisch, ; Pipe et al., ; Sonde, Emami, Kiljunen, & Nordenram, ).…”

“…Multiple terms also exist to describe fundamental care, including essence of care, essentials of care and basic nursing care, many of which are poorly articulated and inconsistently interpreted (Kagan, ; Kitson et al., ). Furthermore, whilst historically seen as the responsibility of Registered Nurses, increasingly fundamental care is delegated to other care staff, including care assistants and allied health professionals (e.g., dieticians, occupational therapists) (Darbyshire & McKenna, ; Wolf, ). This has created confusion as to whether fundamental care refers to the work of Registered Nurses or to the work of any healthcare professional.…”

Centrality of Body and Embodiment in Nursing Care: A Scoping Study of the Italian Literature

“…Similar to the international literature (Draper, ; Lawler, ; Sakalys, ; Wolf, ), in the Italian literature, body and embodiment represent the focus around which nursing care revolves (Aletto, ; Bonancini & Manzi, ; Cattanei, ; Giudici, 2005b; De Marinis & Berti, ; Mencattelli, Cristofori, Rega, Poddighe, & Galletti, ; Mencattelli, Galletti, Cristofori, Poddighe, & Rega, ; Nucchi & Trafna, ; Picco, Santoro, & Garrino, ). Similar to the international literature (Lawler, ; Sakalys, ), despite numerous general definitions of the human body proposed by other disciplines and referred to by Italian nurses (Giudici, 2005a; Fidanza, Fiorini, Lorè, & Rinaldi, ; Minuzzo & Guglielmi, ; Palladini & Masera, ), in the Italian nursing culture, the terms body and embodiment are often used as synonyms (De Marinis & Berti, ; Picco et al., ), except for some attempts to separately define the concepts (Giudici, 2005b).…”

“…Historically, the practical work of nursing has been based on a relationship and contact with the human body (Collière, ; Draper, ; Lawler, ; Pupulim & Sawada, ; Sakalys, ; Wolf, ). Nurses interact with the patient's body so frequently that they touch the patient more than other healthcare professionals do (McCann & McKenna, ; Melia, ; Ribeiro Souza & Ordones do Nascimento Brandao, ).…”

“…The work performed on the body has long been invisible, surrounded by silence and designated as “dirty” (Lawler, , ). Therefore, the concept of the body is also ignored by academia, putting nursing in a difficult relationship with the other sciences (Lawler, , ; Wolf, ).…”