Making things work: Using Bourdieu's theory of practice to uncover an ontology of everyday nursing in practice

Abstract

Seeking to answer the question of what it is that nurses do, scholars researching nursing have worked with theoretical approaches ranging from the more abstract to the concrete: from philosophizing the nature of nursing to emphasizing the interpersonal nature of nursing practice to exploring processes of clinical decision‐making. In this paper, we engage with Bourdieu's theory of practice as an alternative approach that helps to understand the finer points of nurses' everyday practices of nursing as being grounded in an ontology of practice. We first outline the foundations of Bourdieu's thinking as he established both a relational philosophy of science and an embodied philosophy of action to develop the theory of practice around notions of habitus, capital and field. Then, using the inter‐relationships of these key elements of the theory of practice as a ‘toolkit to think with’, we explore an instance of nursing in practice in an acute care setting and show how, in taking account of social context, the dialectics between the elements reveal the social interactions that are accomplished in the doing. Moving to the relationships of these three elements with Bourdieu's further notions of illusio, symbolic power and symbolic violence, we uncover an ontology of nursing practices in the everyday. We conclude by summarising what this ontology of practice has to offer investigations into practices of nursing in any social context.

Understanding Refugees Health Experiences in Host Countries: Three Theoretical Perspectives

“…Shared intersubjective experiences that are collectively recognized by a certain social group, or a society at large, are enacted, propagated, and replicated through practices and actions (Bourdieu, 1977). In the context of healthcare, habitus can refer to embodied professional or institutional practices, such as professionalization and the practical socialization of new providers (Akgün, 2019;Hindhede, 2020;Jeon, 2019;Lake et al, 2022). In nursing, Lake et al (2022) describe that the professional skills and disposition of nurses are superimposed onto the historically developed and embodied dispositions of each nurse, and that professional habitus further evolves in the context of daily practice as nurses navigate complexities and conflicts in various social circumstances.…”

“…Bourdieu (1977) posited that each social interaction takes place within a complex historical context, and it cannot be fully understood if reduced to a specific spatially and temporarily positioned situation (Bourdieu, 1977). Examples of field include physician's offices, healthcare organizations, research interviews, and nursepatient interactions (Akgün, 2019;Amini, 2019;González-Vázquez et al, 2020;Lake et al, 2022).…”

Enfoques extras disciplinarios para aproximar la brecha teoría y práctica: Pierre Bourdieu y la interseccionalidad

“…Es la afinidad de esta teoría con la enfermería la que ha propiciado su uso, expuesto en diversas investigaciones en relación a los cuidados enfermeros en unidades de críticos (Ernst & Tatlι, 2022;Lake et al, 2021), la relación entre la enfermera y el paciente (Akgün, 2018) o las perspectivas de mujeres residentes en España procedentes de África Occidental en relación a los factores que condicionan sus vida y que deben ser comprendidos por los profesionales sanitarios para una atención integral y culturalmente competente (García et al, 2023). Este último trabajo, no solo emplea diferentes nociones desarrolladas por el sociólogo, sino que además las conecta con la interseccionalidad, lo que supone un giro que consolida también el uso de esta teoría cuando nos preocupan las relaciones, en este caso, de poder y de dominación (Aspinall et al, 2022).…”