The Politics of Nursing Care

Abstract

Despite numerous theories, models, and philosophies describing what nurses are and what they do, nursing care is often presented as an apolitical process which primarily focuses on patient needs and priorities. However, it is our position that nursing practice-in all regards-is political. To support this argument, we have drawn on works describing of soft/hard power, pastoral power, stigma, deviance, and governmentality, in addition to explaining our institutional social contract conceptualization of politics. In using these concepts, our political perspective reframes nursing practice as a means by which an individual's potential or actual deviance (meaning a deviation from social norms) can be identified and then corrected.

Population Health and Social Governance: A Review, an Update, Some Clarifications, and a Response

“…This process is evident in schooling: teachers have students write examinations, grade this work, and help those who failed to improve. With Holmes, I suggested a similar process in health care: nurses collect information from patients (through history and examination), compare these findings with established norms (e.g., about blood pressure, weight), and create patient-specific interventions to correct identified abnormalities (Holmes & O’Byrne, 2006; O’Byrne & Holmes, 2009). The goal is to have patients internalize these teachings and follow them without needing the nurse.…”

Population Health and Social Governance

“…How bio-power can be optimized to ensure that the members of certain groups are better governed becomes the question. The answer is that people must be allowed to act as they wish, provided that their behavior respects certain overarching beliefs (O'Byrne & Holmes, 2009). In the sexual health domain, an example of this process could be the increased acceptance of nonheterosexual sexual relationships, as long as these sexual contacts maintain the doctrine of safer sex and reduced sexually transmitted infection (STI) transmission.…”