Work narratives: Gender and race in professional personhood

Abstract

An ethnographic study was conducted to explore how nurses construe and understand their professional culture and their professional personhood. The sample was 36 nurses ranging in age from 26 to 63 (12 African American women, 11 White women, 13 men 12 White and 1 Caribbean Islander). Data were gathered through participant observation, audiotaped individual conversations, a process of seven consecutive group sessions, and short narratives written by the nurses in group sessions. The data were analyzed: (a) by a coding system that focused on the formal and informal roles, rules, and relationships in work and school settings; and (b) by examining the changes in participants' narratives about their professional identity during the process of the group meetings. All the nurses in the sample had been profoundly affected by the socially accepted "feminine" images of nursing. The findings also revealed racial issues in the nursing profession. The implications of this study point to the need for new models of nursing education and nursing leadership to overcome old images and to make nursing attractive to those from diverse backgrounds.

Factors Impacting Ethical Behavior in Hospitals

“…Nurses operate on the front line of healthcare and face many ethical decisions at the workplace (Loewy and Loewy, 2004). Their jobs are becoming more complex and ambiguous and have predominately been staffed by women (Dombeck, 2003). Previous research has shown that nurses are also likely to face more serious consequences of their decisions than physicians when faced with an ethical problem.…”

Competence, respect and trust: Key features of successful interprofessional nurse-doctor relationships

“…The gradual acquisition of ''professional personhood'' is described as experiences being integrated into other personal processes and experiences to create an individual identity, a sense of self (Dombeck, 2003). This sense of professional self, informed both by expected social role, and more personal experiences (including educational and clinical ones) leads to the development of a professional identity that is primarily individual, but can also contribute to a collective professional identity.…”

“…Increasingly, professional roles are now being described as needing to be responsive to new ways of working, to be dynamic and changeable, to allow for the influence of personal experience and interaction, creating well-formed professional identities (Davies, 2002;Dombeck, 2003). Davies (2002) describes professional identity for individuals as a key component of a ''new professionalism'' that is integral to primary health care philosophy.…”

Personal and interpersonal value system, self-perception and identity of Spanish nurses: a cross-sectional study

“…First, we found that women had lower scores in ascendancy and higher scores in vigour than men. This might suggest that nurses' self-image is influenced by the persistence of feminised images of nursing (Dombeck 2003). Moreover, we found that men scored higher for personal relations than vigour, suggesting a feminisation of values among male nurses that could be further explored, especially in relation to recruitment and retention.…”