Journal
NURSING & HEALTH SCIENCES
Volume 16, Issue 4, Pages 506-513Publisher
WILEY-BLACKWELL
DOI: 10.1111/nhs.12129
Keywords
nursing; professional status; social theory; systemic theory of the professions; theoretical framework
Categories
Funding
- European Commission
Ask authors/readers for more resources
A profession is defined by neither a set of structural qualities nor a description idiosyncratic to a single culture. Rather, a profession detects problems in an area of work, intellectualizes that work, and offers solutions, developing a logic of competition with coexisting occupations. The best that structural explanations can offer to nursing is rigid, unmovable definitions such as a semi-profession, whereas the ecological theory of the professions regards the continuous interplay among occupations cohabiting in an interacting system as the fundamental process of gaining or losing professional status. In this theoretically driven article we draw upon the notion of social ecology of nursing as a vector of development, arguing that nursing's professional status lies in its ability to adapt to landscape transformations and to protect its jurisdiction from competitors, equating fully established professions. In discussing the application of this theory, we invite readers to reopen a debate about the professional nature of nursing, considering cross-national versions of nursing for more comprehensive definitions of the profession.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available