printStudents nurses:
between ideals and professional practices
Temkina A.A.
PhD, Prof., European University at Saint-Petersburg, Saint-Petersburg, Russia temkina@eu.spb.ru
Temkina A.A. Students nurses: between ideals and professional practices. Sotsiologicheskie issledovaniya [Sociological Studies]. 2017. No 7. P. 24-31
This article looks into the formation of the student nurses professional position. Based on interviews with students and teachers, this study demonstrates a contradiction between “ideal” academic approach in education and practical requirements of Russian healthcare organizations. During their education, students develop an idea of their future profession as their vocation – with personal involvement – and as their professional role and technical competence. When students learn the burdens of their profession and its low status, they start building conceptual and practical bridges between the ideals and theory on the one side and the real practice on the other side. Future nurses develop strategies which they use to adapt to pragmatics of their work. Students start taking more initiative, overcome alienation and learn to draw attention of medical staff in order to get real practical knowledge from them. They master practical skills as well as the skills of emotional work. Future nurses learn to minimize their emotional and physical efforts in practical situations, keeping in relationships with patients, determining the extent of their responsibilities and deciding what information to share in interactions. One of the ways students cope with the burdens of their profession is rethinking it and endowing it with a new, personal, sense. This new sense can be practical (material) in its nature or have a gender meaning, corresponding to the idea of traditional women’s duty. Students minimize the burdens of their profession by choosing more comfortable conditions, or they withdraw from the problems and quit the profession altogether. Future nurses are well aware of the strains of their profession. They understand that they have to adapt to the hardships of nurse practices, and not only study the theory, but master the necessary skills.
Бутенко Т. В., Саблина Т. А. Типологические особенности трудовой мотивации медицинских сестер // Психологическая наука и образование. 2011. № 4. URL: http://psyedu.ru/journal/2011/4/2553. phtml (дата обращения: 18.12.2016). [Butenko T. V., Sablina T. A. (2011) Typological peculiarities of work motivation of nurses. Psihologicheskaja nauka i obrazovanie [Psychology and Education]. 2011. No. 4. (In Russ.)]
Кузнецова В, Агапова Ю. Барьеры в обучении студентов медицинских колледжей: взгляд акушерок-преподавателей // Меняющееся родовспоможение: взгляд акушерок и социологов / Под ред. Бороздина Е., Темкиной А. СПб.: ЕУСПб, 2017 (в печати). [Kuznecova V, Agapova Ju. (2017) Barriers in education of students of medical colleges: perspective of teachers-midwifes. In: Borozdina E, Temkina A. (eds) Childbirth care in change: perspectives of midwifes and sociologists. Saint-Petersburg: EUSPb. (In Russ.)]
Симонова О., Ядрова Е. Сообщество средних медицинских сотрудников в области кардиохирургии: социологический анализ эмоционального труда // Профессии социального государства / Под ред. П. В. Романова и Е. Р. Ярской-Смирновой. М.: ООО “Вариант”, ЦСПГИ, 2013. [Simonova O., Jadrova E. (2013). Community of Hospital Nurses in Cardiosurgical Departments: Sociological Analysis of Emotional Labour. In: Professions of the Social State. Ed. by P. V. Romanov, E. R. Jarskaya-Smirnova. Moscow: OOO “Variant”, CSPGI (In Russ.)]
Apesoa-Varan E. (2007) Educated Caring: The Emergence of Professional Identity Among Nurses. Qualitative Sociology. Vol. 30. No. 3: 249–274.
Brodie D., Andrews G., Andrews J., Thomas G., Wong J. Rixon L. (2004). Perceptions of Nursing: Confirmation, Change and the Student Experience. International Journal of Nursing Studies. Vol. 41. No. 7: 721–733.
Becker H., Geer B., Hughes E., Strauss A. (1961) Boys in white: Student culture in medical school. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Kelly J., Ahern K. (2009) Preparing Nurses for Practice: A Phenomenological Study of the New Graduate in Australia. Journal of Clinical Nursing. Vol. 18 No. 6: 910–918.
MacIntosh J. (2003) Reworking Professional Nursing Identity. Western Journal of Nursing Research. Vol. 25 No. 6: 725–741.
Mackay L. (1998) Nursing: will the Idea of Vocation Survive. The Sociology of the Caring Professions. In: P. Abbott and L. Meerabeau (eds). The Sociology of the Caring Professions. London: UCL Press Ltd.
Ridgeway C. (2011) Framed by Gender: How Gender Inequality Persists in the Modern World. New York: Oxford University Press.
White K. (2002) Nursing as Vocation. Nursing Ethics. Vol. 9. No. 3: 279–290.