THE REALITY OF NURSES' LIVES: WOMEN, WORKERS, WIVES AND MOTHERS.
Contributors: University of Rochester.
Published: 1993
Number of pages: 182
Subjects: Women's Studies.; Health Sciences, Nursing.; Sociology, Individual and Family Studies.
Description: This research project was developed to examine how nurses define the reality of their lives as they assume multiple responsibilities as workers, wives and mothers in a profession that is predominately female.

To study these various interacting activities, a qualitative methodology was used which allowed thirty-two nurses to describe, in their own words, the issues and concerns that they had about their own profession and how they handled the integration of work and family life.

Some of the realities of the study revealed that nurses found care-giving the most rewarding aspect of their job. In addition, they liked the great variety of assignments within their area of specialty and, contrary to previous research, they felt autonomous in carrying out their job responsibilities. Their attitudes about salary remained ambiguous. Although most of the respondents held the term feminist in a negative light, they generally felt that the women's movement helped to raise their status and pay and to improve physician/nurse communication, even though physicians and nurses approached patient care in very different ways.

On the negative side the nurses illustrated the constant understaffing and the resultant work overload that reduced the time available for tasks that they felt should be carried out, not to mention the bureaucracy and endless paperwork demands. Because nursing is primarily (97%) a female profession, they have had difficulties in achieving autonomy within a context of caring and have felt powerless to change some of the inequities. Cultural views of gender role intruded upon both the nurses' work life and home life.

Those nurses who were married and had families found it difficult to balance work and family and concluded that work and family were not separate and distinct spheres, time and energy expended in one was not available to be expended in the other. The study revealed that nurses have to manage their feelings not only at work but also at home.

The consensus of these nurses regarding the two most important issues facing the profession in the next decade were the health-care crisis and the changing role and image of the nurse.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 54-04, Section: A, page: 1567.

Thesis (PH.D.)--THE UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER, 1993.

School code: 0188.