WOUNDED NURSES: HOLISM AND NURSES' EXPERIENCES OF BEING ILL.
Contributors: Council for National Academic Awards (Great Britain)
Published: 1990
Number of pages: 376
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.
Description: Available from UMI in association with The British Library.

One important creed of holism, as currently interpreted in orthodox medicine and nursing, is that the health of the health worker is important: 'physician heal thyself'. The 'wounded healer', however, is a concept which decorates the fringes of this holistic health and medicine debate. There has been little exploration of the experience of those health workers who have suffered illness. The thesis begins by setting the general context for the fieldwork which is an investigation of the experience of a group of nurse-patients.

The introduction contains a brief summary of current dissatisfaction with the biomedical model of orthodox medicine. In the second chapter, aspects of holistic health and medicine, as currently described, are explored and the adoption of 'healthism' under the guise of holism is critiqued. An examination of holistic nursing forms the third chapter. The thesis then considers the notion of the 'wounded healer' within this framework.

Before the analysis of the fieldwork, a methodology chapter outlines, and substantiates, the research design. A qualitative exploration of nurses' experience of either severe acute or chronic (physical) illness forms the fieldwork chapter. The sample consists of twenty nurses interviewed twice, two seen once, and nine who sent written schedules. The effect of their illnesses on themselves is first enumerated. Then, their experience of treatment at the hands of health workers and colleagues follows. Their views of the constituents of a good health worker/illness sufferer relationship are next considered: firstly, in a general sense, and then with particular reference to nursing.

Throughout the thesis an approach critical of rigid polarisation into dualistic categories is taken. In line with this argument related to research methodology, the author's own experience of a chronic illness episode forms the chapter subsequent to the fieldwork. For similar reasons, a chapter concerning the interactions in the narratives and interviews follows. (Abstract shortened by UMI.).
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 52-09, Section: B, page: 4667.

Thesis (PH.D.)--COUNCIL FOR NATIONAL ACADEMIC AWARDS (UNITED KINGDOM), 1990.

School code: 0935.