INTERRUPTION AS MORAL EVALUATION: AN ANALYSIS OF NURSING INTERACTIONS REGARDING LEVELS OF CLIENT CARE IN THE MIDST OF CONFLICTING PRESSURES OF CHANGE.
Contributors: University of Minnesota.
Published: 1987
Number of pages: 223
Subjects: Sociology, General.; Health Sciences, Nursing.
Description: Nurses have been socialized into a philosophy involving holistic care for their clients. Changes in the health care system--especially those precipitated by recent cost containment mechanisms--have made this ideal no longer realistic for all hospitalized clients. The effects these changes have had on staff nursing were explored in an observational study of a unit of staff nurses from a Midwest regional acute care medical center. Findings revealed that care levels were redefined from holistic care for all clients to a continuum from total care to diagnostic specific care only. Placement of a client on the continuum dictated the level of care to be given. Placement involved objective health status plus an indicator of social value. With new structural time constraints, social value on the study unit was measured by how frequently the client interrupted the immediate activity of the nurse. Clients who frequently interrupted the nurse were perceived as less "deserving" and therefore received less care. Nursing interactions were analyzed within the framework of Symbolic Interaction. Following McCall and Simmons' model, these interactions transformed the prescribed role for nurses into the performed role. Problematic situations were identified. Nurses were socialized into their performed role through six stages. Three types of nurses and four mechanisms of social control emerged from the data. Implications of the research for both sociology and nursing were described and recommendations for future research provided.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 48-03, Section: A, page: 0750.

Thesis (PH.D.)--UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA, 1987.

School code: 0130.