Using ethnography to explore critical care nurses' professional identity [electronic resource] / Melissa-Jane Belle
- Author:
- Belle, Melissa-Jane
- Published:
- London : SAGE Publications Ltd, 2017.
- Physical Description:
- 1 online resource
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- License restrictions may limit access.
- Summary:
- In 2012, I adopted an ethnographic approach to explore how a specialty group of registered nurses, namely, critical care nurses, perceive professional identity in their everyday work environment. Through the use of the typical ethnographic methods of participant observation and semi-structured in-depth interviews, I aimed to capture the meanings critical care nurses attached to specific actions, language, rituals, and artifacts that were significant in informing their professional identity within the context of their everyday practice. Of particular interest was how critical care nurses drew on these meanings in their interactions with other critical care nurses, their patients and patients significant others, and other health professionals to construct professional identity. This case study affords an account of the on-going PhD study. It provides the reader with the reasoning for taking an ethnographic approach to sociological inquiries to professional identity and discusses the advantages and disadvantages of conducting participant observation with the researcher located within "the space between." It finally highlights the barriers in gaining social access to potential informants in the naturalistic setting, and the personal, ethical, and organizational constraints that may present challenges when undertaking ethnographic inquiries.
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- ISBN:
- 9781526410801 (ebook)
- Bibliography Note:
- Includes bibliographical references and index.
View MARC record | catkey: 31510033