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Nurses' power in interactions with patients
Author(s) -
Hewison Alistair
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
journal of advanced nursing
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.948
H-Index - 155
eISSN - 1365-2648
pISSN - 0309-2402
DOI - 10.1046/j.1365-2648.1995.21010075.x
Subject(s) - observational study , affect (linguistics) , power (physics) , institution , psychology , dimension (graph theory) , nursing , control (management) , macro , social psychology , medicine , computer science , communication , sociology , artificial intelligence , mathematics , pathology , quantum mechanics , pure mathematics , programming language , social science , physics
Power in interactions between nurses and patients, as mediated through language, is examined in this paper The findings from an observational study confirm much previous research in that the majority of nurse‐patient interactions were superficial, routinized and related to tasks It was found that nurses exert a lot of control over interactions and the linguistic devices used to achieve this are explored Links are established between macro‐level factors, such as the institution, and the micro‐level of nurse—patient encounters, to demonstrate how wider forces affect and are reflected in interactions Examination of the interactions also reveals issues of conflict arising from the caring and controlling functions that nurses perform It is suggested that the power dimension inherent in the relationship constitutes a barrier to open and meaningful communication between nurses and patients