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Health‐care system and nursing in Sri Lanka: An ethnography study
Author(s) -
De Silva Badurakada Sunil Santha,
Rolls Colleen
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
nursing and health sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.563
H-Index - 47
eISSN - 1442-2018
pISSN - 1441-0745
DOI - 10.1111/j.1442-2018.2009.00482.x
Subject(s) - sri lanka , nursing , ethnography , government (linguistics) , health care , medicine , work (physics) , nursing research , nursing care , healthcare system , corporate governance , nurse education , nursing management , political science , sociology , business , socioeconomics , mechanical engineering , linguistics , philosophy , finance , anthropology , law , tanzania , engineering
This article stems from a larger ethnographic study that primarily explored nurses' cancer pain management in Sri Lanka. The findings presented in this article report on two aspects revealed in that study: the Sri Lankan health‐care system and nursing. The findings indicate that the Sri Lankan health‐care system is under considerable strain. Poor hospital management allows doctors to admit too many patients, resulting in chaotic and overcrowded work environments with unsustainable resources. This then impacts on the role of the nurse. This study highlights the adverse conditions under which nurses in Sri Lanka try to administer care, within a powerless and unchanging professional situation. Although this study extends the level of understanding of the situation for nurses in a government hospital, it also offers directions for policy‐makers and international nursing organizations to improve nursing education and governance in Sri Lanka.