‘A touch that never hurts’ : representations of the figure of the nurse and nursing in literary fiction

Abstract

This dissertation attempts to elicit a didactic representation of care both in fiction and non-fiction works, positioning literature as a means to explore the role of the nurse within the health care scene and more importantly in the socio-political context of gender and class.

Emerging themes in fiction and non-fiction texts explored in this thesis remain consistent, and according to the period in which they are written, effectively illustrate similar societal constructs of the role of the nurse. The chosen texts all represent gender stereotypical beliefs, values and structures, presupposing the location for women within the sphere of nurture and delivery of care. A recurring motif in these novels is the selfless and altruistic caring attitude associated with the female gender. What prevailed across centuries is the societal attitudes toward nursing and care; nurses’ subordination to the physician and how nurses perceived themselves as part of a broader socio-political context; and the ongoing struggle of nurses for empowerment in a role written for the opposite sex.

This dissertation also tries to equate gender theories with nursing to understand more fully the socio-political context in which it is entrenched. This leads to two key suggestions. Significantly, to acquire the desired change, future nurses need to redirect their power by using a Foucauldian discourse analysis based on Foucault’s concept of power/knowledge in which nurses should examine the effect of knowledge production, dissemination of discourses and implementation of practices by a profession. A second important consideration that emerges from this dissertation is the importance of medical humanities to nurse education in order to recover nurses’ interest in art as the basis of care. The study of medical humanities can develop knowledge and promote interactions with patients that are authentic and reciprocal and which are ultimately beneficial to the patient.