Review: Categorising the nurse-researcher during fieldwork: 'one of us* or 'one of them'?

摘要

The paper draws useful attention to the anxiety-laden nature, not just of nursing, but of fieldwork in the study of nursing. The argument is sensible enough, that a researcher's presence created anxiety in nurses when at the bedside. However, I'm doing fieldwork at a local hospital at present, and I'm constantly surprised at how relaxed most of them seem to be. They say that in these times of 'clinical governance', and 'accountability' for hand-washing, glove-wearing and other anti-infection procedures, surveillance is routine and often by staff they fear more than university researchers, their own ward managers or nurse specialists.