Nursing Trends and Debate, Essay Example

Part One:

One of my greatest surprises in reading Chapter 5, “The Case of the Kissing Nurse,” was to realize that the perception of female nurses hasn’t changed as much in the last ninety years as I would have expected.  Certainly, elements of the nursing profession and the roles of female nurses in general have advanced with the efforts of feminism and other aspects of social change, but I think that the underlying perception of nurses as nurturing, asexual helpers has lingered. McPherson writes that “a particular sexual and social image of femininity, created and endorsed by nurses, was critical to [nurses] self-definition and public profiles as respectable working women” (164).  This particularly resonated with me because it speaks to the way that we, as nurses, seem to be judged by the public face that we wear while completing our professional duties.  Nursing is still seen as largely a female profession, and I think that we’re expected to behave in a very traditional manner.  This can impact on our relationships with our peers and coworkers, as well as our patients, because it’s assumed that, as nurses, we have little in the way of a private life.  Or, perhaps, more accurately, we’re seen as more professional by subsuming our private lives and private interests beneath the facade that we wear as nurses.  This allows us to be seen as professional, but I wonder if it negatively impacts on our ability to make personal connections with our patients.  While we’re not constrained from having a private life, as were the nurses and nursing students discussed in Chapter 5, it’s still considered inappropriate for us to reveal details of our personal lives at work or engage in social relationships with other medical staff.  I think that the changes, as well, in the uniforms that we wear demonstrate that there is still a link to our femininity in our professional lives.  Although we are no longer required to wear white–“symbolism [that] also reaffirmed the asexual status of trained nurses” (168)–our uniforms often come in pastel colors or are patterned with inoffensive ‘feminine’ designs that seem to reinforce that we are sexually nonthreatening.  Without a doubt, we’ve come along way from the moralistic Victorian approach to women in nursing, but I think that we are also far from reaching the point where we are free to express ourselves completely in the workplace, nor are we able to be seen by patients and other staff as just nurses, rather than female nurses.

McPherson’s focus in Chapter 6, “Contradictions and Continuities,” on the difficulties faced by nurses in trying to successfully pursue both a career and a family life further demonstrates that there are elements of nursing that have changed very little over the last few decades. Combining motherhood and marriage with nursing is still a difficult endeavour, something that I’ve personally realized as a new mother pursuing my education in nursing.  McPherson quotes nurse Vera O’Dacre as stating that “anyone claiming ‘marriage and nursing career cannot be combined satisfactorily’ was wrong; ‘it can be done'” (217).  O’Dacre then goes on to detail the complicated household schedule she employees to ensure that she meets both her domestic and professional obligations.   While I find it rather reassuring to learn that the difficulties I face as a new mother and student nurse are not new problems, and have been coped with successfully by nurses in the past, I have found it to be very challenging to try and juggle two sets of obligations. However, I think that even more so than in the 1950s when O’Dacre was interviewed, the nursing profession has begun to take into account the needs of nurses outside of work.  There are greater opportunities now, I think, to take a creative approach to shift work so as to allow modern nurses to find a satisfactory balance of work-life and home-life.  This creativity extends to the opportunities that are now offered to nurses who choose to pursue advanced and specialized degrees; unlike the nurses detailed in much of Chapter 6, I think that today’s nurses have the advantage of being seen in a more professional light that enables our employers to take our desire to increase our level of knowledge much more seriously.

Part Two:

“Recruitment strategies will solve the Canadian nursing shortage”

Health Service Industry (PRO)

Argument

Nurses are responding to international recruitment strategies, therefore similar strategies should be employed in Canada (Spencer, 2010).

Truth or Fallacy

Post Hoc:  The article suggests that the appearance of American recruiters means that nurses will be relocating to the United States, therefore Canada should use a similar method of retaining nurses.  However, the appearance of one event doesn’t necessarily mean that a second event (nurses moving to the U.S.) will follow, and the article itself offers no conclusive evidence that American recruitment strategies have been overwhelmingly effective.

Argument

Canada is poised to face dire nursing shortages as “nurses retire leaving gaping hole” (Hyslop, 2010), therefore current strategies are ineffective.

Truth or Fallacy (Name Type)

Appeal to Pity:  The article uses a sub-headline that is aimed to frighten readers and cause pity for the health service industry who faces a shortage of nurses because of retirement.  This argument isn’t followed up or supported in the article itself, but is only used to convince readers that recruitment strategies are necessary to fill this ‘gaping hole’.

Argument

Recruitment strategies that answer the needs of Canadian nurses may stem the flow of nurses to other countries (Spencer, 2010).

Truth or Fallacy

Hasty Generalizations:  The article lists general reasons why nurses leave Canada to work in other countries.  This makes the assumption that all nurses are motivated by these factors, and doesn’t truly explain why such factors would positively affect Canadian recruitment strategies.

Argument

Canada is taking steps to retain nurses, such as in British Columbia where “the province has invested $190 million since 2001 to ‘educate, recruit, and retain’ nurses” (Spencer, 2010).

Truth or Fallacy

Appeal to Authority:  The article refers to, and quotes, the Ministry of Health Services to give authority to the claim that a great deal of money has gone into recruitment strategies for nurses.  This argument doesn’t prove or disprove whether such funding strategies have resulted in the retention of nurses in British Columbia.

Nursing Associations/Unions (CON)

Argument

Nursing, by nature, attracts people who like to travel; therefore little can be done to prevent nurses from going abroad to work (Hyslop, 2010).

Truth or Fallacy

Hasty Generalizations:  The article makes a blanket statement about nurses–that they all like to travel–to make it appear as if all nurses respond to this incentive.  This is used to make it seem as if there is no purpose in trying to recruit nurses to stay in Canada, because all nurses would like to travel outside of the country.

Argument

Canadian nurses receive little support from the government, therefore they have no reason to stay in Canada (Spencer, 2010).

Truth or Fallacy

Missing the Point:  Although there is truth in the article’s argument that budget cuts and other governmental economic measures have played a large role in the current nursing crisis, the article’s conclusion is fallacious because it assumes that there are no other reasons why nurses might or might not stay in Canada.

Argument

The “problem of globalization” has ensured that Canada may not have enough nurses in the coming years.  The news agency QMI reports that “250 Quebec nurses are working in a single University hospital in Lausanne, Switzerland” (Spencer, 2010).

Truth or Fallacy

Post Hoc and Slippery Slope:  The article uses statistics from one particular group of nurses to draw the conclusion that other groups of nurses will respond in a similar way.  As well, the article makes vague statements about globalization to conclude that Canadian nursing will be adversely effected–that, basically, because of globalization issues, we will likely see nursing conditions in Canada eroding to a dangerous level.  No concrete statistics were provided to back up this fallacious claim.

Argument

Canadian nurses are resistant to the efforts of provincial governments to keep them in Canada.  They are motivated by their own desires, rather than a desire to work in their field in Canada (Spencer, 2010).

Truth or Fallacy

Appeal to Authority:  The article positions governmental agencies as authoritative sources of information on this ‘crisis’.  This implies that because some provinces have taken steps to retain nurses, they have done all that they can and any loss of nurses to other countries can be blamed on the nurses’ selfish desires to ignore the benefits of their own country in favor of working internationally.  

References

Fallacies. (2005) University of North Carolina Writing Centre. Retrieved from  http://www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb/handouts/fallacies.html

Hyslop, L. (2010, November 1). Recruiters brace for shortage of nurses as boomers retire. The   Windsor Star. Retrieved from http://www2.canada.com/windsorstar/news/business/story.html? id=9e4a3548-cebd-4e94-a2ef-d06a87043d6d&p=2

McPherson, K. (2003). Bedside matters: The transformation of Canadian nursing, 1900-1990. Toronto, ON: University of Toronto Press.

Sample arguments with fallacies. (2005) University of North Carolina Writing Centre. Retrieved from http://www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb/handouts/fallacyargument.html

Spencer, C. (2010, March 20). Experts warn of nursing shortage. The Toronto Sun. Retrieved from http://www.torontosun.com/news/canada/2010/03/20/13303221.html