Nursing has been described as the most ‘natural’ female occupation of all, embodying the so-called feminine ideals of tenderness and caring. Yet these ideals are juxtaposed with images of nurses as sex objects, or as ruthlessly efficient harridans. How have these very different images been constructed? And how do they relate to the reality of nursing - the close contact with blood, urine and faeces, and the involvement with the rites of birth, illness and death? This book, first published in 1991, explores the alternative ways different societies have developed to reconcile these contradictions. Using contemporary, historical and cross-cultural case material, the contributors trace the historical development of the role, and investigate the expected qualities of nurses within different cultural settings, such as India, Uganda and Japan. They look closely at ‘the nurse’ as a social construct, and demonstrate how the stereotypes relate to a particular society's notions of gender. Designed primarily for anthropologists and sociologists interested in health, illness and systems of health care, this book challenges some of the myths of traditional nursing studies and provides an original perspective on doctor/nurse/patient relationships.

Every year in the U.S., thousands of women and hundreds of men participate in sexual assault forensic examinations. Sameena Mulla reveals the realities of sexual assault response in the forensic age. She analyzes the ways in which nurses work to collect and preserve evidence while addressing the needs of sexual assault victims as patients.Mulla argues that blending the work of care and forensic investigation into a single intervention shapes how victims of violence understand their own suffering, recovery, and access to justice-in short, what it means to be a "victim".

This book aims to introduce nurses and other healthcare professionals to how anthropology can help them understand nursing as a profession and as a culture. Drawing on key anthropological concepts, the book facilitates the understanding and critical consideration of nursing practice, as seen across a wide range of health care contexts, and which impacts the delivery of appropriate care for service users. Considering the fields in which nurses work, the book argues that in order for nurses to optimize their roles as deliverers of patient care, they must not only engage with the realities of the cultural world of the patient, but also that of their own multi-professional cultural environment. The only book currently in the field on anthropology of nursing, this book will be a valuable resource for nursing students at all academic levels, especially where they can pursue specific modules in the subject, as well as those other students pursuing medical anthropology courses. As well as this, it will be an essential text for those post-graduate students who wish to consider alternative world views from anthropology and their application in nursing and healthcare, in addition to their undertaking ethnographic research to explore nursing in all its fields of practice.

This book aims to introduce nurses and other healthcare professionals to how anthropology can help them understand nursing as a profession and as a culture. Drawing on key anthropological concepts, the book facilitates the understanding and critical consideration of nursing practice, as seen across a wide range of health care contexts, and which impacts the delivery of appropriate care for service users. Considering the fields in which nurses work, the book argues that in order for nurses to optimize their roles as deliverers of patient care, they must not only engage with the realities of the cultural world of the patient, but also that of their own multi-professional cultural environment. The only book currently in the field on anthropology of nursing, this book will be a valuable resource for nursing students at all academic levels, especially where they can pursue specific modules in the subject, as well as those other students pursuing medical anthropology courses. As well as this, it will be an essential text for those post-graduate students who wish to consider alternative world views from anthropology and their application in nursing and healthcare, in addition to their undertaking ethnographic research to explore nursing in all its fields of practice.

Describing the principles and methods of ethnography used by nurse researchers, the authors demonstrate how to: conduct ethnographic research in health settings; analyze and interpret data collected from field work; make ethical decisions related to the role of being an ethnographer; and how to put ideas in writing.

The Routledge Handbook of Medical Anthropology provides a contemporary overview of the key themes in medical anthropology. In this exciting departure from conventional handbooks, compendia and encyclopedias, the three editors have written the core chapters of the volume, and in so doing, invite the reader to reflect on the ethnographic richness and theoretical contributions of research on the clinic and the field, bioscience and medical research, infectious and non-communicable diseases, biomedicine, complementary and alternative modalities, structural violence and vulnerability, gender and ageing, reproduction and sexuality. As a way of illustrating the themes, a rich variety of case studies are included, presented by over 60 authors from around the world, reflecting the diverse cultural contexts in which people experience health, illness, and healing. Each chapter and its case studies are introduced by a photograph, reflecting medical and visual anthropological responses to inequality and vulnerability. An indispensible reference in this fastest growing area of anthropological study, The Routledge Handbook of Medical Anthropology is a unique and innovative contribution to the field.