| Professionalism has been a problematic focus of attention in American nursing for most of this century. Both the development of nursing knowledge and the articulation of that knowledge to practice have been strongly influenced by the ideology of professionalism. However, there has been little attention to the ramifications and implications of adopting an ideology rooted historically in gender specific, positivistically oriented concepts.;This dissertation is grounded in a philosophy of "critique"; an approach that stresses that human interactions and social formation are illuminated through reflective study of socio/historical evolution. It is informed by a critical sense of ideology as linked to the process of domination and asymmetrical power relations, and addresses social patriarchy as one component of that asymmetry.;Recognizing that language is the medium of ideology, the study focuses on the discourse surrounding professionalism in eight decades of one continuously published nursing periodical. Analysis centers on extended sequences of expression rather than individual semantic units. It addresses the themes and attributional associations of professionalism found in nursing discourse, and in the ways that the discourse gives meaning to changing and competing social structures.;This study considers how the discourse of nursing professionalism changes in relation to internal pressures within nursing, social and economic tensions outside of nursing, and the power relations in the American health care system. It further illustrates how the acceptance of a particular ideology implies an acceptance of a particularized view of knowledge development, ideological purposes, and socialization which serve the dominant social structures. An argument is made that the opportunity for transformation may be optimized by increased consciousness of contradictory practices. |
