Northern Nursing: The Limits of Idealism

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Abstract
Occupational strategies that have been used by Western nursing entrepreneurs are divided into two broad categories: those aimed at achieving social closure and those aimed at replacing professional dominance by partnership with clients. Nursing in the north of Ireland is deeply involved in these attempts to alter the role and standing of nursing. However, it also demonstrates the limitations of idealism in nursing. The strategies of social closure and anti-professionalism are empirically examined in two particularly testing circumstances and found wanting. The technocentricity of intensive care and the concentration on control in psychiatric care both act to constrain possibilities of change. It is concluded that idealism in nursing is not sufficient to effect change; cognisance must also be taken of material circumstances.