Organizing participation : an ethnography of 'community' in hospital

• Main Author: Mueller, Maxine
• Published: University of Edinburgh 1995
• Subjects: 615.5
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.659702

A first aim of the study was to provide detailed descriptions of hospital practice as day-to-day examples of patient participation. A second aim was to extend descriptions of day-to-day practice to help explain how patient participation occurs in particular ways and not in others. Detailed examination of day-to-day practice reveals that organisation is set in motion by nurses through particular forms of language. Nurses mobilise the term 'community' to organise their day-to-day work as well as patient work. Hence, community emerged as a central topic for this ethnography. I go on to explicate the polysemicity of the language-in-use which in turn reveals how both stable and ambiguous aspects of the term community are used to constitute the day-to-day work as well as patient work. Hence, community emerged as a central topic for this ethnography. I go on to explicate the polysemicity of the language-in-use which in turn reveals how both stable and ambiguous aspects of the term comunity are used to constitute the day-to-day. Drawing on distinctions between 'shared expressions' and 'shared meanings', the analysis shows how different performance by persons lead to the appearance of distinguishable 'figures'. For example, the apparent polysemicity of the key term 'community' allows for extensions of persons-as-individuals and persons-as-members of community. That distinguishable figures emerge from day-to-day practice underlines everyday aspects of community as an organising device on the ward. I also examine the particular ways in which 'community' is employed and varies across interaction of persons constituting the day-to-day. For instance, nurse-patient, patient-patient and nurse-nurse interaction all provide work spaces in which aspects of community can be produced and reproduced differently.