IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v326y2023ics0277953623002800.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Community nursing delivery in urban China: A social power perspective

Author

Listed:
  • Li, Bo
  • Chen, Juan
  • Howard, Natasha

Abstract

Community nurses remain understudied in research on interactional power, especially in China where community healthcare is an emerging practice. Grounded in French & Raven's typology of social power, this article conceptualises the power of community nurses in a Chinese urban context. Through thematic analysis of textual data from 26 semi-structured interviews and two additional focus group discussions with community nurses in Shenzhen, we identified six power varieties, i.e. indirect reward, indirect coercion, legitimate position, peer reference, field expertise, and caring information. We classified these powers trichotomously, as nurse-to-doctor, nurse-to-nurse, and nurse-to-patient, to show the potential influences nurses bring to healthcare relationships. Our analysis indicated nurses' exercise of some powers was constrained by two elements, i.e. doctor-nurse power polarity and patient prejudices against nursing, which together contributed to nurses' adverse power loss. These power adversities permeated the community health environment, contributing to healthcare delivery dysfunctions by undermining nurses' self-improvement, self-assurance, enthusiasm, and cooperation in care. Our analysis, using the insights of social power, develops a novel reading of community nursing delivery in urban China. We argue that nurse empowerment could promote community healthcare delivery. Role enhancement and pro-nursing policy development would reduce adverse power scenarios for community nurses and help convert their potential power resources into practical powers in support of patients' needs.

Suggested Citation

  • Li, Bo & Chen, Juan & Howard, Natasha, 2023. "Community nursing delivery in urban China: A social power perspective," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 326(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:326:y:2023:i:c:s0277953623002800
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2023.115923
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953623002800
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.socscimed.2023.115923?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Zining Xia & WenJuan Gao & Xuejuan Wei & Yingchun Peng & Hongjun Ran & Hao Wu & Chaojie Liu, 2020. "Perceived Value of Electronic Medical Records in Community Health Services: A National Cross-Sectional Survey of Primary Care Workers in Mainland China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(22), pages 1-19, November.
    2. Natasha Phillips & Karen Norman, 2020. "A case study of frontline nurse leadership informed by complex responsive processes of relating," Journal of Clinical Nursing, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 29(13-14), pages 2181-2195, July.
    3. de Swaan, Abram, 1989. "The reluctant imperialism of the medical profession," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 28(11), pages 1165-1170, January.
    4. Greg Guest & Emily Namey & Mario Chen, 2020. "A simple method to assess and report thematic saturation in qualitative research," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(5), pages 1-17, May.
    5. Bhattacharyya, Onil & Delu, Yin & Wong, Sabrina T. & Bowen, Chen, 2011. "Evolution of primary care in China 1997-2009," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 100(2-3), pages 174-180, May.
    6. Peng Yue & Tianmeng Xu & Brian Greene & Yongli Wang & Rongjin Wang & Guizhi Dai & Lijie Xu, 2020. "Caring in community nursing practice: Inductive content analysis reveals an inter‐dynamic system between patients and nurses," Journal of Clinical Nursing, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 29(15-16), pages 3025-3041, August.
    7. Jiang Wu & Shengchao Zhang & Huiqing Chen & Yingyu Lin & Xiaoxin Dong & Xiaoxu Yin & Zuxun Lu & Shiyi Cao, 2016. "Patient Satisfaction with Community Health Service Centers as Gatekeepers and the Influencing Factors: A Cross-Sectional Study in Shenzhen, China," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(8), pages 1-9, August.
    8. Bo Li & Juan Chen, 2022. "Barriers to Community-Based Primary Health Care Delivery in Urban China: A Systematic Mapping Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(19), pages 1-18, October.
    9. Jiang, Shan & Gu, Yuanyuan & Yang, Fan & Wu, Tao & Wang, Hui & Cutler, Henry & Zhang, Lufa, 2020. "Tertiary hospitals or community clinics? An enquiry into the factors affecting patients' choice for healthcare facilities in urban China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    10. Bhattacharyya, Onil & Delu, Yin & Wong, Sabrina T. & Bowen, Chen, 2011. "Evolution of primary care in China 1997–2009," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 100(2), pages 174-180.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Bo Li & Juan Chen, 2022. "Barriers to Community-Based Primary Health Care Delivery in Urban China: A Systematic Mapping Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(19), pages 1-18, October.
    2. Xiao Tan & Lei Yu, 2022. "Has recentralisation improved equality? Primary care infrastructure development in China," Asia and the Pacific Policy Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 9(2), pages 115-133, May.
    3. Yang, Miaoqing, 2018. "Demand for social health insurance: Evidence from the Chinese New Rural Cooperative Medical Scheme," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 126-135.
    4. Da Feng & Ray Serrano & Ting Ye & Shangfeng Tang & Lei Duan & Yuan Xu & Jian Yang & Yuan Liang & Shanquan Chen & Zhanchun Feng & Liang Zhang, 2016. "What Contributes to the Regularity of Patients with Hypertension or Diabetes Seeking Health Services? A Pilot Follow-Up, Observational Study in Two Sites in Hubei Province, China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 13(12), pages 1-14, December.
    5. Huijie Yan, 2015. "The Integration of Energy, Environment and Health Policies in China: A Review," AMSE Working Papers 1548, Aix-Marseille School of Economics, France, revised 10 Nov 2015.
    6. Zhang, Anwen & Nikoloski, Zlatko & Mossialos, Elias, 2017. "Does health insurance reduce out-of-pocket expenditure? Heterogeneity among China's middle-aged and elderly," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 190(C), pages 11-19.
    7. Huijie Yan, 2015. "The Integration of Energy, Environment and Health Policies in China: A Review," Working Papers halshs-01247183, HAL.
    8. Xiang Jing & Lingzhong Xu & Wenzhe Qin & Jiao Zhang & Lu Lu & Yali Wang & Yu Xia & An’an Jiao & Yaozu Li, 2020. "The Willingness for Downward Referral and Its Influencing Factors: A Cross-Sectional Study among Older Adults in Shandong, China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(1), pages 1-13, January.
    9. Waseem Khan & Jamil Khan & Ayesha Gul & Arab Naz, 2022. "Masculinity And Family Violence: An Investigation Into The Pakhtuns’ Violent Masculinities In Parental & Spousal Relations," Bulletin of Business and Economics (BBE), Research Foundation for Humanity (RFH), vol. 11(1), pages 228-233.
    10. Michael Carolan, 2024. "Do universities support solutions-oriented collaborative research? Constraints to wicked problems scholarship in higher education," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-12, December.
    11. Caiado, Rodrigo Goyannes Gusmão & Machado, Eduardo & Santos, Renan Silva & Thomé, Antonio Márcio Tavares & Scavarda, Luiz Felipe, 2024. "Sustainable I4.0 integration and transition to I5.0 in traditional and digital technological organisations," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 207(C).
    12. Yinghao Lv & Qiang Fu & Xiao Shen & Erping Jia & Xianglin Li & Yingying Peng & Jinghong Yan & Mingzhu Jiang & Juyang Xiong, 2020. "Treatment Preferences of Residents Assumed to Have Severe Chronic Diseases in China: A Discrete Choice Experiment," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(22), pages 1-10, November.
    13. Fang Wu & Wei Chen & Lingling Lin & Xu Ren & Yingna Qu, 2022. "The Balanced Allocation of Medical and Health Resources in Urban Areas of China from the Perspective of Sustainable Development: A Case Study of Nanjing," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(11), pages 1-28, May.
    14. Dario Krpan & Jonathan E. Booth & Andreea Damien, 2023. "The positive–negative–competence (PNC) model of psychological responses to representations of robots," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 7(11), pages 1933-1954, November.
    15. Ala-Heikkilä, Virpi & Lämsä, Anna-Maija & Järvenpää, Marko, 2024. "Management accountants—A gendered image," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    16. Hai Gu & Hua You & Zhiwen Yan & Nichao Yang & Yun Kou & Jun Sun & Ting Yu & Ning Zhang, 2018. "Determinants of the utilization of postpartum family visits: Evidence from rural areas of Eastern China," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(3), pages 1-12, March.
    17. Chen, Qiulin & Xu, Duo & Fu, Hongqiao & Yip, Winnie, 2022. "Distance effects and home bias in patient choice on the Internet: Evidence from an online healthcare platform in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    18. Yu Wang & Peicong Zhai & Yue Zhang & Shan Jiang & Gang Chen & Shunping Li, 2023. "Gauging Incentive Values and Expectations (G.I.V.E.) among Blood Donors for Nonmonetary Incentives: Developing a Preference Elicitation Instrument through Qualitative Approaches in Shandong, China," The Patient: Patient-Centered Outcomes Research, Springer;International Academy of Health Preference Research, vol. 16(6), pages 593-606, November.
    19. Genc, Emel & Nur Çakmak, Fatma & Çiftçi, Heval & Meryem Hocaoğlu, Zehra, 2024. "“Fiction is the reality”: A qualitative study on digital game addiction and reality perception in young adults," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 157(C).
    20. Emma H. E. Fromberg & Conny A. Bakker & David Peck, 2024. "Conceptualising a Circular Economy—an Enquiry into Circular Economy Conceptual Metaphors," Circular Economy and Sustainability, Springer, vol. 4(2), pages 827-850, June.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:326:y:2023:i:c:s0277953623002800. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.