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Governance in operating room nursing: Nurses' knowledge of individual surgeons

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  • Glenda Riley, Robin
  • Manias, Elizabeth

Abstract

This paper explores governance and control in operating room nurses' clinical practice. Traditionally, operating room nurses have been portrayed as "handmaidens" to the surgeons, a position which implies that nurses' bodies and the knowledge they use in practice are sites of discursive control by others. This paper unsettles this understanding by showing how operating room nurses studied ethnographically in an Australian setting are both disciplined by and actively shape practice through knowing surgeons' technical requirements for surgery, through inscribing them in discourses of time, and through having deep knowledge of the surgeons' "soul". We argue that as a form of governance, nurses' knowledge of surgeons is a subjugated form of knowledge, located low down on a hierarchy of knowledges. Furthermore, as a form of governance that has previously been unarticulated in the literature, it transcends the traditional lines of authority and control in the nurse-doctor relationship. The data in this paper are drawn from an ethnographic study that explored a range of nurse-nurse and nurse-doctor communication practices in operating room nursing.

Suggested Citation

  • Glenda Riley, Robin & Manias, Elizabeth, 2006. "Governance in operating room nursing: Nurses' knowledge of individual surgeons," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 62(6), pages 1541-1551, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:62:y:2006:i:6:p:1541-1551
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Armstrong, David, 1983. "The fabrication of nurse-patient relationships," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 17(8), pages 457-460, January.
    2. Fox, Nick J., 1997. "Space, sterility and surgery: Circuits of hygiene in the operating theatre," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 45(5), pages 649-657, September.
    3. Brown, Brian & Crawford, Paul, 2003. "The clinical governance of the soul: 'deep management' and the self-regulating subject in integrated community mental health teams," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 56(1), pages 67-81, January.
    4. anonymous, 1979. "Government: the federal government shifts gears," Economic Perspectives, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, vol. 3(Jan), pages 18-20.
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    Cited by:

    1. Castleden, Heather & Garvin, Theresa & First Nation, Huu-ay-aht, 2008. "Modifying Photovoice for community-based participatory Indigenous research," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 66(6), pages 1393-1405, March.
    2. Whyte, Sarah & Cartmill, Carrie & Gardezi, Fauzia & Reznick, Richard & Orser, Beverley A. & Doran, Diane & Lingard, Lorelei, 2009. "Uptake of a team briefing in the operating theatre: A Burkean dramatistic analysis," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 69(12), pages 1757-1766, December.
    3. Finn, Rachael & Learmonth, Mark & Reedy, Patrick, 2010. "Some unintended effects of teamwork in healthcare," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 70(8), pages 1148-1154, April.
    4. Riley, Robin & Manias, Elizabeth, 2009. "Gatekeeping practices of nurses in operating rooms," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 69(2), pages 215-222, July.
    5. Hamilton, Bridget Elizabeth & Manias, Elizabeth, 2007. "Rethinking nurses' observations: Psychiatric nursing skills and invisibility in an acute inpatient setting," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 65(2), pages 331-343, July.
    6. Caronia, Letizia & Saglietti, Marzia & Chieregato, Arturo, 2020. "Challenging the interprofessional epistemic boundaries: The practices of informing in nurse-physician interaction," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 246(C).

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