Caring Revisited: A Foucauldian Discourse Analysis on the Association of Caring with the Profession of Nursing
Abstract
There have been numerous theories put forward by nursing theorists on the importance of caring in nursing. Very few studies have looked at the impact that this association has on the practice of nursing. This study will add to the existing literature by using a Foucauldian discourse analysis to examine the material effects that the caring discourse has on nurses’ ability to advocate for safe working conditions during a public health emergency. Using the outbreak of COVID-19 in Ontario, Canada in the Spring of 2020 as a context, this study seeks to establish caring as a discourse and examine how that discourse may impede nurses’ ability to protect themselves from harm. The results of this analysis explicate how public media discourses that position nurses as caring, altruistic, and heroic may have impacted their ability to maintain their personal safety as a result of the expectations put upon the nursing profession.