• Login
    View Item 
    •   DORA Home
    • Faculty of Health and Life Sciences
    • School of Applied Social Sciences
    • View Item
    •   DORA Home
    • Faculty of Health and Life Sciences
    • School of Applied Social Sciences
    • View Item
    JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.

    The habitus of hygiene: Discourses of cleanliness and infection control in nursing work

    Thumbnail
    View/Open
    habitusofhygiene.doc (117Kb)
    Date
    2008
    Author
    Brown, Brian J.;
    Crawford, Paul;
    Nerlich, Brigitte;
    Koteyko, Nelya
    Metadata
    Show attachments and full item record
    Abstract
    This paper reports upon a qualitative interview study of 22 matrons, infection control staff and operating theatre staff who were questioned about their working lives and the role they played in the control of healthcare acquired infections such as MRSA in the UK. A theoretical framework drawing upon the work of Bourdieu is deployed as his notion of habitus captures the combination of practical work, physical disposition and ways of looking at the world which are displayed in the interview accounts of labour in the healthcare field. Three themes emerged from the analysis: first, the "securitization" of healthcare work, concerned with control, supervision, "making sure" and the management of risk through inspection, audit and the exercise of responsibility; second, the sense of struggle against doctors who were seen to represent a threat to the carefully organized boundaries, through such alleged violations as not washing their hands, wandering between theatre and canteen areas in soiled clothing and thinking the rules did not apply to them; third, in a "back to basics" theme participants emphasised the fundamentals of what they saw to be nursing work and were concerned with cleanliness and practically based training the habitus of hygiene itself. This was formulated in nostalgic terms with reminiscences about basic training earlier in the participants' careers. The preoccupation with hygiene and its "basic" processes can be seen as a way of managing uncertainty, accumulating a certain kind of symbolic capital and constructing and maintaining boundaries in the healthcare field. It also makes for self-governing, selfexploiting individuals who accrue responsibility to themselves for implementing the "habitus of hygiene".
    Description
    Citation : Brown, B.J., Crawford, P., Nerlich, B. and Koteyko, N. (2008) The habitus of hygiene: Discourses of cleanliness and infection control in nursing work. Social Science and Medicine, 67, pp. 1047-1055
    URI
    http://hdl.handle.net/2086/1694
    DOI
    http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2008.06.016
    ISSN : 0277-9536
    Research Group : Participation & Social Justice
    Research Group : Psychology
    Research Group : Mary Seacole Research Centre
    Research Group : Health Policy Research Unit
    Research Institute : Institute of Health, Health Policy and Social Care
    Research Institute : Mary Seacole Research Centre
    Collections
    • School of Applied Social Sciences [2084]

    Submission Guide | Reporting Guide | Reporting Tool | DMU Open Access Libguide | Take Down Policy | Connect with DORA
    DMU LIbrary
     

     

    Browse

    All of DORACommunities & CollectionsAuthorsTitlesSubjects/KeywordsResearch InstituteBy Publication DateBy Submission DateThis CollectionAuthorsTitlesSubjects/KeywordsResearch InstituteBy Publication DateBy Submission Date

    My Account

    Login

    Submission Guide | Reporting Guide | Reporting Tool | DMU Open Access Libguide | Take Down Policy | Connect with DORA
    DMU LIbrary