A critical psychological investigation of nurses' experiences, understandings and perspectives of nursing eating disordered patients

Abstract

This study is a critical, feminist psychological investigation of nurses' experiences, understandings and perceptions of nursing eating disorder patients. Specifically 19 in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted at a large metropolitan Australian hospital complex with nurses who care for eating disordered patients. A qualitative discourse analytic methodology was used to analyse the data. The analysis investigates the different ways that the eating disorder patients and the nurses are constituted in a web of explicit and implicit discursive constructions and discursive practices. The analysis also considers how relations of power between the nurses, the patients and the doctors and other health care workers are constituted in discourse and practice, as well as exploring how the eating disorder patient group and the role of the nurse is feminised

Date of Award	2004
Original language	English