The logic of nursing work: An organizational ethnography of practice

This chapter illustrates how combining ethnography with Bourdieu’s practice theory offers a distinct analytical approach capable of providing a rich and contextualized understanding of work and organization. In the chapter I apply Bourdieu’s concepts of field and habitus as an analytical framework for the examination of how standards impinge on nursing work. The organizational setting is hospital department E (a pseudonym) where nursing practices have been standardized to a large degree as part of qualityleveraging initiatives. Based on ethnographic fieldwork, the manner in which the standards are handled in practice is examined. The vignette in the chapter illustrates how the concept of logic is fertile for an understanding of standardized nursing practice. The practitioner thus effortlessly creates and restores logic in practice despite ambiguous situations that emerge.