Entering the field: intrusions of the social and its exclusion from studies of nursing practice

Abstract

In this paper the exclusion of 'the social' from studies of nursing practice is addressed with regard to two important pieces of empirical fieldwork. The claim advanced in this paper is that methods currently advanced in the nursing literature for gathering and analyzing data, are constituted by theoretical notions which themselves exclude the social from understandings of nursing practice. Drawing on structuration theory, the paper advances an understanding of the research process as one parallel to nursing or that of any other practice-based discipline. Accounts arising from the research projects of Field and Benner are examined critically in this paper. The examination is informed by wider social theory, but with particular reference to Giddens' (1984) theoretical formulations. It is concluded that unless the knowledgeability of social actors is accounted for, both in the planning of empirical research studies and in interpreting the findings of such studies, crucial aspects of social conduct organized through nursing practice and organizing nursing practice are excluded from considerations of practice. The implications of such exclusion are addressed.