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'This book examines some of the more disturbing representations of nurses in popular culture, to understand nursing’s complex identities, challenges and future directions.
'It critically analyses disquieting representations of nurses who don’t care, who kill, who inspire fear or who do not comply with laws and policies. Also addressed are stories about how power is used, as well as supernatural experiences in nursing. Using a series of examples taken from popular culture ranging from film, television and novels to memoirs and true crime podcasts, it interrogates the meaning of the shadow side of nursing and the underlying paradoxes that influence professional identity. Iconic nursing figures are still powerful today. Decades after they were first created, Ratched and Annie Wilkes continue to make readers and viewers shudder at the prospect of ever being ill. Modern storytelling modes are bringing to audiences the grim reality that some nurses are members of the working poor, like Cath Hardacre in Trust Me, and others can be dangerous con artists, like the nurse in Dirty John.
'This book is important reading for all those interested in understanding the links between nursing’s image and the profession’s potential as an agent for change.' (Publication summary)
Notes
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Table of Contents
1. Transgressive texts about nursing
2. Nursing’s dark past and secret knowledge
3. Objects of Desire
4. Nursing and the abject
5. Apparitions, lost souls and healing spaces
6. Mighty, Mean and Monstrous Nurses
7. Murdering nurses
8. Nurses and sick health care systems
9. Growing from adversity
10. Conclusion: Out of the shadows, into the light
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
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Un/becoming Nurse : Good and Bad Realities of Representation as Representation
2020
single work
review
— Appears in: TEXT : The Journal of the Australian Association of Writing Programs , October vol. 24 no. 2 2020;
— Review of Paradoxes in Nurses’ Identity, Culture and Image : The Shadow Side of Nursing 2020 multi chapter work criticism 'These words, levelled at me by the university lecturer who supervised my final third year placement, stayed with me throughout my five-year career(ing) as a registered nurse in hospitals, aged care, and community settings across South Australia and Victoria. The context of these words was that of her informing me I had failed the placement and she considered me unfit for practice – indeed, unfit for work of any kind. “People like you are what the disability pension was made for,” were the next words that she uttered.' (Introduction)
-
Un/becoming Nurse : Good and Bad Realities of Representation as Representation
2020
single work
review
— Appears in: TEXT : The Journal of the Australian Association of Writing Programs , October vol. 24 no. 2 2020;
— Review of Paradoxes in Nurses’ Identity, Culture and Image : The Shadow Side of Nursing 2020 multi chapter work criticism 'These words, levelled at me by the university lecturer who supervised my final third year placement, stayed with me throughout my five-year career(ing) as a registered nurse in hospitals, aged care, and community settings across South Australia and Victoria. The context of these words was that of her informing me I had failed the placement and she considered me unfit for practice – indeed, unfit for work of any kind. “People like you are what the disability pension was made for,” were the next words that she uttered.' (Introduction)