Scope of practice issues in forensic nursing

1. There is significant role variation, across the Western world, in relation to how forensic nurses practice. 2. The authors conducted a pilot survey of forensic nurses in Australia, New Zealand, the United States, and the United Kingdom to examine forensic nursing practice, role definition, and role boundaries. 3. Issues arising from the data include the visibility of forensic nurses, the client group, forensic-specific education, and role development.     

Caring in forensic nursing. Expanding the holistic model

Nurses have practiced forensic nursing for many years without formal recognition of the domain as a discipline for specialized study. Forensic nursing expands the traditional concept of holism to include the medical-legal aspects of potential or actual client problems. The American Nurses Association (ANA) and the International Association of Forensic Nurses (IAFN) recently have designated forensic nursing as a unique specialty. Recognition of forensic nursing as a specialty area of practice within nursing mandates that the specialty define and explicate its major conceptual base. A concept germane to the practice of forensic nursing is that of caring. Caring as a central concept to the role of this specialty is discussed, and the implications for its inclusion in a curriculum preparing forensic nurses are explored.     

The missing and needed male nurse: Discursive hybridization in professional nursing texts

The role of men in nursing has been of ongoing interest to gender and work scholars who examine the processes that maintain or challenge occupational gender segregation. Drawing on professional nursing texts, the current study moves beyond individual men to investigate organizational practices within nursing that discursively construct the male nurse. Using the rhetoric of ‘equality’ and ‘diversity’, texts frame men in nursing as a missing and needed antidote to projected worker shortages and a homogenous workforce. Taking a critical lens to these arguments, analysis of professional discourse reveals an appropriated disenfranchisement that masks men's gendered privilege. Professional leaders frame men in nursing as equivalent to women in traditionally male occupations with little attention to the ways in which US men, particularly white and heterosexual men, are advantaged currently and historically. The findings trace a process of discursive hybridization through which organizational leaders appropriate rhetoric from historically disenfranchised groups to benefit predominantly white, middle‐class men.     

The ambivalence of ordinary cosmopolitanism: Investigating the limits of cosmopolitan openness

Despite diverse understandings of cosmopolitanism, most authors agree that cosmopolitans espouse a broadly defined disposition of ‘openness’ toward others, people, things and experiences whose origin is non‐local. It is argued that such an attitude is expressed by an emotional and ethical commitment towards universalism, selflessness, worldliness and communitarianism, and that such values should be identifiable in the practices, attitudes and identifications of individuals. By using data generated through qualitative focus group research, this paper extends the development of Lamont and Aksartova's (2002 ) category of ‘ordinary cosmopolitanism’. The participants in this study saw themselves as beneficiaries of an increasingly interconnected world, and they generally expressed cosmopolitan sentiments by referring to easily accepted opportunities associated with globalisation (eg. travel, cuisine, music) rather than the more difficult aspects of openness such as showing hospitality to strangers, or accepting human interest ahead of perceived national interests. Their positive views were counterbalanced, however, by sentiments of ‘dilution of national culture’ and ‘culture loss’. We argue that cosmopolitanism is a set of structurally grounded, discursive resources available to social actors which is variably deployed to deal with issues like cultural diversity, the global, and otherness. Ironically these discourses, which are the basis of the everyday accounts we describe, mirror academic debates on globalisation, suggesting the immersion of theorists in these discursive webs of meaning that structure responses to things global.     

The clinical practice of juvenile forensic psychiatric nurses

The differences in working with an adolescent population within the nonmedical structure of the juvenile justice system provides a basis for claiming forensic psychiatric nursing has a specialized knowledge and skill base for meeting the needs of this juvenile population. Future development of forensic psychiatric nursing depends on continued articulation of the role of forensic nurses in these highly specialized settings and development of empirically based forensic psychiatric nursing interventions. Juvenile forensic psychiatric nursing requires specific personal attributes and new competencies that extend beyond traditional psychiatric nursing skills. These nurses must be confident in their clinical skills, demonstrate strong leadership capabilities, and be tolerant of the uncertainties associated with these unique environments.     

The Matter of Space: Bodily Performances and the Emergence of Boundary Objects During Multidisciplinary Design Meetings

Prior research has identified the importance of embodied action in establishing representational infrastructure during disruptions in interdisciplinary work. This study expands on such research by examining meetings of interdisciplinary museum design teams—including educators, designers, researchers, and museum professionals. In these meetings, the museum space (exhibition room) emerges as a boundary object as it is presented through diverse material artifacts including floor-plans and mock-ups. The authors’ analyses identify and describe bodily and discursive practices of place-making and place-imagining that the participants perform as they attempt to maintain continuity across these shifting material forms and occasions.     

From Game Protection to Wildlife Management: Frame Shifts,Organizational Development,and Field Practices

One enduring question in social movements research is the relationship between cultural representations and organizational structure. In this article, we examine the development of different discursive frames over time, and how such frame shifts affect movement structure and practices. This approach seeks to illuminate the dialectical interplay between the movement community's discursive frame and its practices, and thus expand our understanding of the process of social movement growth and change. Through a close qualitative and historical analysis of a discursive shift within the hunting community of the United States in the 1930s from a focus strictly on game protection to a more expanded discursive frame of wildlife management, we show how this cultural shift led to major changes in both the organizational structure and advocacy goals of this social movement. We conclude with a discussion of how this process can be further studied.     

Discursively Constructing a Family Identity After an Autism Diagnosis: Trials,Tribulations, and Triumphs

The present study addressed the question: How are families communicating to construct a family identity in the face of a child’s autism diagnosis? Interviews with 19 parents of children, teens, and adults with mild, moderate, and severe autism highlighted the discursive construction of family identity. Findings reveal that families construct an internal family identity that is marked by unified usage of the name “autism,” emotive and mundane daily discussions, narratives that serve functional purposes, and normal/structured rituals. Externally, families communicate about autism to outsiders to help others understand, to educate others about autism, to show their loyalty and protection for their family, and to highlight their family’s normalcy. These findings illustrate that the discourse-dependent practices are useful not just for constructing membership in families that differ structurally from societal expectations, but also for constructing identity in that face of unique family functioning resulting from a chronic health concern.     

Re-visioning nurses' punitive attitudes within forensic psychiatric and correctional nursing: the significance of ethical sophistication

1. Development is an essential lifelong process if we are to compassionately care for patients in forensic and correctional nursing. 2. Many of us are blocked in our ability to understand and to care; we will need to grow to meet the challenges and to bear the shocks of forensic and correctional nursing. 3. Concepts that correspond to Kegan's levels of consciousness imply a progression from punitive attitudes toward more positive attitudes.     

The same and the other: male childcare workers managing identity dissonance

As childcare workers, men are in a contested position. On the one hand, they are in danger of being depicted as the pedophile; on the other hand, they are expected to bring something new and innovative to the thus-far female-dominated field. These men are experiencing ‘identity dissonance’ and have to find ways to manage and facilitate legitimate subject positions as both childcare workers and as men. Applying a perspective of discursive positioning, this article discusses men's positioning practices in nine qualitative interviews conducted with male childcare workers in German-speaking Switzerland. We identified a total of six discursive practices that men engage in to manage identity dissonance and construct a legitimate subject position. We found that men are engaging in a greater variety of practices than have been discussed so far. Unlike findings from other studies of men in female-dominated occupations, ours do not point to a clear-cut typology with regards to hegemonic and alternative masculinities; instead they show a variety of practices that are mobilized throughout all interviews.     

Beyond bureaucracy and entrepreneurialism: Examining the multiple discursive codes informing the work,careers and subjectivities of management graduates

This paper examines how discursive codes and demands associated with ‘bureaucratic and entrepreneurial regimes’ of work and career organization shape the work, careers and subjectivities of management graduates. The study is based on an analysis of 30 narratives of management professionals who graduated from an Austrian business school in the early 1970s or 2000s. Its insights suggest that variegated discursive codes manifest in the graduates’ articulated professional practices and subjectivities, thereby challenging established assumptions regarding the organization of work and careers. While the practices and subjectivities of the 1970s graduates are often informed by codes and demands ascribed to ‘entrepreneurialism’, those of the 2000s graduates are infused with several codes commonly portrayed as ‘bureaucratic’.     

Organizational Practices and Prefigurative Spaces in European Queer Festivals

Social movement scholars have been actively debating the importance of organizational structures for solidarity and new social movements. This article investigates how queer festivals build on the horizontal structure legacy of those movements, constructing their own prefigurative models through a set of specific organizational practices. Queer festivals constitute a dynamic repertoire of action of queer politics in Europe, expanding across the continent. Based upon their belief in the limits of strict identity politics of gender and sexuality, queer festivals attempt to construct new identities, based upon their anti-identitarian ethos. Beyond their discursive frames, queer festivals, as prefigurative spaces, attempt to build their new identities through specific practices, reflected among others on their organizational choices. The article posits three key elements for the prefigurative model that queer festivals attempt to build: (1) Squats as the spaces in which queer movement actors build their anti-authoritarian identity; (2) the organizational choice based on horizontality; (3) the role of the Do-It-Yourself model for festivals' deployment. Insight into queer festivals is based on ethnographic research conducted in five European capitals, including semi-structured interviews.     

Masturbation practices of males and females

In this study, the authors have examined the masturbation practices of both male and female college students, attempting to test some of the premises long held that men and women differ significantly in such practices. The findings indicate that while there are differences in many of the variables examined, there are others which show striking similarities. Thus, they open to question a number of assumptions held regarding differences in sexual needs and responses of males and females.     

Protocols,practices, and the reproduction of technique in molecular biology

Protocols are one of the main organizational resources in molecular biology. They are written instructions that specify ingredients, equipment, and sequences of steps for making technical preparations. Some protocols are published in widely used manuals, while others are hand-written variants used by particular laboratories and individual technicians. It is widely understood, both in molecular biology and in social studies of science, that protocols do not describe exactly what practitioners do in the laboratory workplace. In social studies of science, the difference between protocols and the actual practices of doing them often is used to set up ironic contrasts between 'messy' laboratory practices and the appearance of technical order. Alternatively, in ethnomethodological studies of work, the difference is examined as a constitutive feature, both of the lived-work of doing technical projects, and of the administrative work of regulating and evaluating such projects. The present article takes its point of departure from ethnomethodology, and begins with a discussion of local problems with performing molecular biology protocols on specific occasions. The discussion then moves to particular cases in criminal law in which defense attorneys cross-examine forensic technicians and lab administrators. In these interrogations, the distinction between protocols and actual practices animates the dialogue and becomes consequential for judgments in the case at hand. The article concludes with a discussion of administrative science: the work of treating protocols and paper trails as proxies for actual 'scientific' practices.     

One cleans,the other doesn't

ABSTRACT

The title of this article conveys the idea which shapes it: that the positioning and identities of ‘the one’ and ‘the other’ are affected by the performance of different social practices. The highly symbolic activity of cleaning inverts the distribution of groups that would usually be divided according to the one/other dichotomy, in that gendered, class and racial others usually clean for their social ‘betters’. This redistribution allows for a look at the dynamics of social and psychic identification within an altered or inverted frame. In three different discursive locations — psychoanalytic theory, feminist film and theory, and advertising and popular culture — I examine diverse representations and implications of cleaning scenes. Each scene symptomatically collapses or merges sexual difference with other social distinctions conventionally marked by the labour involved in cleaning. As each of these discourses is concerned with articulations of identity, whether explicitly or critically (psychoanalytic theory and feminism) or implicitly (advertising and popular culture), these scenes reveal crucial links between social and symbolic practices and the vicissitudes of gender identity. In effect, gender emerges as a cleaning strategy, a representational system that masks or obfuscates the significance of other social differences.     

The New Landform's Here! The New Landform's Here! We're Somebody Now!! The Role of Discursive Practices on Place Identity*

Abstract On the border of western Iowa, a new landform—the “Loess Hills,” is being created. While scientific discourse surrounding the landform has been on going for a century, “discovery” of the landform by local residents is a recent occurrence, stimulated by socioeconomic changes resulting from the “farm crisis.” As this case study shows, the initial scientific discourse and claims, as presented in a series of publications, established the uniqueness and rarity of the hills in scientific terms. Through a complexity of discursive practices, this internalized scientific community discussion was brought into broader public conversations. Aspects of the discursive practices have been taken on by residents at the local level and appropriation of the “Loess Hills” name and facts attributed to the landform has resulted in reshaping place identity among rural residents and altering the traditional power position within the region, with “hill people” now becoming “Loess Hills People.”     

The Self in a World of Going Concerns

While commentators on the postmodern scene have dismissed or trivialized the personal self, it nonetheless remains a central experiential construct, articulating a sense of moral agency for everyday life. This article examines self‐construction in the context of a world of proliferating going concerns—social institutions—that increasingly shape the discursive contours of subjectivity. Both the negative and the positive sides of this development are examined, the analytic implications of which can move us in strikingly different directions. We conclude by offering suggestions for tying the study of the contemporary self to the variety of discursive environments and practices that set the conditions of possibility for who and what we are or could be.