The nursing process re-examined: enrolment and translation

Abstract

The current paper proposes a different way of considering the nursing process. Extant theorizing of the nursing process as a framework to help teach or organize nursing is consistent with a 'diffusion model' of practice. In line with this view, it is assumed that a set of best practices can be assimilated by theorists and then, through a process of 'diffusion', implemented throughout hospitals and clinics (or wherever else nurses practise). Difficulties with implementing the nursing process are explained as due to inadequate resources, inadequate training or the 'context' of practice. The nursing process is considered in the current paper in relation to processes of 'enrolment' and 'translation'. As a model or framework the nursing process is both a technology and a set of artefacts through which nurses extend themselves in ways which help manage their interests and (re)constitute their identity. Rather than researching practice as if there is a model of nursing to which nurses should conform, a different view of the nursing process emerges as one in which nurses enrol, and are enrolled by, managerialist and performative devices in their organizing and identity work.