Health Care's Forgotten Majority: Nurses and Their Frayed White Collars

by Jacqueline Goodman-Draper

Overview

Discussion regarding health care in the United States usually centers around the doctors and insurance companies. This book deals with one group that is largely overlooked: nurses. As an example of white collar workforce, nurses are segmented by class. Amongst this group is a class-conscious working class, a status-conscious nursing management and a class- and status-conscious mid-level. This book focuses on nurses' positions in the labor process and their reaction to that labor process, their choice of collective strategy (trade unionism, professional unionism, or professionalization), and why they choose these roles.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780865692480
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	07/30/1995
Pages:	192
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.50(d)
Lexile:	1310L (what's this?)

About the Author

JACQUELINE GOODMAN-DRAPER is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at State University of New York, Potsdam College. She received a National Science Foundation Award to conduct research for this book and a Nuala McGann Drescher SUNY Award to write it during research leave. She has received numerous other research grants and published several articles.

Table of Contents

Preface
Introduction
Rise of the White Collar Worker, Ideology of Professionalism, and White Collar Strategies: The Case of Nursing
Nurses' Class Position
Visions of Professionalism: A Window on Class Identity
Conclusion (or, Where Does the Frayed Collar Go From Here?)
Appendix A: Professional Nurse Survey
Appendix B: Survey Coding
Appendix C: New York State Nurses Association: Questions and Answers about Entry into Practice
References
Index

Editorial Reviews

The debate over health care reform has focused on high-paid physicians, hospital administrators, and insurance companies, but many layers of health care workers barely get by on their modest wages. The author (sociology, State U. of New York, Potsdam College) studies the occupation of nursing as a representative of the growing ranks of white collar service jobs whose workers are promised--yet generally denied--professional status and the social and economic rewards that come with it. By examining nurses' level of economic, political, and ideological control within the labor process, she finds that nurses, though commonly defined as a single profession, occupy several distinctly different class positions. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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