Abstract
Nursing Identity has for a long time been a major theme in internal professional discourse. From an anthropological point of view this is interesting. This strikingly reminds one of strategies used by peoples whose existense and/or cultural identity are threatened. The article discusses the problem of identity in the light of the dicotomy: tradition-modernity. Modernity' is here used as a qualitative, not a cronological consept. The author argues that the turning of nursing into science means a shift in values and forms of knowledge that creates identity problems. The ‘scientification’ of nursing, she claims, is rooted in and justified by modernity, while the core and the legitimation of nursning care lies in tradition.
Conclusion:
Nursing identity has to be created and maintained in practical nursing care. Fulfillment of the need of an academic identity will make us less, not more nurses.
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