In this article, I explore the experiences and concerns of Bangladeshi nurses. I have based this on a larger ethnographic study that was conducted in a ward of a government teaching hospital in Bangladesh. The study shows how the values and norms of Bangladeshi society have shaped the life of Bangladeshi nurses, that they do scarcely any nursing work, and that they suffer from various negative social images. I argue, through this article, that the role, image, and concerns of Bangladeshi nurses have changed dramatically from the ideal image of nursing, and are dissimilar from the ways nursing is practiced in many other parts of the world.
Armstrong, D. (1983). The fabrication of nurse-patient relationship . Social Science & Medicine, 17, 457-460.
2.
Beardwood, B., Walters, V., Eyles, J., & French, S. (1999). Complaints against nurses: A reflection of the new managerialism and consumerism in healthy care? Social Science & Medicine, 48(3), 363-374.
3.
Begum, C.S. (1993). A study on nurses opinion about their own profession. Dissertation. Dhaka, Bangladesh: National Institute of Preventive and Social Medicine (NIPSOM).
4.
Coser, R. (1962). Life in the ward. East Lansing, MI: Michigan State University Press.
5.
Digby, A., & Sweet, H. (2001). Nurses as cultural brokers in twentieth-century South Africa. In W. Ernst (Ed.), Plural medicine, tradition and modernity 1800-2000. London : Routledge.
6.
Dumont, L. (1980). Homo hierarchicus: The caste system and its implications . Chicago: University Press. [Original French edition 1966]
7.
Ehrenreich, B., & English, D. (1973). Witches, midwives and nurses. London: Writers & Reader Publishing Cooperative .
8.
El-Sanabary, N. (1996). Women and the nursing profession in Saudi Arabia . In S. Sabbagh (Ed.), Arab women: Between defiance and restraint. New York: Olive Branch Press.
9.
Hadley, M.B., Blum, L.S., Mujaddid, S., Parveen, S., Nuremowla, S., Haque, M.E., et al. (2007). Why Bangladeshi nurses avoid "nursing": Social and structural factors on hospital wards in Bangladesh. Social Science & Medicine, 64(6), 1166-1177.
10.
Hadley, M.B., & Roques, A. (2007). Nursing in Bangladesh: Rhetoric and reality. Social Science & Medicine, 64(6), 1153-1165.
11.
Harun, S., & Banu, A. (1991). Nursing in Bangladesh. Journal of the College of Nursing, Bangladesh, 1(1), 25-28.
12.
Johnson, J.L. (1997). Generalizibility in qualitative research: Excavating the discourse. In J. M. Morse (Ed.), Completing a qualitative project. London : Sage.
13.
Karmakar, R. (1993). An assessment of nursing care provided by nursing staff personnel in a selected hospital. Dissertation. Dhaka, Bangladesh: National Institute of Preventive and Social Medicine (NIPSOM).
14.
Kirkpatrick, J. (1979). The sociology of an Indian hospital. Calcutta, India: Firma KLM Private.
15.
Nahar, S. (1991). A study of doctors' attitudes towards nurses in two hospitals of Dhaka. Dissertation. Dhaka, Bangladesh: National Institute of Preventive and Social Medicine (NIPSOM).
16.
Savage, J. (2000). Participative observation: Standing in the shoes of others? Qualitative Health Research, 10, 324-339.
17.
Sciortino, R. (1992). Caretakers of cure: An anthropological study of health centre nurses in rural central Java. Bulaksumur IndiaGadjah Mada University Press.
18.
Simpson, I.H. et al. (1979). From student to nurse: A longitudinal study of socialization. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
19.
Van der Geest, S., & Finkler, K. (2004). Hospital ethnography: Introduction. Social Science & Medicine, 59(10), 1995-2001.
20.
Van Dongen, E., & Elema, R. (2001). The art of touching: The culture of "body work" in nursing. Anthropology & Medicine, 8(2/3), 149-162.
21.
William, S.M. (2002). Generalization in interpretative research. In T. May (Ed.), Qualitative research in action. London: Sage .
22.
Wolf, Z.R. (2006). "Never again" stories of nurses: Dilemmas in nursing practice. Qualitative Health Research, 16, 1191-1206.
23.
Zaman, S. (2005). Broken limbs, broken lives: Ethnography of a hospital ward in Bangladesh. Amsterdam: Het Spinhuis.
24.
Zaman, S. (2008). Native among the natives: Physician anthropologist doing hospital ethnography at home. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, 37(1), 135-154.
