GLOBAL CONSCIOUSNESS IN NURSING - AN ETHNOGRAPHIC STUDY OF NURSES WITH AN INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVE

Despite an ideal of international awareness, nursing education and pro fessional organization have traditionally fostered social analysis wit hin a rather local sphere of influence. However, there have always bee n renegade nurses whose idealism and global perspective have made them challenge the profession, adopt unusual career paths, or even leave n ursing in favor of roles that more readily adapt to global awareness. Because the health care of the future demands an increasingly global-p olicy perspective, it is important to explore the relationship between the social structure of professional nursing and its ideological impe ratives. This research employed ethnographic methods to study the expe rience of nurses involved in balancing what they perceived to be the d iscrepant perspectives of nursing and global awareness. The findings d epict remarkable and inspiring careers within nursing and document the difficulties encountered by nurses in their attempts to apply global awareness to their professional nursing lives. Further, they generate practical implications for nursing education and professional organiza tion to respond to the global trend toward primary health care policy and to prepare nurses to meet the inevitable challenges of the next mi llennium.