THE MORAL GEOGRAPHY OF HOME CARE

One result of the historical division of labor between nurses and phys icians is that nurses became the eyes and ears of the physician, exten ding their perceptual capabilities across space and time. This ''gaze of medicine'' has evolved with the rise of technology, hospitals, and the medical profession to a sort of scientific totalitarianism. Protec ting and enhancing patient agency, which is part of the moral work of nursing practice, can be difficult under such circumstances. Yet the g eography of sickness is changing as patients move from the hospital ba ck to the home. Because home is thought of as private, as the patient' s domain, nurses may think that supporting patient agency will be easi er with this transformation of health care. But that assumption may no t be warranted since the gaze of medicine will follow patients and cha nge the landscape of the home. The challenge for nursing will be to sh arpen the ''gaze of nursing,'' which is an antidote to the strictly bi omedical understanding of disease.