AN ETHNOGRAPHIC STUDY OF NURSING CULTURE AS AN EXPLORATION FOR DETERMINING THE EXISTENCE OF A SYSTEM OF RITUAL

The idea that much of nursing is 'ritualized' activity which is harmfu l to patient care assumes that 'ritual' itself is unacceptable behavio ur or practice. At a time when market forces are clearly influencing t he delivery of care and, in turn, changes in nursing practice, it has become important both to clarify what 'ritual' is and to determine its existence and 'form' within nursing. This study explored nursing cult ure for 'ritual' in a ward setting and used ethnography as both method and description. Rituals were found to exist in the working day of th e nurses studied, but was not an indication that 'ritualized behaviour ' is harmful to individualized patient care. There is a clear need, ho wever, to determine specifically the difference between 'unsafe outdat ed practices' and ritual in a cultural 'sense'. This would ensure that what had to be relinquished would in no way jeopardize the future exi stence of nursing and nurses as socially cohesive groups with their ow n culture.