Entry into Nursing: An Ethnographic Study

For my reading journal this week, I found a sample of an ethnography piece online. This piece follows new nurses in the field working in a hospital in Norway. The writer studied a group of nurses in two different wards over the course of one year. The purpose of the author’s study was to find out first hand whether or not the studies stating that new nurses had a very difficult time adjusting to the field, was true. The two wards that the author observed were the gynaecologic and orthopaedic wards. The author also spend part of the piece focusing on two specific nurses, and describing their demeanor with patients.

I found this Ethnography piece to be very interesting. Although the way that the piece was set up was a little difficult to follow at first glance, once I better understood the structure of the author’s piece, it was much easier to read. I like the way that the author separated the different aspects of research into different topics which were each very clear in their purpose. It was also a very well written essay and from reading this piece you get a sense that the author is very interested in the subject that they are writing about. I also particularly like this post because I plan on going into the nursing field and hope to work in the labor room at a hospital, so the gynaecologic piece is very relevant to me.