The Interface of Nursing and Anthropology
Annual Review of AnthropologyPublished 1 October 1985
Molly C. Dougherty, Toni Tripp‐Reimer
Citations24
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SJR score0.98
SNIP2.77
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TL;DR
The contributions of nursing to medical anthropology, the influence anthropology has had on nursing, the differences between the interface of nursing and anthropology and that of medicine and anthropology, and the reasons that these differences have not been a focus in medical anthropology are document.
Abstract
Nursing in the Western world developed mainly as an applied field, and has contributed to social-cultural theory only in the past 30 years. The purpose of this presentation is to document (a) the contributions of nursing to medical anthropology, (b) the influence anthropology has had on nursing, (c) the differences between the interface of nursing and anthropology and that of medicine and anthropology, and (d) reasons that these differences have not been a focus in medical anthropology. We mean to draw attention to the special characteristics and aims of the nursing process and profession as they relate to the anthropological enterprise, but first we must describe the nature of nursing and how it differs from medicine. THE NATURE OF NURSING The interface of nursing and anthropology has a different focus than the interface of medicine and anthropology. While there are some similar areas of concern, there are also major and significant areas of divergence. That nursing is not subsumed by medicine is a point not widely understood in anthropology. In Medical Anthropology, Foster & Anderson (77) classically illustrated this point by titling a chapter Professionalism in Medicine: Nursing. The term subsumes both nursing and medicine; unfortunately, anthropologists have frequently equated health care only with medicine. Several factors account for the erroneous categorization of nursing as a part of medicine. First, there is considerable overlap in the contribution of each profession to client health, because all health professionals are generally concerned with the mental and physical well-being of clients. Second, anthropologists may be most familiar with nursing in university hospitals where the
Keywords
PsychologySocial SciencesHealth Professions
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