Global Qualitative Nursing Research (Apr 2023)

Elucidating the Ruling Relations of Nurses’ Work in Labor and Delivery: An Institutional Ethnography

  • Paula Kelly,
  • Nicole Snow,
  • Maggie Quance,
  • Caroline Porr

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1177/23333936231170824
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 10

Abstract

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Obstetrics is a well-known area for malpractice and medical-legal claims, specifically as they relate to injuries the baby suffers during the intrapartum period. There is a direct implication for nurses’ work in labor and delivery because the law recognizes that monitoring fetal well-being during labor is a nursing responsibility. Using institutional ethnography, we uncovered how two powerful ruling discourses, namely biomedical and medical-legal risk discourses, socially organize nurses’ fetal surveillance work in labor and delivery through the use of an intertextual hierarchy and an ideological circle.