Occupational stress and RANs
Willis, E.
Australian Journal of Advanced Nursing a Quarterly Publication of the Royal Australian Nursing Federation 8(2): 18-26
1990
ISSN/ISBN: 0813-0531 PMID: 2102693 Document Number: 357919
This paper explores nurses' self-reported stress during a time of policy changes in the Northern Territory Health Department. It is argued that current research tends to associate nurses' stress with their personality or type of work, offering a psychological or occupational explanation. Little consideration is given to the complex structural subordination and ambivalence remote area nurses experience on Aboriginal settlements vis a vis their immediate superiors and clients. It is proposed that the nurses' self-reported stress can be partly accounted for by their marginal position between these two groups. The sociological concept of marginality can explain this.