Legitimate nurse’s aides

Des aides-soignants légitimes

Marius Salgado Hansen ()
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Marius Salgado Hansen: CERMES3 - UMR 8211 / U988 / UM 7 - CERMES3 - Centre de recherche Médecine, sciences, santé, santé mentale, société - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - INSERM - Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - UPCité - Université Paris Cité

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Abstract: Work in psychiatric hospitals, much like in general hospitals, brings together actors from widely diverse professional and socioeconomic backgrounds, who nevertheless work as a team in caring for the patients. However, the influence of hierarchical and economic factors in management decisions has led to a cascading task drop further consolidated by both the formal and informal organization of labor. Indeed, the less prestigious and technical tasks are relegated from psychiatrists to nurses, who then pass on their own less rewarding tasks to nursing assistants. The latter, thus, are left in charge of the larger share of "dirty work", which forces them into a socially and professionally illegitimate position; a position that is particularly visible in their exclusion and self-exclusion from team-wide briefings. Basing our reflection on long-term field work in three mental health units, we will present the unconventional mechanics present in the third unit wherein nursing assistants have significant sway over workplace decisions despite their hierarchical position. From a mixed perspective of both the sociology of psychiatry and the sociology of professions, we will attempt to elucidate the root causes of this framework through an exploration of the history of the unit, as well as the psychiatric ideology to which it subscribes.

Keywords: Psychiatry; Medical work; Caregivers; Care; Metropolitan France; Psychiatrie; Travail médical; Soignant; Prise en charge; France métropolitaine (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-04159160
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Published in Anthropologie et Santé, 2023, 26, ⟨10.4000/anthropologiesante.12574⟩

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04159160

DOI: 10.4000/anthropologiesante.12574

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