Ricardo A. Ayala - Towards a Sociology of Nursing

Profession

Generally, a profession is a knowledge-based category of occupation which usually follows a period of tertiary education and vocational training and experience; at least in part, that knowledge comes from science. Professions are also structural, occupational and institutional arrangements for work associated with the uncertainties of modern life in risk societies.

Although distinguishing the professions from other, less complex forms of work is difficult today, oftentimes professional groups either are elites with strong political links and connections or use elites political mechanisms of market closure and occupational control. The focus of sociological interest lies precisely in the exclusionary devices that professionalisation encourages.

Para-Profession

Arising in the late 1960s, the term para-profession (or semi-profession) refers to aspiring occupations that evolve into the status of established professions, but are characterised primarily by their shortcomings. Beneath this notion lies the mystification and stigmatisation of gendered patterns of the division of laboursuch as nursing, teaching, social work and librarianshipwhich presupposes that all professions share the same value orientation.

Professionalism

Professionalism is used to denote an array of traits such as reliability and trustworthiness, which is expected to arise from the relationship with users. It is common that for professionals to be successful they have access to users confidential or sensitive information, while users need the insurance that such knowledge will not be used for fraudulent purposes. This is why mutual trust is key to professionalism.

Social Theory

Theory is an assembly of statements of why and how ideas or facts are interrelated. Social theory uses different broad-ranging frames to formulate theory, focusing, for example, on social structure (fairly stable behavioural patterns), social functions (roles which are regarded as essential to the operation of society as a whole), social conflict (a frame that regards society as an arena in which some groups are benefitted while others are deprived) and symbolic interactions (an approach that sees society a the result of peoples everyday interactions).

Most of this books contents analyse overt behaviour, struggles and purposeful interaction between social groups, thus using a social conflict stance.

Social Stratification

This is a system of social organisation based on ladders hierarchically organised. Stratification transcends individuals and persists across generations and societies. Some societies are stratified by casteswhere destiny is defined by birthwhile others are stratified by classeswhere ones position in the hierarchy is rather defined by the dynamics of the economy.

Social Class

Class, as used in this book, is a rung in the social ladder defined on the basis of income, material wealth and lifestyle. Different traditions and agendas of class analysis may lead to different emphasismaterial or symbolic. Class coexists with other forms of stratification, such as gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation and citizenship.