The Nursing Profession in the UK and Lebanon: A Case Study of how Nurses Perceive Care, Gender, Emotional Capital and Professional Habitus

This research explores how Lebanese and British nurses, at different career stages, describe and delineate the relationship of nursing education and the role of gender, care, emotional capital and professional habitus within the nursing profession, using a qualitative comparative case-study approach. Nursing, almost universally, has been historically and till the present time known to be a numerically female-dominated profession. Nursing shortage, another universal constant in the nursing workforce, is a major factor that negatively affects the healthcare of patients. The recruitment of more men in nursing may have several benefits on the system. It could mitigate the extent to which nursing is devalued, given its frequent association with traditional female roles. It may also enhance nurses’ remuneration in general as nursing would be viewed as a more gender-balanced profession.
To elucidate the complexity related to gender, a sociological perspective is utilised in this thesis making use of Bourdieusian concepts of habitus, field and capital. Care ethics is another conceptual framework which can support this study well. It could be argued that while men base their care on justice, women base their care on relationships (Cloyes, 2002). This study will therefore explore the meaning of gender, a highly culturally bound term, and nursing education, in a qualitative comparative study, as described by Lebanese and British nurses. To capture the meaning of gender, a highly culturally bound term, I conducted 20 semi-structured interviews in each country. Interviews depict the meaning of gender, care, emotional capital and professional habitus for both male and female nurses and how it is influenced by cultural variations. The participants were professional male and female nurses and nursing students of various age groups, years of experience and nursing specialties.
The study also considers the professional image of nursing, which is an important theme in nursing. The professional image of nursing has many consequences for the recruitment and retention of nurses. Despite numerous efforts made worldwide to improve the professional image of nursing, the image of nursing still needs improvement. Socialisation of nurses is an important factor that helps in forming the professional image of nursing. This thesis will make recommendations on tailoring nursing education into a more gender balanced approach, to recruit and retain more men in nursing and to combat the nursing shortage.