Operating room nurses continue to draw criticism regarding the appropriateness of a nursing presence in the operating room. The technological focus of the theatre and the ways in which nurses in the theatre have shaped and reshaped their practice in response to technological change have caused people within and outside the nursing profession to question whether operating room nursing is a technological rather than nursing undertaking. This paper reports findings from an ethnographic study that was conducted in an Australian operating department. The study examined the contribution of nurses to the work of the operating room through intensive observation and ethnographic interviews. This paper uses selected findings from the study to explore the ways in which nurses in theatre interpret their role in terms of caring in a technological environment.

Item Type:	Refereed Article
Research Division:	Health Sciences
Research Group:	Nursing
Research Field:	Acute care
Objective Division:	Health
Objective Group:	Provision of health and support services
Objective Field:	Nursing
UTAS Author:	Bull, R (Professor Rosalind Bull)
ID Code:	39492
Year Published:	2006
Deposited By:	UTAS Centre for Rural Health
Deposited On:	2006-08-01
Last Modified:	2010-06-03
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