For the best part of modern history, nursing’s education system has tended to fore-ground the pragmatic over the esoteric, the practical over the theoretical and the primacy of character over intellect.As a consequence of this binary logic at work, nursing education inoculated its neophytes with a set of troublesome values about the importance of nursing education vis-à-vis nursing practice and, as a result, created a powerful cultural climate which both wittingly and unwittingly perpetuated the subjugation of nurses to other health professionals rather than the obverse. In this paper, a number of historical educational texts are read from a ‘presentist’ perspective to illustrate how a certain ‘order of things’ inscribed itself on the body/subjects of generations of nurses.This history has left an unfortunate legacy that ensures nurses’ political voice continues to remain muted and their contribution to healthcare under-recognised and undervalued.

Item Type:	Refereed Article
Research Division:	Health Sciences
Research Group:	Nursing
Research Field:	Nursing not elsewhere classified
Objective Division:	Health
Objective Group:	Provision of health and support services
Objective Field:	Nursing
UTAS Author:	Walker, KN (Professor Kim Walker)
ID Code:	87116
Year Published:	2008
Web of Science® Times Cited:	15
Deposited By:	Health Sciences B
Deposited On:	2013-11-07
Last Modified:	2013-12-19
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