The idealization of ‘compassion’ in trainee nurses’ talk: A psychosocial focus group study
研究分析了49名英国NHS实习护士的焦点小组数据，发现她们将同情理想化，并因此指责资深护士未能提供优质护理，这实际上是一种无意识防御机制，反映了她们对职业准入和无法实施同情护理的焦虑。
Why do nurses in training continue to draw on the ideal of compassion when responding to their experiences of nursing work in the UK National Health Service (NHS), despite the difficulties that they face in developing compassionate, long-term relationships with patients in practice? To answer this question, we draw from a psychosocial analysis of focus group data from 49 trainee nurses in the NHS. First, we show how this ideal leads them to blame qualified nurses for failures in patient care. We suggest this is an unconscious defence against the anxiety evoked both by the vulnerability of their position as those who need to gain access to the profession, and of being unable to conduct compassionate nursing work. Second, we emphasize that less powerful occupational groups, such as trainee nurses, may adopt defences that underpin dominant organizational policy, such as idealization, despite further disadvantaging their group and benefitting those in power. We conclude by questioning the particular emphasis on compassion in nurses’ training, which can prevent occupational solidarity and the ability to reflect on the structural and organizational factors required to conduct patient-centred nursing work.