Description
Negotiating Nursing explores how the Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service (Q.A.s) salvaged their soldier-patients within the sensitive gender negotiations of what should and could constitute nursing work and where that work could occur. The book argues that the Q.A.s, an entirely female force during the Second World War, were essential to recovering men from the battlefield and for the war, despite concerns about women's presence on the frontline. Using personal testimony the book maps the developments in nurses' work as they created a legitimate space for themselves in war zones and established their position as the expert at the bedside. Yet, despite the acknowledgement of nurses' vital role in the medical service, their position was gendered. As the women of Britain were returned to the home post-war, it was the military nurses' womanhood that stymied their considerable skills from being transferred to the new welfare state.
An electronic edition of this book is freely available under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND) licence.
About the Author
Jane Brooks is a Senior Lecturer in the Division of Nursing, Midwifery and Social Work at the University of Manchester
Book Information
ISBN 9781526119063
Author Jane Brooks
Format Hardback
Page Count 248
Imprint Manchester University Press
Publisher Manchester University Press
Weight(grams) 440g
Dimensions(mm) 216mm * 138mm * 16mm
