Professionalism as ideology: a socio-historical analysis of the discourse of professionalism in nursing

For most of this century, extensive and heated discourse has surrounded defining, conceptualizing, and implementing nursing professionalism. These discussions, for the most part, have approached professionalism as a set of universal, unchanging, objectively-measured criteria. This study explores professionalism as an ideology; an image that a social group gives of itself to itself, as a community with a history and identity. Analyses of eight decades of the American Journal of Nursing identify ways that the language of professionalism gives meaning to changing and competing social structures through rationalization and legitimation. The study further identifies how change has often been illusionary, illuminating how the language of professionalism has served to legitimate, and conceal reality. Identifying and understanding how political, social, and economic domination and asymmetry are rationalized and legitimated through language and ideology will allow nursing to demystify constraints and coercion in the delivery of health care.