title: The entrepreneurial rationalities of governing and the construction of the enterprising nurse.
abstract: Drawing from a wider study exploring the role of registered nurses (RNs) in managing hospital care of older people, I present an analysis of some discursive mechanisms through which an enterprising nursing subjectivity was cultivated in RNs working in an Australian hospital. Data comprised information from the hospital Web site, policy documents, job descriptions, and interviews with 26 RNs. The analysis highlighted how texts such as nursing vision statements and job descriptions were not neutral or innocuous, but mechanisms that individually and collectively specified norms of enterprising conduct for RNs working in that hospital. Although the findings detailed how entrepreneurial rationalities and discourses governing health care actively transformed the meaning and practice of nursing, they also illustrated how factors such as role location and ward culture diluted the take up of enterprise discourses, suggesting that it was not possible to guarantee RNs as particular kinds of enterprising subjects.
authors.affiliation: University of South Australia, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia. terri.gibson@unisa.edu.au
authors.forename: Terri
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Gibson
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D001315:Australia; D005851:Geriatric Nursing / Q000592:standards; D006801:Humans; D007588:Job Satisfaction; D024802:Nurse's Role; D009723:Nurse-Patient Relations; D009741:Nursing Staff, Hospital / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000523:psychology* / Q000592:standards; D019555:Physician-Nurse Relations