An ambivalent recognition: The academisation of nursing in Switzerland

Abstract

Despite the academisation process the profession goes through in many Western countries for decades, the level of autonomy of the nursing profession is still relatively low; nurses remain broadly under the domination of doctors and health care institutions. The opening in 2009 at the University of Lausanne of a master’s degree marked a new stage in the history of the profession in Switzerland. With new resources, the emergence of this nurses’ profile disrupting professional relationships, both with respect to doctors as well as within the profession. After having presented the stakes of going through an academic training based on scientific knowledge, the article shows the attempt of redefinition of the practical and symbolic roles to which it gives rise as well as some of the effects of this diploma and its resources are having on the professional relationships.