Nursing: Globalization of a female-gendered profession

Abstract

Governments, health managers and the general public in high-income countries invoke nurses as a central resource for achieving health political aims (Davies, 2007). This is hardly surprising, as nurses are the largest group of workers holding formal qualifications in healthcare. In OECD countries nurses usually outnumber doctors three to one (OECD, 2008: 14-15). Recent research suggests, however, that even though policies in high-income countries recognize nurses as important healthcare workers, the quality of nursing work from the point of view of the nurses as workers has been neglected. Recent health reforms have pushed for cuts in healthcare spending, resulting in deteriorating working conditions for nurses (Folbre, 2006). Neoliberal economic restructuring has emerged as a global force that has steered nation-states to explicitly create and reinforce the redistribution and internationalization of care work, including nursing (Misra et al., 2006). For instance, recent research evidence from the United States, the country that employs the largest number of foreign nurses, demonstrates that dissatisfaction with the nursing workplace is the key reason cited by nurses working outside of nursing employment (Black et al., 2008).