Nurses’ daily life: Gender relations from the time spent in hospital

Abstract

Objective: to analyze the everyday life of nurses through the sexual work division as well as through interdependence relations and the time in hospital. Method: quanti-qualitative study, based on the Time Use Survey and in Norbert Elias’s Configuration Theory of Interdependencies. Daily shifts distribution record, directed by 42 participants – with self-confrontation – by interviews which drew dialogues on subjective aspects of the everyday experiences related to use of time, based on a job at a university hospital. The theoretical intake that founded data analysis was based on concepts of conflicts of interest, power struggles, sexual work division and polychronic-monochronic concepts – whether the work environment demands multitasking nurses or not. Results: time records allowed to observe differences between the groups studied, useful to identify conflicts, tensions, power struggles and gender inequalities in interviewees’ everyday affairs that do not only affect physical and mental health, but also their way of life. Conclusion: the analytical path pointed out the need for public policies that promote equity in gender relations, keeping at sight the exercise of plural discourses and tolerant stances capable to respect differences between individual and collective time.