writing_womans_lives_symposium_paper_book_v2

family, at school, and at work hindered their ability to make changes in their work environments, but
they were hopeful about the younger generation whom they considered to have been trained by
more liberal teaching staff with more liberal methods, and thought that because they start work
when four years older, at the more mature age of 22, this could enable them to protect themselves
against abuse and exploitation since they would be more aware of what was going on around them.
Although the nurses interviewed belonged to the older generations, with an average of 21 years’
nursing experience, they usually expressed optimism about university education which they thought
would help give nursing a more respectable status in the long run. Aside from such positive remarks,
some nurses reported rather depressing views on the future of nursing in Turkey, especially those
who were still working in highly demanding units where they were expected to devote themselves to
never‐ending tasks for long hours, without autonomy or any chance for self‐expression, while being
systematically ignored as part of the team. Some of them reported, in a reactionary tone, that higher
education would not make the least improvement in the conditions of nursing; in their view, higherrank
nurses generally tend to isolate themselves and delegate tasks to lower‐rank nurses. And as
long as those in comparatively advantageous positions delegate unwanted tasks to those in lower
positions, the amelioration of conditions for the empowerment of all concerned will be postponed,
thereby threatening inter‐group solidarity and independence in the health sector. Despite the fact
that there have been attempts to establish and institutionalize independent nursing directorates as a
way of making hospital administrations more democratic, and despite the fact that all of the nurses
interviewed expressed their preference for being under the authority of a head nurse rather than
that of a doctor, some said that they do not believe their job will ever be independent of medical
authorities who still have the power of strong sanctions over nurses and the nursing practice which,
they think, deserves a better status than it has.
Nurses also reported that they had no bargaining power over their working conditions
whatsoever. The majority of my informants said that many times during their nursing career they
were assigned by their superiors without their consent to work in new units where they had to learn
new skills, adapt to new conditions and deal with new people. Nurses considered these frequent
reassignments according to the changing needs and conditions of the hospital as a deskilling and
disqualifying experience that in the long run damaged their self‐confidence and respectability. They
saw specialization in a certain area as highly important for their self‐confidence and respectability,
and even though they themselves seldom specialized, they claimed that nurses who did definitely
had more autonomy and consequently more self‐fulfilment.
The key factor is specialization. Now, Nurşen Abla is in the clinic, for example. She has
been there for 19 years, always working [in the same unit] and now again with us, we
work together. She is very good at her job. She immediately understands what the
problem of a new patient is and suggests practical solutions. That is.... because she knows
the history of her department. (Burcu, 18 years’ nursing experience) 23
In a recent newspaper interview, a head nurse stated that no more than 20 per cent of nurses
continue their nursing career beyond the age of 38, and that there are nurses in Turkey who prefer
jobs with cleaning companies where they find higher remuneration and better working conditions. 24
As can be seen from the following statement by one of my informants, there are positions in which it
is impossible to do the job properly and still protect oneself from unhealthy situations:
If you are committed, you lose a lot over time. You get worn out. You get cervical
hernia, you get lumbar disc hernia, [you contract] diseases. Some of my friends in several
clinics have been infected with hepatitis, and some have had occupational accidents.... In
our unit, there are hospital infections. We apply strict quarantine measures for the
patient. We say, since this patient requires quarantine measures, let us use masks, protect
our hands, cover our hair. But the doctors say, “Oh no, no need for that,” for example.
“How is it not needed? Isn’t this patient being quarantined?” “Yes, she is,” they say, but
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