Eva Maria Willis - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by Eva Maria Willis
Nursing and the crisis of care has become a metaphor for the end of the Anthropocene; ageing popu... more Nursing and the crisis of care has become a metaphor for the end of the Anthropocene; ageing populations and global pandemics highlight the fundamental place of care and nursing across the world (Puig de la Bellacasa, 2017). Yet, when it comes to living and working as a nurse, the policies that guide them are restricted to reproducing narrow definitions of what it is to be human (Haraway, 2016). We argue that paradigms of care create idealized patients (Smith and Willis, 2020) and ‘Vitruvian’ nurses using metaphors as modes of regulation. We argue with the concept of the Vitruvian man (Braidotti, 2013) to create the concept of the Vitruvian nurse. As the Vitruvian man is a version of the ideal human, the Vitruvian nurse is established as an axiomatic mechanism to govern care. We argue that this is misogynistic and reproduces restrictive power relations. The metaphor of the Vitruvian nurse is a uniformed woman who goes out of her way to attend to everyone's needs in an unconditional and subservient way where her self-value correlates with her ability to serve others at the detriment of herself. The Vitruvian nurse is achieved when she ceases to exist as a subjective entity, therefore becoming an impossibility. Contemporary nursing systems that maintain ideas such as Florence Nightingale are colonial (Wytenbroek and Vandenberg, 2017), patriarchal and reproduce knowledge production systems which we find troubling i.e. the white European male mutates into the white European female nurse, and is the perfect nurse. This completely unachievable metaphor becomes a mechanism of control and leads to feelings of isolation, boredom and burnout, which again is a metaphor for the epoch advanced capitalism that we live in. Feminine histories are overwritten to create care as a branded commodity. This metaphor is built on assumptions of the liminal human as an individual not a dividual, the individualistic (and neo-liberal) nature of patient centered care and that the care described in nursing codes of practice reveres the ‘autonomous’ practitioner over the material-discursive practices of care. Therefore, an irrefutable future is predetermined by the narrow philosophies of humanistic science - the human as a bound individual is privileged above everything. If we recognize the metaphors of the Vitruvian, and of boredom and burnout - in the times of the posthuman convergence - then what are the affirmative futures that we can produce?
Routledge eBooks, Sep 30, 2022
Catalyst, Nov 7, 2022
We, as nurses, refuse to cope. In this editorial style piece we discuss the ongoing crisis in nur... more We, as nurses, refuse to cope. In this editorial style piece we discuss the ongoing crisis in nursing and the ways in which this situation is being produced. We discuss the metaphors with which nursing is produced in the UK and US and how these metaphors produce an idealized version of nurses and nursing that is impossible. We situate this metaphor in critical posthuman theory by drawing comparisons to Braidotti's (2013) understanding of the idealised human as an axiom of social production under advanced capitalist societies. We make comparisons of this idealized person with the idealized nurses that are captured in nursing codes of conduct and practice. We then suggest ways in which we can resist and diffract metaphors in nursing to produce affirmative futures.
Nursing Inquiry
Care does not happen in a vacuum, including nursing care. With this in mind, we-Jess, Jane, Jamie... more Care does not happen in a vacuum, including nursing care. With this in mind, we-Jess, Jane, Jamie, Brandon, and Eva 1-partnered with critical posthuman scholars Goda Klumbytė from Kassel University in Germany and Dr. Kay Sidebottom from Stirling University in Scotland for a discussion of care. Goda's research straddles critical algorithm studies, systems design, and feminist theory, drawing together these critical perspectives with applied informatics. Kay focuses on
Nursing Inquiry
With this paper, we walk out some central ideas about posthumanisms and the ways in which nursing... more With this paper, we walk out some central ideas about posthumanisms and the ways in which nursing is already deeply entangled with them. At the same time, we point to ways in which nursing might benefit from further entanglement with other ideas emerging from posthumanisms. We first offer up a brief history of posthumanisms, following multiple roots to several points of formation. We then turn to key flavors of posthuman thought to differentiate between them and clarify our collective understanding and use of the terms. This includes considerations of the threads of Nursing Inquiry.
![Research paper thumbnail of Notes on [post]human nursing: What It MIGHT Be, What it is Not](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/103576064/thumbnails/1.jpg)
](With this paper, we walk out some central ideas about posthumanisms and the ways in which nursing... more With this paper, we walk out some central ideas about posthumanisms and the ways in which nursing is already deeply entangled with them. At the same time, we point to ways in which nursing might benefit from further entanglement with other ideas emerging from posthumanisms. We first offer up a brief history of posthumanisms, following multiple roots to several points of formation. We then turn to key flavors of posthuman thought to differentiate between them and clarify our collective understanding and use of the terms. This includes considerations of the threads of Nursing Inquiry.
Care does not happen in a vacuum, including nursing care. With this in mind, we-Jess, Jane, Jamie... more Care does not happen in a vacuum, including nursing care. With this in mind, we-Jess, Jane, Jamie, Brandon, and Eva 1-partnered with critical posthuman scholars Goda Klumbytė from Kassel University in Germany and Dr. Kay Sidebottom from Stirling University in Scotland for a discussion of care. Goda's research straddles critical algorithm studies, systems design, and feminist theory, drawing together these critical perspectives with applied informatics. Kay focuses on
![Research paper thumbnail of Notes on [post]human nursing: What It MIGHT Be, What it is Not](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/102902354/thumbnails/1.jpg)
](Nursing Inquiry, 2023
With this paper, we walk out some central ideas about posthumanisms and the ways in which nursing... more With this paper, we walk out some central ideas about posthumanisms and the ways in which nursing is already deeply entangled with them. At the same time, we point to ways in which nursing might benefit from further entanglement with other ideas emerging from posthumanisms. We first offer up a brief history of posthumanisms, following multiple roots to several points of formation. We then turn to key flavors of posthuman thought to differentiate between them and clarify our collective understanding and use of the terms. This includes considerations of the threads of Nursing Inquiry.
Nursing Inquiry
The Vitruvian Man is a metaphor for the "ideal man" by feminist posthuman philo... more The Vitruvian Man is a metaphor for the "ideal man" by feminist posthuman philosopher Rosi Braidotti (2013) as a proxy for eurocentric humanist ideals. The first half of this paper extends Braidotti's concept by thinking about the metaphor of the "ideal nurse" (Vitruvian nurse) and how this metaphor contributes to racism, oppression, and burnout in nursing and might restrict the professionalization of nursing. The Vitruvian nurse is an idealized and perfected form of a nurse with selfsacrificial language (re)producing self-sacrificing expectations. The second half of this paper looks at how regulatory frameworks (using the example of UK's Nursing and Midwifery Council Code of Conduct) institutionalize the conditions of possibility through collective imaginations. The domineering expectations found within the Vitruvian nurse metaphor and further codified by regulatory frameworks give rise to boredom and burnout. The paper ends by suggesting possible ways to diffract regulatory frameworks to practice with affirmative ethics and reduce feelings of selfsacrifice and exhaustion among nurses.
The Vitruvian Man is a metaphor for the "ideal man" by feminist posthuman philosopher Rosi Braido... more The Vitruvian Man is a metaphor for the "ideal man" by feminist posthuman philosopher Rosi Braidotti (2013) as a proxy for eurocentric humanist ideals. The first half of this paper extends Braidotti's concept by thinking about the metaphor of the "ideal nurse" (Vitruvian nurse) and how this metaphor contributes to racism, oppression, and burnout in nursing and might restrict the professionalization of nursing. The Vitruvian nurse is an idealized and perfected form of a nurse with selfsacrificial language (re)producing self-sacrificing expectations. The second half of this paper looks at how regulatory frameworks (using the example of UK's Nursing and Midwifery Council Code of Conduct) institutionalize the conditions of possibility through collective imaginations. The domineering expectations found within the Vitruvian nurse metaphor and further codified by regulatory frameworks give rise to boredom and burnout. The paper ends by suggesting possible ways to diffract regulatory frameworks to practice with affirmative ethics and reduce feelings of selfsacrifice and exhaustion among nurses.
Routledge eBooks, Sep 30, 2022
Witness, Jun 27, 2022
Nursing care is an embodied and co-creative, world-building practice made hypervisible in pandemi... more Nursing care is an embodied and co-creative, world-building practice made hypervisible in pandemic times. A traditional praxis that became a professionalized care practice, nursing bares the indelible mark of the ideologies that have come to shape the discipline, like whiteness, patriarchy, and capitalism to name a few. Embracing a critical feminist posthuman and new materialist perspective, in this paper we advance the notion that nursing care is a situated and embodied endeavor that cannot and should not be disconnected from sites of care, people receiving care, and the powers that structure care relations. Even in idealised contexts, nursing care is shaped by the confines of these forces. We tease out ideas that have molded nursing across time and within the epoch of the COVID pandemic. We draw upon imagination inspired by Arundhati Roy, and the pandemic is a portal, an opportunity for rebirth, as well as the speculative traditions of science fiction and Afrofuturism. Care practices are proposed with a critical posthuman perspective, in the spirit of Haraway's idea of composting. Composting is used metaphorically as actions to morph and decay the boundaries beyond traditional notions of care based in humanism. We imagine this in an effort to rethink what worlds we want to co-produce, a call to action where care can be revisioned as an arena where nurses, people, all matter, all creatures and worlds are co-created.
Catalyst, Nov 7, 2022
We, as nurses, refuse to cope. In this editorial style piece we discuss the ongoing crisis in nur... more We, as nurses, refuse to cope. In this editorial style piece we discuss the ongoing crisis in nursing and the ways in which this situation is being produced. We discuss the metaphors with which nursing is produced in the UK and US and how these metaphors produce an idealized version of nurses and nursing that is impossible. We situate this metaphor in critical posthuman theory by drawing comparisons to Braidotti's (2013) understanding of the idealised human as an axiom of social production under advanced capitalist societies. We make comparisons of this idealized person with the idealized nurses that are captured in nursing codes of conduct and practice. We then suggest ways in which we can resist and diffract metaphors in nursing to produce affirmative futures.
Witness The Canadian Journal of Critical Nursing Discourse , 2022
Nursing care is an embodied and co-creative, world-building practice made hypervisible in pandemi... more Nursing care is an embodied and co-creative, world-building practice made hypervisible in pandemic times. A traditional praxis that became a professionalized care practice, nursing bares the indelible mark of the ideologies that have come to shape the discipline, like whiteness, patriarchy, and capitalism to name a few. Embracing a critical feminist posthuman and new materialist perspective, in this paper we advance the notion that nursing care is a situated and embodied endeavor that cannot and should not be disconnected from sites of care, people receiving care, and the powers that structure care relations. Even in idealised contexts, nursing care is shaped by the confines of these forces. We tease out ideas that have molded nursing across time and within the epoch of the COVID pandemic. We draw upon imagination inspired by Arundhati Roy, and the pandemic is a portal, an opportunity for rebirth, as well as the speculative traditions of science fiction and Afrofuturism. Care practices are proposed with a critical posthuman perspective, in the spirit of Haraway's idea of composting. Composting is used metaphorically as actions to morph and decay the boundaries beyond traditional notions of care based in humanism. We imagine this in an effort to rethink what worlds we want to co-produce, a call to action where care can be revisioned as an arena where nurses, people, all matter, all creatures and worlds are co-created.
Nursing Philosophy, 2022
Despite the prominence of person‐centred care (PCC) in nursing, there is no general agreement on... more Despite the prominence of person‐centred care (PCC) in nursing, there is no general
agreement on the assumptions and the meaning of PCC. We sympathize with the
work of others who rethink PCC towards relational, embedded, and temporal
selfhood rather than individual personhood. Our perspective addresses criticism of
humanist assumptions in PCC using critical posthumanism as a diffraction from
dominant values We highlight the problematic realities that might be produced in
healthcare, leading to some people being more likely to be disenfranchised from
healthcare than others. We point to the colonial, homo‐ and transphobic, racist,
ableist, and ageist consequences of humanist traditions that have influenced the
development of PCC. We describe the deep rooted conditions that structurally
uphold inequality and undermine nursing practice that PCC reproduces. We
advocate for the self‐determination of patients and emphasize that we support
the fundamental mechanisms of PCC enabling patients' choice; however, without
critical introspection, these are limited to a portion of humans. Last, we present
limitations of our perspective based on our white*‐cisheteropatriarchy** positionality.
We point to the fact that any reimagining of models such as PCC should be
carefully done by listening, following, and ceding power to people with diversity
dimensions*** and the lived experience or expertise that exists from diverse
perspectives. We point towards Black, queer feminism, and critical disabilities
studies to contextualize our point of critique with humanism and PCC to amplify
equity for all people and communities. Theory and philosophy are useful to
understand restrictive factors in healthcare delivery and to inform systematic
strategies to improve the quality of care so as not to perpetuate the oppression of groups of people with diversity dimensions.
Nursing and the crisis of care has become a metaphor for the end of the Anthropocene; ageing popu... more Nursing and the crisis of care has become a metaphor for the end of the Anthropocene; ageing populations and global pandemics highlight the fundamental place of care and nursing across the world (Puig de la Bellacasa, 2017). Yet, when it comes to living and working as a nurse, the policies that guide them are restricted to reproducing narrow definitions of what it is to be human (Haraway, 2016). We argue that paradigms of care create idealized patients (Smith and Willis, 2020) and ‘Vitruvian’ nurses using metaphors as modes of regulation. We argue with the concept of the Vitruvian man (Braidotti, 2013) to create the concept of the Vitruvian nurse. As the Vitruvian man is a version of the ideal human, the Vitruvian nurse is established as an axiomatic mechanism to govern care. We argue that this is misogynistic and reproduces restrictive power relations. The metaphor of the Vitruvian nurse is a uniformed woman who goes out of her way to attend to everyone's needs in an uncondit...
Journal of Posthuman Studies
We argue that nurse work can illustrate posthuman theory, and we suggest that posthuman theory ma... more We argue that nurse work can illustrate posthuman theory, and we suggest that posthuman theory may have applications for the development of nurse work and care. We aim to contribute to philosophical conversations by making nurse work an accessible way to talk about posthumanism. First, we mobilise the humanistic perspective underlying nurse work. We draw attention to tensions in nurse work that are linked with humanistic thinking to make a case for the reconfiguration of nurse work with posthumanism. Next, we suggest how posthumanism may add to the understanding of nurse work. We do so in a first step by distinguishing posthumanism from transhumanism. In a second step, laying out three key features of posthumanism: all matter is one, monism and sympoiesis. We explore practical examples of nurse work with posthumanism to show theory in action and ways in which posthumanism can deterritorialise nurse work from humanism. Third, we look at what implications posthuman philosophy could have in nursing. In framing nursing and care practices in ways that do not necessarily have the human at the centre, we begin to create new possibilities for understanding nurse work.
We argue that nurse work can illustrate posthuman theory, and we suggest that posthuman theory ma... more We argue that nurse work can illustrate posthuman theory, and we suggest that posthuman theory may have applications for the development of nurse work and care. We aim to contribute to philosophical conversations by making nurse work an accessible way to talk about posthumanism.
First, we mobilise the humanistic perspective underlying nurse work. We draw attention to tensions in nurse work that are linked with humanistic thinking to make a case for the reconfiguration of nurse work with posthumanism. Next, we suggest how posthumanism may add to the understanding of nurse work. We do so in a first step by distinguishing posthumanism from transhumanism. In a second step, laying out three key features of posthumanism: all matter is one, monism and sympoiesis. We explore practical examples of nurse work with
posthumanism to show theory in action and ways in which posthumanism can deterritorialise nurse work from humanism. Third, we look at what implications posthuman philosophy could have in nursing. In framing nursing and care practices in ways that do not necessarily have the human at the centre, we begin to create new possibilities for understanding nurse work.
Nursing and the crisis of care has become a metaphor for the end of the Anthropocene; ageing popu... more Nursing and the crisis of care has become a metaphor for the end of the Anthropocene; ageing populations and global pandemics highlight the fundamental place of care and nursing across the world (Puig de la Bellacasa, 2017). Yet, when it comes to living and working as a nurse, the policies that guide them are restricted to reproducing narrow definitions of what it is to be human (Haraway, 2016). We argue that paradigms of care create idealized patients (Smith and Willis, 2020) and ‘Vitruvian’ nurses using metaphors as modes of regulation. We argue with the concept of the Vitruvian man (Braidotti, 2013) to create the concept of the Vitruvian nurse. As the Vitruvian man is a version of the ideal human, the Vitruvian nurse is established as an axiomatic mechanism to govern care. We argue that this is misogynistic and reproduces restrictive power relations. The metaphor of the Vitruvian nurse is a uniformed woman who goes out of her way to attend to everyone's needs in an unconditional and subservient way where her self-value correlates with her ability to serve others at the detriment of herself. The Vitruvian nurse is achieved when she ceases to exist as a subjective entity, therefore becoming an impossibility. Contemporary nursing systems that maintain ideas such as Florence Nightingale are colonial (Wytenbroek and Vandenberg, 2017), patriarchal and reproduce knowledge production systems which we find troubling i.e. the white European male mutates into the white European female nurse, and is the perfect nurse. This completely unachievable metaphor becomes a mechanism of control and leads to feelings of isolation, boredom and burnout, which again is a metaphor for the epoch advanced capitalism that we live in. Feminine histories are overwritten to create care as a branded commodity. This metaphor is built on assumptions of the liminal human as an individual not a dividual, the individualistic (and neo-liberal) nature of patient centered care and that the care described in nursing codes of practice reveres the ‘autonomous’ practitioner over the material-discursive practices of care. Therefore, an irrefutable future is predetermined by the narrow philosophies of humanistic science - the human as a bound individual is privileged above everything. If we recognize the metaphors of the Vitruvian, and of boredom and burnout - in the times of the posthuman convergence - then what are the affirmative futures that we can produce?
Routledge eBooks, Sep 30, 2022
Catalyst, Nov 7, 2022
We, as nurses, refuse to cope. In this editorial style piece we discuss the ongoing crisis in nur... more We, as nurses, refuse to cope. In this editorial style piece we discuss the ongoing crisis in nursing and the ways in which this situation is being produced. We discuss the metaphors with which nursing is produced in the UK and US and how these metaphors produce an idealized version of nurses and nursing that is impossible. We situate this metaphor in critical posthuman theory by drawing comparisons to Braidotti's (2013) understanding of the idealised human as an axiom of social production under advanced capitalist societies. We make comparisons of this idealized person with the idealized nurses that are captured in nursing codes of conduct and practice. We then suggest ways in which we can resist and diffract metaphors in nursing to produce affirmative futures.
Nursing Inquiry
Care does not happen in a vacuum, including nursing care. With this in mind, we-Jess, Jane, Jamie... more Care does not happen in a vacuum, including nursing care. With this in mind, we-Jess, Jane, Jamie, Brandon, and Eva 1-partnered with critical posthuman scholars Goda Klumbytė from Kassel University in Germany and Dr. Kay Sidebottom from Stirling University in Scotland for a discussion of care. Goda's research straddles critical algorithm studies, systems design, and feminist theory, drawing together these critical perspectives with applied informatics. Kay focuses on
Nursing Inquiry
With this paper, we walk out some central ideas about posthumanisms and the ways in which nursing... more With this paper, we walk out some central ideas about posthumanisms and the ways in which nursing is already deeply entangled with them. At the same time, we point to ways in which nursing might benefit from further entanglement with other ideas emerging from posthumanisms. We first offer up a brief history of posthumanisms, following multiple roots to several points of formation. We then turn to key flavors of posthuman thought to differentiate between them and clarify our collective understanding and use of the terms. This includes considerations of the threads of Nursing Inquiry.
With this paper, we walk out some central ideas about posthumanisms and the ways in which nursing... more With this paper, we walk out some central ideas about posthumanisms and the ways in which nursing is already deeply entangled with them. At the same time, we point to ways in which nursing might benefit from further entanglement with other ideas emerging from posthumanisms. We first offer up a brief history of posthumanisms, following multiple roots to several points of formation. We then turn to key flavors of posthuman thought to differentiate between them and clarify our collective understanding and use of the terms. This includes considerations of the threads of Nursing Inquiry.
Care does not happen in a vacuum, including nursing care. With this in mind, we-Jess, Jane, Jamie... more Care does not happen in a vacuum, including nursing care. With this in mind, we-Jess, Jane, Jamie, Brandon, and Eva 1-partnered with critical posthuman scholars Goda Klumbytė from Kassel University in Germany and Dr. Kay Sidebottom from Stirling University in Scotland for a discussion of care. Goda's research straddles critical algorithm studies, systems design, and feminist theory, drawing together these critical perspectives with applied informatics. Kay focuses on
Nursing Inquiry, 2023
With this paper, we walk out some central ideas about posthumanisms and the ways in which nursing... more With this paper, we walk out some central ideas about posthumanisms and the ways in which nursing is already deeply entangled with them. At the same time, we point to ways in which nursing might benefit from further entanglement with other ideas emerging from posthumanisms. We first offer up a brief history of posthumanisms, following multiple roots to several points of formation. We then turn to key flavors of posthuman thought to differentiate between them and clarify our collective understanding and use of the terms. This includes considerations of the threads of Nursing Inquiry.
Nursing Inquiry
The Vitruvian Man is a metaphor for the "ideal man" by feminist posthuman philo... more The Vitruvian Man is a metaphor for the "ideal man" by feminist posthuman philosopher Rosi Braidotti (2013) as a proxy for eurocentric humanist ideals. The first half of this paper extends Braidotti's concept by thinking about the metaphor of the "ideal nurse" (Vitruvian nurse) and how this metaphor contributes to racism, oppression, and burnout in nursing and might restrict the professionalization of nursing. The Vitruvian nurse is an idealized and perfected form of a nurse with selfsacrificial language (re)producing self-sacrificing expectations. The second half of this paper looks at how regulatory frameworks (using the example of UK's Nursing and Midwifery Council Code of Conduct) institutionalize the conditions of possibility through collective imaginations. The domineering expectations found within the Vitruvian nurse metaphor and further codified by regulatory frameworks give rise to boredom and burnout. The paper ends by suggesting possible ways to diffract regulatory frameworks to practice with affirmative ethics and reduce feelings of selfsacrifice and exhaustion among nurses.
The Vitruvian Man is a metaphor for the "ideal man" by feminist posthuman philosopher Rosi Braido... more The Vitruvian Man is a metaphor for the "ideal man" by feminist posthuman philosopher Rosi Braidotti (2013) as a proxy for eurocentric humanist ideals. The first half of this paper extends Braidotti's concept by thinking about the metaphor of the "ideal nurse" (Vitruvian nurse) and how this metaphor contributes to racism, oppression, and burnout in nursing and might restrict the professionalization of nursing. The Vitruvian nurse is an idealized and perfected form of a nurse with selfsacrificial language (re)producing self-sacrificing expectations. The second half of this paper looks at how regulatory frameworks (using the example of UK's Nursing and Midwifery Council Code of Conduct) institutionalize the conditions of possibility through collective imaginations. The domineering expectations found within the Vitruvian nurse metaphor and further codified by regulatory frameworks give rise to boredom and burnout. The paper ends by suggesting possible ways to diffract regulatory frameworks to practice with affirmative ethics and reduce feelings of selfsacrifice and exhaustion among nurses.
Routledge eBooks, Sep 30, 2022
Witness, Jun 27, 2022
Nursing care is an embodied and co-creative, world-building practice made hypervisible in pandemi... more Nursing care is an embodied and co-creative, world-building practice made hypervisible in pandemic times. A traditional praxis that became a professionalized care practice, nursing bares the indelible mark of the ideologies that have come to shape the discipline, like whiteness, patriarchy, and capitalism to name a few. Embracing a critical feminist posthuman and new materialist perspective, in this paper we advance the notion that nursing care is a situated and embodied endeavor that cannot and should not be disconnected from sites of care, people receiving care, and the powers that structure care relations. Even in idealised contexts, nursing care is shaped by the confines of these forces. We tease out ideas that have molded nursing across time and within the epoch of the COVID pandemic. We draw upon imagination inspired by Arundhati Roy, and the pandemic is a portal, an opportunity for rebirth, as well as the speculative traditions of science fiction and Afrofuturism. Care practices are proposed with a critical posthuman perspective, in the spirit of Haraway's idea of composting. Composting is used metaphorically as actions to morph and decay the boundaries beyond traditional notions of care based in humanism. We imagine this in an effort to rethink what worlds we want to co-produce, a call to action where care can be revisioned as an arena where nurses, people, all matter, all creatures and worlds are co-created.
Catalyst, Nov 7, 2022
We, as nurses, refuse to cope. In this editorial style piece we discuss the ongoing crisis in nur... more We, as nurses, refuse to cope. In this editorial style piece we discuss the ongoing crisis in nursing and the ways in which this situation is being produced. We discuss the metaphors with which nursing is produced in the UK and US and how these metaphors produce an idealized version of nurses and nursing that is impossible. We situate this metaphor in critical posthuman theory by drawing comparisons to Braidotti's (2013) understanding of the idealised human as an axiom of social production under advanced capitalist societies. We make comparisons of this idealized person with the idealized nurses that are captured in nursing codes of conduct and practice. We then suggest ways in which we can resist and diffract metaphors in nursing to produce affirmative futures.
Witness The Canadian Journal of Critical Nursing Discourse , 2022
Nursing care is an embodied and co-creative, world-building practice made hypervisible in pandemi... more Nursing care is an embodied and co-creative, world-building practice made hypervisible in pandemic times. A traditional praxis that became a professionalized care practice, nursing bares the indelible mark of the ideologies that have come to shape the discipline, like whiteness, patriarchy, and capitalism to name a few. Embracing a critical feminist posthuman and new materialist perspective, in this paper we advance the notion that nursing care is a situated and embodied endeavor that cannot and should not be disconnected from sites of care, people receiving care, and the powers that structure care relations. Even in idealised contexts, nursing care is shaped by the confines of these forces. We tease out ideas that have molded nursing across time and within the epoch of the COVID pandemic. We draw upon imagination inspired by Arundhati Roy, and the pandemic is a portal, an opportunity for rebirth, as well as the speculative traditions of science fiction and Afrofuturism. Care practices are proposed with a critical posthuman perspective, in the spirit of Haraway's idea of composting. Composting is used metaphorically as actions to morph and decay the boundaries beyond traditional notions of care based in humanism. We imagine this in an effort to rethink what worlds we want to co-produce, a call to action where care can be revisioned as an arena where nurses, people, all matter, all creatures and worlds are co-created.
Nursing Philosophy, 2022
Despite the prominence of person‐centred care (PCC) in nursing, there is no general agreement on... more Despite the prominence of person‐centred care (PCC) in nursing, there is no general
agreement on the assumptions and the meaning of PCC. We sympathize with the
work of others who rethink PCC towards relational, embedded, and temporal
selfhood rather than individual personhood. Our perspective addresses criticism of
humanist assumptions in PCC using critical posthumanism as a diffraction from
dominant values We highlight the problematic realities that might be produced in
healthcare, leading to some people being more likely to be disenfranchised from
healthcare than others. We point to the colonial, homo‐ and transphobic, racist,
ableist, and ageist consequences of humanist traditions that have influenced the
development of PCC. We describe the deep rooted conditions that structurally
uphold inequality and undermine nursing practice that PCC reproduces. We
advocate for the self‐determination of patients and emphasize that we support
the fundamental mechanisms of PCC enabling patients' choice; however, without
critical introspection, these are limited to a portion of humans. Last, we present
limitations of our perspective based on our white*‐cisheteropatriarchy** positionality.
We point to the fact that any reimagining of models such as PCC should be
carefully done by listening, following, and ceding power to people with diversity
dimensions*** and the lived experience or expertise that exists from diverse
perspectives. We point towards Black, queer feminism, and critical disabilities
studies to contextualize our point of critique with humanism and PCC to amplify
equity for all people and communities. Theory and philosophy are useful to
understand restrictive factors in healthcare delivery and to inform systematic
strategies to improve the quality of care so as not to perpetuate the oppression of groups of people with diversity dimensions.
Nursing and the crisis of care has become a metaphor for the end of the Anthropocene; ageing popu... more Nursing and the crisis of care has become a metaphor for the end of the Anthropocene; ageing populations and global pandemics highlight the fundamental place of care and nursing across the world (Puig de la Bellacasa, 2017). Yet, when it comes to living and working as a nurse, the policies that guide them are restricted to reproducing narrow definitions of what it is to be human (Haraway, 2016). We argue that paradigms of care create idealized patients (Smith and Willis, 2020) and ‘Vitruvian’ nurses using metaphors as modes of regulation. We argue with the concept of the Vitruvian man (Braidotti, 2013) to create the concept of the Vitruvian nurse. As the Vitruvian man is a version of the ideal human, the Vitruvian nurse is established as an axiomatic mechanism to govern care. We argue that this is misogynistic and reproduces restrictive power relations. The metaphor of the Vitruvian nurse is a uniformed woman who goes out of her way to attend to everyone's needs in an uncondit...
Journal of Posthuman Studies
We argue that nurse work can illustrate posthuman theory, and we suggest that posthuman theory ma... more We argue that nurse work can illustrate posthuman theory, and we suggest that posthuman theory may have applications for the development of nurse work and care. We aim to contribute to philosophical conversations by making nurse work an accessible way to talk about posthumanism. First, we mobilise the humanistic perspective underlying nurse work. We draw attention to tensions in nurse work that are linked with humanistic thinking to make a case for the reconfiguration of nurse work with posthumanism. Next, we suggest how posthumanism may add to the understanding of nurse work. We do so in a first step by distinguishing posthumanism from transhumanism. In a second step, laying out three key features of posthumanism: all matter is one, monism and sympoiesis. We explore practical examples of nurse work with posthumanism to show theory in action and ways in which posthumanism can deterritorialise nurse work from humanism. Third, we look at what implications posthuman philosophy could have in nursing. In framing nursing and care practices in ways that do not necessarily have the human at the centre, we begin to create new possibilities for understanding nurse work.
We argue that nurse work can illustrate posthuman theory, and we suggest that posthuman theory ma... more We argue that nurse work can illustrate posthuman theory, and we suggest that posthuman theory may have applications for the development of nurse work and care. We aim to contribute to philosophical conversations by making nurse work an accessible way to talk about posthumanism.
First, we mobilise the humanistic perspective underlying nurse work. We draw attention to tensions in nurse work that are linked with humanistic thinking to make a case for the reconfiguration of nurse work with posthumanism. Next, we suggest how posthumanism may add to the understanding of nurse work. We do so in a first step by distinguishing posthumanism from transhumanism. In a second step, laying out three key features of posthumanism: all matter is one, monism and sympoiesis. We explore practical examples of nurse work with
posthumanism to show theory in action and ways in which posthumanism can deterritorialise nurse work from humanism. Third, we look at what implications posthuman philosophy could have in nursing. In framing nursing and care practices in ways that do not necessarily have the human at the centre, we begin to create new possibilities for understanding nurse work.