Discourse Analysis

Nursing Articles: A Discourse Analysis

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Nursing Articles: A Discourse Analysis

The following paper presents a discourse analysis of nursing journal articles and elaborates on the contextual and textual intricacies of the selected genre. Discourse analysis is also known as discourse studies and highlights the techniques through which language functions among people. The field of academic discourse analysis encapsulates spoken and written inscriptions and include all the published or spoken genre such as periodicals, broachers, newspapers, legal and business documentation, websites and interviews and speeches and the list goes on and on. Unlike other language analytical devices that only pivot the phrasal, grammatical, and structural issues, discourse analysis focuses on the context of the speaker or narrator and the audiences (Nordquist, 2019). The content below evaluates the text and context of three nursing journal articles and attempts to find out how nursing rhetoric is substantiating compassionate, holistic, and healing attributes among nursing faction.

Nursing is a métier that needs utter patience and a heroic spirit to execute regular tasks effectively and efficiently. Therefore, the nursing articles incorporate different approaches to relay the underlying message to the prospect and professional nurses. In order to comprehend the associated rhetoric and their literary devices, three journal article from healthcare and nursing fields are selected, which are listed below:

Edith Cavell WWI Nurse, Hero, Martyr: by Marcena Walker

Florence Nightingale: The Mother of Nursing: by Hosein Karimi & Negin Masoudi Alavi

The Journey from Concept to Nursing Practice: by Deborah McElligott

Marcena Walker wrote the journal article "Edith Cavell; WWI Nurse, Hero, Martyr" in 2003. Throughout the article, the author opts for a biographical diction and relays the life and times and hardships of Edith Cavell, who was the historically eminent nursing figure. In order to describe the delicate yet most sturdy persona of Covell, the author used different adjectives to proffer a comparison between her frail gender attributes, which never affected the unshakeable and robust compassion of Covell as a nurse. For her healing, helping other people and playing her part in mitigating the miseries of others was the first most priority. Covell learned to aid the unfortunate people from an early age and had a soft and empathetic heart that, in turn, compelled her to overlook her own life for the sake of the greater good. The article incorporates different quotes from Covell that infuse a certain air of confidence and empathy that could augment the morale and spirits of professional nurses to a great extent. For instance, it is quoted that Covell said, “Someday, somehow, I am going to do something useful. I don’t know what it will be, but it must be something for people. They are, most of them, so helpless, so hurt and so unhappy” (Walker, 2003). The quote affirms that the underlying purpose of Covell’s life as a nurse was supporting and caring for the underprivileged populace, and she also worked as a war nurse in WWI. Covell’s passion was extraordinarily concrete and real that she lost her precious life in the contentment of her vision. On the other hand, the article relates the mission of nursing as a serving mode dedicated to God; Covell admitted that “Standing as I do, in view of God and eternity, I realize that patriotism is not enough; I must have no hatred or bitterness towards anyone” (Walker, 2003). Moreover, the article underlines Covell’s admiration for Florence Nightingale and reflects that inspiration from other nurses is imperative.

The second journal article is “Florence Nightingale: The Mother of Nursing” is written by Hosein Karimi & Negin Masoudi Alavi in 2015. The article revolves around the generous nursing practices of Nightingale, who is known as the founder of modern nursing. The elaborative account of Nightingale and her commendable nursing dedications were commenced through a divine message she thought came from God. Nightingale encountered considerable impediment during the initial phases of her nursing career; her parents objected to her hospital job, but she made a way through with ultimate steadiness. Nightingale, like Cavell, worked as a war nurse among the ado of the Crimean War; the very war causes an infectious disease during her last years of life. Based on her thorough nursing experiences, Nightingale devised some fundamental rules and ethical framework for modern nurses. All such principles are tightly intertwined with the well-being of patients and nurses and are effective tactics to increase the caring interconnectivity and confidentiality in the nursing profession. The article included several quotes of Nightingale; she explicates that “remember every nurse should be one who is depended upon, in other words, capable of being a “confidential nurse” (Karimi & Alavi, 2015). Nightingale believed in the power of cleanliness and the refreshing environment as a sustenance vitality for patients. Therefore, her interventions primarily focused on the availability of hygiene and sanitation of medical apparatus, fruits, and drinking water. Her gentle and sympathetic nature compelled Nightingale to care for soldiers as a mother; she sacrificed her rest and convenience to watch over the patients even during night times. Nightingale died at the age of ninety, and her endeavors paved the path for reliving techniques for war patients.

The third article, “The Journey from Concept to Nursing Practice,” was written by Deborah McElligott in 2010. Throughout the article, the author attempts to define the knowledge scope, and other interconnected façades of treating a conscious patient; in order to support the underlying proposition, different inspirational instances and chronological nursing practices are elucidated. According to the research findings and implications of nursing field studies, it is asserted that nursing is a holistic field, and the essence of life, as well as spiritual inclination, is its central themes. Furthermore, it is also implied that nurses have divine potential to heal the patients through the notion of “transpersonal caring, and innate healing abilities/ nature / God and mediation” (McElligott, 2010). In due course, the paper also referred to the unquestionable capabilities of Florence Nightingale and quoted her beliefs. The article states that according to Nightingale the nursing is “a process of bringing together all aspects of oneself, body, mind, and spirit to achieve and maintain integration and balance” (McElligott, 2010).

In the above are analyzed three different journal articles which are written by authors of diverse cultures and conducted studies in different eras of time, yet the main posit of all three nursing articles are more or less the same. As a matter of fact, nursing is a sacred and enthusiastic profession, and it is not all about earning money instead, it is something more profound and holistic. The essence of the nursing profession is evident from selected articles; Edith Covell and Nightingale and the description of heavenly aptitudes of nurses to heal underline the spiritual and otherworldly significance of nurses. The textual assertion of articles segregated nurses from the ordinary populace and used anaphora to affirm that nurses have greater-than-life objectives, and they work tirelessly and sometimes voluntarily to save and console the lives of others. The articles uniformly employed the approach of the pathos to outline the miserable human conditions where the importance of nurses becomes magnified. Edith Cavell served fearlessly and heroically during World War I, she never discriminated in her profession and took sincere care of everyone regardless of social or political status. Cavell also catered to the healthcare necessities of the criminals, and on the way of her obligations, she lost her life. Similarly, Florence Nightingale established contemporary nursing practices through scientific reasoning and in-depth understanding regarding delicate patients’ issues. Regardless of her parents’ resistance, Nightingale never got deviated from her core reason of being and carried on her voluntary work. Nightingale served selflessly on the occasion of the Crimean War, and while establishing clean environments for others, she fell prey to an infectious disease that, in turn, became the reason for her death. The metaphor of inspiration is eminent in the selected articles that corroborate the significance of experience-sharing and role modeling in the nursing profession.

On the other hand, all three articles included direct quotations from the leading nursing dispositions. The inclusion of such expression rectifies that the passion and standpoint of other nurses can stabilize the perspectives of upcoming nurses as well. The statements of Edith Covell conveyed the connotations that emphasize the original vision of all nurses i.e., to sustaining, caring, and healing the people in need. On the other hand, Nightingale, through her sentences, described the fragility of the nursing profession and intensity of the bond between nurse and patient. According to Nightingale, confidence, dependability, and communicational skills are an inevitable trait in a nursing career. Along with other sentimental aspects, the articles verified that all nurses are implicitly or explicitly connected to God, and the divinity allows nurses a supreme healing and holistic power that no ordinary individual could attain. Edith Covell felt accountable for her acts, priorities, and demeanor in front of God. Nightingale found her way through divine and unseen revelation. The third article also authenticates the presence of God’s bestowed healing powers into the form of nurses.

Reference

Karimi, H., & Masoudi Alavi, N. (2015). Florence Nightingale: The Mother of Nursing. Nursing And Midwifery Studies, 4(2). doi: 10.17795/nmsjournal29475

McElligott, D. (2010). The Journey From Concept to Nursing Practice. Journal Of Holistic Nursing, 28(4), 251-259. doi: 10.1177/0898010110376321

Nordquist, R. (2019). Observing the Human Use of Language: Discourse Analysis. Retrieved 21 October 2019, from https://www.thoughtco.com/discourse-analysis-or-da-1690462

Walker, M. (2003). Edith Cavell. Journal Of Christian Nursing, 20(4), 38-40. doi: 10.1097/01.cnj.0000262262.49828.73