Abstract
The study presents the current profile of Peruvian nursing, its professional construction and its dilemmas, emphasizing its socio-cultural features. To this end, an extensive literature was reviewed, interviewing nurses in key positions and analyzing secondary source data. This study keeps its distance from other studies on health care professions as a workforce, to analyze the low social legitimacy of the nursing profession despite being the great operator of health care services in Peru. This resulting psychological overload, additionally to the work overload is reflected in job dissatisfaction, stress, burnout, intention of changing careers, and a strong desire to migrate. As a result, Peruvian nursing has opted for three alternatives: a) resilience, which means to adapt to this unfavorable situation; b) abandoning the profession, or leaving the country; and c) reaction, which gathers all manifestations of the profession against abandonment, informality, and mediocrity. In conclusion, the biggest challenge of professions given low social value is the recognition and not only the salary redistribution. This significant challenge for Peruvian nursing does not mainly relate to legal professionalization, but professionalism, which must result in greater legitimacy and autonomy.
Highlights
This article covers a study on the situation, nature and trends of Peruvian nursing and its professional training in the Peruvian context, which scarcely recognizes its work.Nursing has always been analyzed as a workforce, but little as a social group
Peruvian nursing is practiced under incomplete social protection policies and a non-universal health system, and under a marked patriarchal structure and a professional undervaluation, which has over-determined its number, gender, recognition, power, professional qualifications and its function in the health care services
Fabiola Tavera, one of the founders of Peruvian nursing, explained this problem: “Nursing has suffered lack of understanding during its history, a great odyssey full of misfortunes and triumphs, romances and adventures; and the most important is that it has been the history of a professional group, whose status was marked by the prevailing norms of humanity that have given this noble profession an undeserved low valuation, very difficult to overcome”1(p.26)
Summary
This article covers a study on the situation, nature and trends of Peruvian nursing and its professional training in the Peruvian context, which scarcely recognizes its work. Fabiola Tavera, one of the founders of Peruvian nursing, explained this problem: “Nursing has suffered lack of understanding during its history, a great odyssey full of misfortunes and triumphs, romances and adventures; and the most important is that it has been the history of a professional group, whose status was marked by the prevailing norms of humanity that have given this noble profession an undeserved low valuation, very difficult to overcome”1(p.26) She refers to a sector of public opinion that insists in considering nursing as an ancillary support group, almost a volunteering focused on first aid and low complexity tasks[2]. The objective is to approach the nursing process and sense
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