Nurses, doctors and the body of the patient: medical dominance revisited

Abstract

Medical dominance is one of the most obvious features of the health care system and is particularly apparent in the relationship between doctors and nurses. Reasons given for the subordination of nurses to doctors have included matters of gender, class and state patronage of medicine. This paper, through an examination of university curricula and journal content, explores the notion that control over the model of the body is a major way in which medicine preserves its dominance over nursing. One reason for medicine maintaining its superior position is that nursing is not challenging this model of the body.