Blood Work: Canadian Nursing and Blood Transfusion, 1942-1990

Abstract

The extension of blood transfusion to civilian populations was contingent on the availability of a nursing workforce capable of taking on increasingly responsible roles. Nurses assumed a variety of roles as they incorporated blood work into patient care and, in the process, enabled, embodied, and engendered it as nurses' and women's work. Initially, the student workforce facilitated transfusion through roles that were congruent with nursing's domestic roots. Later, it constrained the expansion of blood work because of its perpetually novice nature. Delegation constituted one strategy by which a limited number of persons could become experienced and autonomous in a particular role. As long as the skill remained limited, nurses shared its associated power and status, which differentiated them within the work culture. A few women were able to shape blood work to their advantage, using their expertise either as job security or as a bargaining point to negotiate better working conditions. However, when the skill was routinized and dispersed among many nurses, it became dirty work. The examination of one specific technology that shifted from medicine into nursing contributes insights to current issues of expanded roles and delegated skills. Nurses need to question seriously what is gained and lost as they take on and let go of technologies. They need to consider what kinds of knowledge will be needed and how best to develop it. Finally, they need to reflect how changes might complicate care giving and nurses' work.