Nexus analysis and interaction in healthcare educational practices

ABSTRACT. Internationally, student nurses' attrition after clinical practice is an increasing problem (Hamshire, Willgoss, & Wibberley, 2012; Pilegård Jensen, 2006). A better understanding of 'becoming a nurse' as situated practice in the hospital wards might help avoid pitfalls in the clinical practice. Thus a thorough insight into the field is necessary in order to change it. Using nexus analysis (Scollon & Scollon, 2004, 2007) as an ethnographic framework a study of the development of a professional identity among student nurses in Denmark was conducted. Scollon and Scollon’s notions on 'navigate' and 'engage' in the field provided a frame to combine both discourse (Edley, 2014) document (Prior, 2003) and interaction analysis (Jordan & Henderson, 1995; Sacks, 1992) in order to grasp the crucial social actors (nurses, students, patients, relatives) and their daily routinized practice in the health care settings. The paper contributes with insights into the field of clinical nursing education, gained through a thorough methodological framework of nexus analysis as an ethnographic way to conduct research in education and grasp the various multimodal social actions that constitute the practice. The paper shows how a combination of (video) observations, written interviews and workshops can be a way to obtain knowledge about the practice that consists of members generalizations, neutral observations, individual experiences and interaction with members (Scollon & Scollon 2004, p. 158)