Revisiting the Concept of Othering: A Structural Analysis

Do no harm: A call to action by nurses to dismantle structural violence against LGBTQ+ youth

This commentary addresses structural violence - an overlooked and unrecognized harm within nursing. Structural violence within nursing practice refers to the violent impacts of racism, classism, homophobia, and transphobia as well as other biases on vulnerable and underprivileged groups. As one of the largest and most trusted health professions, collectively nursing has the power to leverage their influence to mitigate the harmful effects of structural violence when caring for LGBTQ+ youth.

Understanding Refugees Health Experiences in Host Countries: Three Theoretical Perspectives

Healthcare providers working with forcefully displaced populations often have limited knowledge and skills regarding the care of this population. The reasons are twofold. First, most of the research on refugee health does not consider refugees' adaptive skills, diversity of experiences, and daily life context. Second, healthcare providers' knowledge of how the sociopolitical environment shapes health research and practice in the context of refugee care is often limited. This work aims to specify gaps in refugee healthcare and research by applying a relational approach to three theoretical frameworks. The relational approach supports a pragmatic, in-depth understanding of healthcare practices by shifting the focus of the inquiry from description of social structures toward exploration of processes and relations that propagate and sustain such structures. The focus is on the threefold interaction between refugees, healthcare providers, and healthcare institutions. The three theoretical frameworks are as follows: First, using concepts from the Theory of Practice by Bourdieu, we examine how gaps in care can result from a mismatch between the dispositions and skills that refugees develop through life experience and the cultural-professional practices of healthcare providers in host countries. Second, the Cultural Determinants of Help Seeking by Saint Arnault is applied to posit that gaps in care can result from differences in the meanings that healthcare providers and refugees assign to their interactions. Finally, we use the concept of Othering as described in nursing by Canales to explain how power dynamics inherent in the interaction between refugees and healthcare systems can affect refugee healthcare and research. This relational approach helps to elucidate some of the culture-bound mechanisms of health maintenance and help-seeking and brings attention to the sociopolitical context that shapes the way we care to refugees.

Tilting at Windmills - A Qualitative Study about Family Caregiver Interactions and Perceptions in Forensic Mental Health Care

In forensic mental health care (FMHC), family caregivers perceive themselves as burdened in their relationships with the service user (the family member with mental illness) and by difficult collaboration with healthcare professionals (HCPs). There is a political objective to involve this group in the care and treatment of the service user in mental health care. To improve family caregiver involvement in care and treatment in FMHC, research about their perceptions is needed. This study aims to explore family caregivers' perceptions of their interactions with the service user and HCPs. The method used was qualitative. Semi-structured, in-depth interviews with 12 family caregiver participants were carried out and analyzed thematically. The analysis resulted in three interrelated main themes: Strategies to normalize everyday living; Distrust of the quality of care; and Loss and grief. Family caregiver feelings of loss and grief may be suppressed, which additionally could prevent them from supporting the service user.

Healthcare professionals discourses on men and masculinities in sexual healthcare: a focus group study

Studies have reported that men's uptake of sexual health services is low, that these services make them feel vulnerable, and that they experience sexual healthcare (SHC) as stressful, heteronormative, potentially sexualised and "tailored for women". They also suggest that healthcare professionals (HCPs) working in SHC view masculinity as problematic, and situated in private relationships. This study aimed to explore how HCPs construct the gendered social location in SHC, specifically in terms of masculinity and a perception that masculinity is situated in relationships. Critical Discourse Analysis was used to analyse transcripts from seven focus group interviews with 35 HCPs working with men's sexual health in Sweden. The study found that gendered social locations were discursively constructed in four ways: (I) by problematising and opposing masculinity in society; (II) through discursive strategies where a professional discourse on men and masculinity is lacking; (III) by constructing SHC as a feminine arena where masculinity is a visible norm violation; (IV) by constructing men as reluctant patients and formulating a mission to change masculinity. The discourses of HCPs constructed the gendered social location of masculinity in society as incompatible with SHC, and saw masculinity in SHC as a violation of feminine norms. Men seeking SHC were constructed as reluctant patients, and HCPs were seen as agents of change with a mission to transform masculinity. The discourses of HCPs risk othering men in SHC, which could prevent care on equal terms. A shared professional discourse on masculinity could create a common foundation for a more consistent, knowledge-based approach to masculinity and men's sexual health in SHC.

Developing a Theory of Norm-Criticism in Nursing Education

In this article, we explore the core concepts of norm-critical pedagogy developed in Sweden and only recently applied to nursing education praxis. These concepts, norms, power , and othering , are defined and demonstrated with exemplars from recent nursing education research. The theoretical model illustrates the ways in which these elements articulate in relationship to each other in nursing education praxis in ways that are dynamic, interlocking-like the gears of a clock-and resistant to interruption. We discuss the potential of a structurally oriented critical reflexivity-an equal and opposite force to the motion of the gears-to interrupt their motion.