Medicine and Nursing: Professions in a Changing Health Service

As the largest employer in Western Europe, The National Health Service retains an impressive staff of doctors and nurses. These men and women not only represent the current status of gender in the workplace but provide a microcosm of society as a whole. Reflecting both the strong traditional elements and contemporary political and social forces influencing professional medicine, Medicine and Nursing offers a detailed examination of the collaborative efforts of doctors and nurses within this (NHS) organization. Focusing on workers in the acute hospital ward, Walby analyzes the effects of "new wave" management on these previously autonomous teams. Discussing possible movement from Fordist to post-Fordist methods of work organization, she also considers the impact of such changes on issues including professional boundaries and interprofessional relationships. With its theoretical emphasis on the debate over the evolution of structured employment, this work will be essential reading for students in the sociology of work and professions, publis sector management, health studies, nursing studies, medical sociology, and women′s studies. "Medicine and Nursing is a thought provoking book that has wide appeal and will help all members of the multiprofessional team think through their roles and responsibilities, particularly in the light of changes in junior doctors′ hours and the expansion of the nurses roles." --Alison Kitson in British Medical Journal

Sylvia Walby is a Distinguished Professor of Sociology and holds the UNESCO Chair in Gender Research, at Lancaster University. She is a ′public sociologist′, engaged in research designed to have impact on the world, concerning gender inequality, violence and the economic crisis.

The UNESCO Chair in Gender Research Group, led by Walby, who has held the Chair since 2008, focuses on internationally relevant research on gender relations, and on building global networks for research and policy exchange on gender issues.

With colleagues, Walby has since 2008 obtained funding from: UK Economic and Social Research Council, Home Office, Equality and Human Rights Commission, Northern Rock Foundation, Trust for London, NSPCC; European Commission, European Parliament, European Institute for Gender Equality, EU Presidency, European Value Added Unit, the Council of Europe; UN Women, UNESCO; the New Zealand Ministry of Social Development, and the Canadian Ministry of Justice.

Walby was a member of the HEFCE REF2014 sub-panel for Sociology, a Director of the UK National Commission for UNESCO (2011-3), President of the International Sociological Association Research Committee 02 Economy and Society (2006-10), founding President of the European Sociological Association (1995-7), and Chair of the Women′s Studies Network, UK (1989-90). She has been awarded an OBE for services to equal opportunities and diversity (2008), and made a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences (2008) and of the Royal Society of Arts (1996). Teaching is currently focused on ‘violence and society′ (undergraduate) and ‘gender and violence′ (MA).