Non-greeting rituals in clinical placements

Abstract

Background: This study aims to generate knowledge about how clinical placements contribute to the creation of sustainable nursing education in Denmark. The article discusses how nursing students feel socially excluded when registered nurses do not recognise them through deviating from culturally appropriate greeting rituals.

Method: A constructivist grounded theory study of (n = 15) individual semi-structured interviews with nursing students in their first and third years of study.

Results: Nursing students feel awkward, alienated and uncomfortable when confronted with a culture where registered nurses do not greet them. They are met by the attitude that Bauman refers to as "appropriate indifference," which means that the registered nurses act as if they neither see nor hear them because they are considered faceless private failures.

Conclusion: Nurses' non-greeting rituals in clinical placements counteract the creation of sustainable nursing education. The aim of this article is to contribute with knowledge about socially inappropriate non-greeting rituals and recommend friendly and socially sustainable education in clinical placements.

Keywords: Bauman; Clinical placements; Grounded theory; Nursing students; Organisational paradox; Temporary strangers.