Abstract
The study of the evolution of a healthcare profession in a developing country context has many implications not only for healthcare human resources policy structuring, but also fur health and development outcomes. With the global shortage of nursing personnel, understanding the country-specific factors involved in the recruitment and retention of nurses into the profession becomes critical for ensurin ongoing, quality health care services delivery. Using theories about professions, an examination of the process of the professionalization of nurses is one way to improve understanding about nursing human resources. Professionalization is a developmental process that structures how a group organizes to advance itself socially, politically, and economically in a country. Mexico is an economically high-middle income country with an established but underdeveloped nursing profession. This exploratory case study examined the professionalization of nursing in Mexico between 1980 and 2005 with the aim of improving understanding about Mexican nursing human resources. The twenty-five year period was selected because it represented a period of significant economic and political change in Mexico that would have impacted Mexican nurses both personally and professionally. Methods included semi-structured interviews with 32 Mexican nurses from both rural and urban healthcare settings, an extensive interdisciplinary literature review from the designated period, and a contextual analysis of Mexican federal government and Ministry of Health documents related to nursing human resources. Study findings indicate that eight variables strongly affect the development of the nursing profession: professionalization processes, the workplace, unions, history, economic, political, sociocultural factors, and international influences. The relationships among the variables suggest the presence of a country-level "nursing system" that produces nursing personnel and affects health-system outcomes. To illustrate the relationships and potential effects on these outcomes, a theoretical model was developed. The findings of this study have implications for the production, development, and management of nursing human resources in other developing countries and may also apply to nursing in developed countries.
Sigma Membership
Upsilon
Type
Dissertation
Format Type
Text-based Document
Study Design/Type
Other
Research Approach
Qualitative Research
Keywords:
History, Nursing in Mexico, Development of the Nursing Profession
Advisors
Cohen, Sally Solomon
Degree
PhD
Degree Grantor
Yale University
Degree Year
2007
Recommended Citation
Squires, Allison Patricia, "A case study of the professionalization of Mexican nursing: 1980 to 2005" (2020). Dissertations. 1923.
https://www.sigmarepository.org/dissertations/1923
Rights Holder
All rights reserved by the author(s) and/or publisher(s) listed in this item record unless relinquished in whole or part by a rights notation or a Creative Commons License present in this item record.
All permission requests should be directed accordingly and not to the Sigma Repository.
All submitting authors or publishers have affirmed that when using material in their work where they do not own copyright, they have obtained permission of the copyright holder prior to submission and the rights holder has been acknowledged as necessary.
Review Type
None: Degree-based Submission
Acquisition
Proxy-submission
Date of Issue
2020-08-24
Full Text of Presentation
wf_yes
Description
This dissertation has also been disseminated through the ProQuest Dissertations and Theses database. Dissertation/thesis number: 3293410; ProQuest document ID: 304783508. The author still retains copyright.