Identity work in nurse-client interactions in selected community hospitals in Kenya

Abstract This chapter illustrates how nurses and clients in selected community hospitals in Kisumu County of Kenya negotiate their identities within their conflicting social and professional roles. I investigated nurses’ and clients’ perceptions and contestations of their roles, obligations and rights through non-participant observation and audio-recording of naturally occurring interactions. It emerged that the nurses’ exercise of professional practice was often challenged by clients’ explicit claims to rights and expectations based on socio-cultural background and polite behaviour. The nurses often experienced a conflict of identity due to the rigid institutional procedures required of them vis-à-vis the proactive clients’ service charter that emphasized client rights. So on the one hand, the clients expect to be treated with respect in conformity with the cultural norms and considerations of personal status while on the other hand, the nurses strive to maintain a professional distance. Hence, this chapter demonstrates the nurses’ struggles to strike a balance between the prescribed impersonal procedures of service while trying to avoid impinging upon the clients’ positive face.