Exploring historical conflicts between midwives and nurses: a perspective from Chile

Abstract

This article explores issues of historical disputes between nurses and midwives based in Chile. The interaction of these two professions in that country has become an arena of competition which leads to conflicts periodically, such as those related to the ownership of the care of new-borns, and that of projects aimed at relieving nurse shortages by enhancing midwives’ nursing skills. Specifically, this article aims to build on historical and contemporary resources analysed from a sociological perspective, and present comparatively a rationale concerning nursing/midwifery jurisdictional conflicts through a social history account. Our analysis suggests that nurses/midwives interaction has been shaped by social-historical transformations and the continuous evolution of the healthcare system as a whole, resulting in a race towards technologisation. These interprofessional conflicts can be explained partly by mechanisms of boundary expansion within an organisational/interpretive domain, as well as varying degrees of medicalisation; and partly by a competition possibly originating from a middle-class consciousness. An eventual merger of the two professions might lead to the enhancement of the political power of the caring professions and integrated care.

• Chile
• conflict
• co-operation
• interprofessional relations
• professional boundaries
• professional identity
• social history

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Historian M. Soledad Zárate, Nurse Nancy E. Retamal and Midwife Myriam Márquez for edifying comments on earlier versions of this article.

Declaration of interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest. The authors are responsible for the writing and content of this paper. They are grateful to the European Commission for supporting this work through a doctoral bursary (Project EMECW 2009-1682).