Received: from imo23.mx.aol.com (imo23.mx.aol.com [198.81.17.67]) by csf.Colorado.EDU (8.8.5/8.8.4/CNS-4.1p-nh) with ESMTP id VAA16100 for ; Sun, 22 Nov 1998 21:35:45 -0700 (MST) From: CKMerkel@aol.com Received: from CKMerkel@aol.com by imo23.mx.aol.com (IMOv16.10) id DNOTa03138 for ; Sun, 22 Nov 1998 23:32:36 +1900 (EST) Message-ID: <1ab96040.3658e564@aol.com> Date: Sun, 22 Nov 1998 23:32:36 EST To: MedSoc@csf.colorado.edu Mime-Version: 1.0 Subject: Re: Communication and discourse Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit Micheal, As a nurse and "almost sociologist" I found your research on nursing discourse and "scraps" very interesting. I believe you mean by scraps, the nurses' tendency to write down information about the patient that does not become part of the formal medical record. If so, that is also a very common practice in the US. I agree that what appears here is more 'holistic." Sorry I know of no references in the nursing or sociological literature about this - I will keep my eyes open. I am not aware of any warnings by professional bodies in the US not to keep scraps, only to "chart" (write) thoroughly in the formal medical record ("if it wasn't charted - it wasn't done") What has always interested me about the way nurses communicate with each other about patients is that they are always subverting the directives and control of regulatory agencies and nursing elites. Planning for care of the patient and therefore "charting" in the medical record is supposed to be according to the "nursing process" yet it is so obvious that this is not the way the nurses think about patients (but are forced to chart) and in informal processes follow a different path altogether. I will be so interested to read your paper. Please let us know where it will be published. Cindy Merkel