By Miriam Bender
Director, Center for Nursing Philosophy

The Center for Nursing Philosophy was honored to sponsor a virtual presentation titled “Rhetorical Body Work in Health Care: Embodied Communication and Technological Mediation” on Thursday, April 28, 2022.

Marquette University Assistant Professor Lilly Campbell introduced the sociological concept of “body work,” which encompasses physical interaction with patients’ bodies, emotional work, and the effects of physical work on the provider’s body.

She drew on two examples from recent ethnographic research—high-fidelity clinical simulations in a baccalaureate nursing program and nurses working in a virtual intensive care unit at an academic medical center— to discuss the following questions:

  • How does technological mediation of bodily cues change the work of patient care?
  • In what ways do the gendered and racialized biases associated with body work transform in new technological contexts?

There was a lively Q&A period and participants commented on the significance and applicability of concepts for nursing practice and scholarship.

Watch the presentation