Rapporter fra sykehuset. Sykepleierrollen i Tegnehannes Blod, svette og tress-is (2017) og Liv Bjørnhaug Johansens Den lange vakta. En historie fra et helsevesen på bristepunktet (2021)

Abstract

This article analyses how nurses are represented in two contemporary Norwegian texts: Blod, svette og tress-is (Blood, Sweat and Neapolitan Ice Cream), a hybrid of verbal and graphic narrative by Tegnehanne (2017), and Den lange vakta. En historie fra et helsevesen på bristepunktet (The Long Shift. A Story from the Health Sector at Bursting Point), a non-fiction text by Liv Bjørnhaug Johansen (2021). The analysis is based on a combination of close reading and a contextual perspective, for instance, on the public discourse about nurses. In some recent Covid-19-related newspaper articles, nurses are represented by using war metaphors and angel symbols. The two selected texts, in contrast, emphasise the nurse as professional actor and human being. Being a nurse is represented as a valuable and giving profession. Simultaneously, by featuring characteristics of the literary report genre, both works shed a critical light on working conditions in the care sector and their effects on the care worker. Thus, this article argues that the analysis of how healthcare professionals are represented in literature can contribute to the developing field of medical humanities by adding a more institutionalized perspective on (the treatment of) illness and the patient.