Evidence map›Paper›PMID 38840300›Full record

ArticleNursing ethics2025

Judith Butler's theoretical perspectives within a nursing context-a scoping review.

Adelheid Hummelvoll Hillestad, Eline Kaupang Petersen, Maud C Roos, Maria H Iversen, Trine Lise Jansen, Monica Evelyn Kvande

Abstract readScoping Review
In one paragraph

Article in Nursing ethics, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed.

  1. Review
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

6 authors.

Adelheid Hummelvoll HillestadLovisenberg Diaconal University College.ORCID 0000-0002-5780-1699
Eline Kaupang PetersenLovisenberg Diaconal University College.ORCID 0000-0002-6428-1089
Maud C RoosUniversity of Oslo.
Maria H IversenUniversity of South-Eastern Norway (USN).
Trine Lise JansenLovisenberg Diaconal University College.
Monica Evelyn KvandeLovisenberg Diaconal University College.ORCID 0000-0003-4384-4695

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Philosopher Judith Butler has influenced how people talk about vulnerable bodies and sees vulnerability as universal, existential, and relational. Being vulnerable is part of the human condition. The main theoretical areas that run across Butler's work; power, knowledge and subjectivity, performativity, and ethics-are of particular relevance to nursing practice. This review aims to explore how Butler's theoretical work is reflected in research literature within a nursing context. We conducted a scoping review guided by Arksey and O'Malley's methodological framework. A systematic literature search of CINAHL (EBSCOhost), MEDLINE (Ovid), Embase (Ovid), PsycINFO (Ovid), and Web of Science identified 15 papers. Butler's theoretical work was applied at an individual and social level in research literature within a nursing context. Nurses need to reflect on their clinical practice and role as health professionals in relation to power and performativity in encounters with patients who are marginalized. Nurses' working conditions, recognition, and understanding are strongly influenced by society, and calling nurses heroes undermines their capacity to challenge and resist the hero identity. The healthcare system's impact on patient-nurse encounters challenges patients' and nurses' subjectivity, performativity, and power relations. The review allowed us to describe how Butler's theoretical work can facilitate a reflection on nursing practice which is a prerequisite for caring, ethical relationships, and working conditions within a nursing context. Butler's concepts can provide useful perspectives on how nurses understand, communicate with, and care for patients, as well as a nuanced understanding of the nursing role and power relations and structures.

Indexed as

NursesNursingPhilosophy, NursingHumansProfessional RoleEthicsJudith Butlernursingscoping reviewvulnerability

Identifiers

PMID38840300
PMCPMC11771098

What OpenQuestion holds

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LicenceCC BY
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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.