ABSTRACT
This chapter relates to the culture and climate of nursing in Britain and how this culture is influenced by social expectation, history and tradition, institutional dynamics, professional relationships, and nurses' valuation of themselves and their task. The encounters described are from the different vantage points of tutor, student, supervisor, and work consultant. The chapter explores an initial hypothesis that nursing is being required to carry "unthinking" aspects of the hospital and health-care systems. The consideration of overwhelming importance was the opportunity offered to advance the cause of nursing. There is no individual supervision of student nurses and no small group teaching event concerned specifically to help student nurses work over the impact of their first essays in nursing practice and handle more effectively their relations with patients and their own emotional reactions. Despite the stress and distress of institutional life, nurses continue to find pleasure and satisfaction in nursing.
