ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces us to the way in which certain discourses might provide the cultural context for nursing actions and knowledge. It is observed that many health care professionals are insufficiently aware of how taken for granted cultural assumptions are built into some of the health and illness discourses that they then become common sense. As nurses advising patients on adopting different health behaviours this can be especially important, as the patient continues to adhere to behaviour possibly detrimental to their health. The various discourses at play here could also include that of the doctor who has potential overall management of a patient’s health problems but is steeped in a biomedical model of health care.
