ABSTRACT
The prevailing modern-day equivalent of the water cooler in medical settings arguably would be the nurses’ station. Caregivers of all sorts gather around this central hub, certainly to engage in task-related interactions, but also to gossip, tell stories, mock patients and co-workers, crack jokes, play pranks, and discuss their personal lives. Together they spin, in this cultural web, a storytelling culture-where these various forms of tale telling string together to form a sensemaking structure that at once is instructive regarding social norms and task procedures, reflective of work and personal relationships, and supportive of specific ideologies of caregiving.
