Precarious Implications of Functional Flexibilisation in Labour Management: A Qualitative Analysis of Nurses' Ward Transitions

Abstract

This article examines functional flexibilisation in nursing labour management, considering Turkey’s healthcare restructuring since 2003. It provides a qualitative analysis of nurses’ ward transition experiences through in-depth interviews with 38 female nurses in hospital wards. Along with functional insecurity, the findings suggest that ward transitions lead to insecurity and uncertainty in nurses’ career prospects, skill reproduction and specialisation in a particular clinical area. Moreover, the intersection of healthcare restructuring principles and occupational power relations underlines that applying ward transitions as a functional flexibilisation strategy triggers non-professionalisation and/or degradation of nursing as an occupation.