Resolving status inconsistency among Singapore nurses

Abstract

Singaporean nurses are lauded as self-sacrificing caregivers of the community while being simultaneously shunned as a profession with low job image. This paper strives to investigate and understand how nurses attempt to resolve this status inconsistency, as well as the mechanisms through which nurses stratify aspects of their status dimensions through the analytical framework of Max Weber’s Stratification Systems and Gerard Lenski’s Status Inconsistency. In particular, this paper examined how attaining higher qualifications help resolve this inconsistency and improve their perceived job image. This includes how they distance themselves from their negative status dimension and how they emphasise their positive status dimension. This paper has found that nurses perceive the nature of the work that they do as possessing significant valuation that contributes or diminishes status dimension.