Papers by Caitlin Henry
Nurses provide essential health care labor, but their work, a mix of caregiving and clinical expe... more Nurses provide essential health care labor, but their work, a mix of caregiving and clinical expertise, is often undervalued and unacknowledged by health care administrators and the policies and practices that govern health care more broadly. Based on interviews with nurses working in the New York metropolitan area and through pairing feminist political economy with literature on abstraction and politics of the possible, I show that the ways in which nurses' work is measured creates a value hierarchy of tasks. Examining various tools of measurement, I argue that methods for measuring work are rooted in an historical and continuous hierarchy of what counts as work and what has value. For nurses, these processes obscure the essential care work they perform. I argue that bringing an explicit politics of social reproduction to the politics of measuring and accounting for work makes visible necessary and often-obscured tasks, spaces, and social relations.
Annals of the Association of American Geographers
Since 2003, more than twenty hospitals in New York City have closed because of debt and a state-d... more Since 2003, more than twenty hospitals in New York City have closed because of debt and a state-driven downsizing program. During this same time period, the labor market for nurses has tightened substantially, shifting from an overall nurse shortage since the 1980s to a job shortage since the mid-2000s. Drawing on an analysis of media and government publications on hospital closures since 2003 and interviews with nurses working in the metropolitan area, I argue that hospital closures and the new job shortage are intertwined. By pushing an austerity agenda in the wake of the 2008 economic crisis, New York City and state government agencies as well as private health care institutions are actively restructuring—or “rightsizing”—the health care sector. Ultimately, this is a downsizing of care provisions by another name. Capitalism's continued devaluation of social reproduction manifests in New York City as a restructuring of the spaces and work of health care. Hospital closures are central to this restructuring that involves the mutually constituted transformations in the built environment, health care provisioning, and the nursing profession. In conclusion, this process risks making good health and good jobs less accessible.
Women's Studies International Forum, 2014
Social & Cultural Geography, 2013
Recent debates about nursing shortages in the Global North are part of a broader global nursing w... more Recent debates about nursing shortages in the Global North are part of a broader global nursing workforce crisis. Western governments have been increasing their recruitment of international nurses to fill their shortages, but this accelerates the global migration of nurses. The UK is a key node in global nurse migration. The increase in international nurse migration has profound consequences for both the sending and receiving countries, as well as implications for the health care system, and, of course, the individual nurses. In this paper, we explore recent trends in the UK's dependence on foreign-trained nurses. We use 1994-2012 data from the national register of nurses to track the admission of international nurses to the register and the countries they arrive from. During the early 2000s, there was an uptick of nurses from the Global South (notably several sub-Saharan countries, India and more recently the Philippines) and relative decline in traditional sources countries such as Australia and New Zealand. We draw on feminist care ethics to highlight the ways in which foreigntrained migrant nurses working in the UK are de-valued despite the UK's dependence on their labour and suggest rethinking citizenship in ways that are more clearly inclusive of care.
Book Reviews by Caitlin Henry
Journal of Regional Science, 2014
Publications by Caitlin Henry
Global Health and Geographical Imaginaries, 2017
New York City, Thanksgiving weekend, 2014, seven thousand people were estimated to attend a free ... more New York City, Thanksgiving weekend, 2014, seven thousand people were estimated to attend a free health clinic put on by the organization Remote Area Medical (RAM). This pop-up clinic of dental, vision and medical care was to be held at the Javits Center that usually hosts technology expos and clothing trade shows, blocks away from Times Square. The New York Governor’s office shut down the clinic because doctors were not allowed to cross state line to practice medicine, even if they are not being financially reimbursed for the work. New York City—one of the richest cities in the world and recently scared by doctors and nurses coming back from West Africa’s Ebola epidemic—could not give away free healthcare despite the overwhelming demand. This geography of need indicates the persistence of health inequality in the United States, echoed in the testimonial above. Despite recent developments of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), essential healthcare services still fall on a wide variety of community clinics, non-profits, street health, and non-governmental organizations. How then can we understand this situation where the United States is both known for being a major player in global health and at the same time known for massive health inequality?
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Papers by Caitlin Henry
Book Reviews by Caitlin Henry
Publications by Caitlin Henry