Areas of Research

Working with this supervisor

I am interested the pressures and tensions that arise for nurses working in hospitals. I am concerned that nurses are losing their disciplinary mandate to support the health and wellbeing of people as they get pulled into hospital efficiency projects. My current work focuses on health information technologies with a focus on the electronic health record -- and whether/how nurses' work is subordinated to the dominance of medical algorhythms and the technological needs that physicians have for patients' records. My research is conducted using Institutional Ethnography (IE) and my interests extend broadly into health reform, neoliberalism and new public management, whilst my program of research maintains its particular focus on nurses’ work. 

Rankin has supervised graduate students using IE across a variety of disciplines (nursing, sociology, human geography, community health sciences, international development). She has consulted internationally and conducted IE workshops in Canada, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Australia, USA, Canada and Qatar.