CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2024
| Author | Олена Ткаліч |
|---|---|
| Title | The struggle for decent care work in Ukraine: The case of nurses' movement 'Be Like Nina' (Bud yak Nina) |
| Summary | This thesis addresses the case of grassroots movement of Ukrainian nurses “Be Like Nina”, which arose at the end of 2019 after a Facebook post by a nurse from a small town, single mother Nina Kozlovska. She said that the work of nurses is much more valuable than the work of members of parliament, and called on medical staff to resist. The post attracted the attention of the media, led to the emergence of the Facebook group “Be Like Nina” with 85,000 subscribers, and an NGO of the same name. Soon, the nurses' movement was faced with Covid-19 and the Russian invasion. My research questions are the following: Due to what combination of reasons did nurses become able to create the movement, despite the lack of protest traditions and resources in this professional group? Why was their bargaining power affected differently by Covid-19 and the Russian invasion, even though both shocks increased the need for medical staff? I rely on 10 in-depth semi-structured interviews with activists of the movement, as well as analysis of materials related to the Ukrainian medical system. My findings are the following: This case became unique for Ukraine because before, demands for changes in the medical system were formulated by doctors, not nurses. At different stages of the development of the movement were activated certain mechanisms, which are related to the theories of resource mobilization and emotions of social movements. Instead, the concept of social movements in health poorly explains this case and needs to be refined. During Covid-19, the bargaining power of nurses increased, as only medical staff could care for patients in hospitals due to isolation. This resulted in a double increase in wages. During the war, despite the high need for care, it became possible to delegate part of the duties to relatives or partners of the wounded. This reduced the bargaining power of nurses and resulted in curtailment of their rights. |
| Supervisor | Fodor Eva |
| Department | Gender Studies MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2024/tkalich_olena.pdf |
Visit the CEU Library.
© 2007-2021, Central European University