The analysis indicated recurring narratives that appeared to confer nurses
and midwives with three dominant identities: “the knowledgeable practitioner,” the
“interpersonal practitioner” and the “accountable practitioner.” The discourse also
carried assumptions about the form and content of disciplinary knowledge.
Academic study of identity construction in discourse is important to
disciplinary development by raising nurses’ and midwives’ consciousness, alerting
them to the ways that their own discourse can shape their identities, influence pub-
lic and political opinion and, in the process, shape public policy on their professions.