Abstract: Explores the social construction of the evolving professional identity, of rural nurses between the 1990z and early 2000s, a period of time was associated with two
significant national directives impacting on the professional practice of rural nurses and their contribution to the delivery of health care, from the rural Otago region of NZ. Engages with the concepts of place and governmentality. Demonstrates that rural nursing is a place–based practice governed both from within and beyond location, an analytical diagrammatic matrix.
