This paper considers how rurality affects the work of professionals. Sociologists have paid little attention to possible rural-urban differences in work styles and no study exists which compares the rural experience of those in different professions. I review the literature describing the work of various rural professionals and examine interview data from rural clergy to see whether rural professionals differentiate their work from that of their urban peers. The comparison across occupations reveals several common concerns, including the need to do similar work with fewer resources, the necessity of adapting protocols and codes of conduct to rural settings, and the challenge of dealing with dual relationships. I argue that conventional standards of professional behavior reflect an urban bias and that rural life problematizes the notion of professionalism. Those who work in rural places are caught trying to dance between the ''tunes'' of gemeinschaft and gesellschaft society.

L'auteure analyse les soins fournis par des bénévoles d'hôpitaux en utilisant des données d'entrevues, des descriptions de täches et des statistiques concernant les bénévoles de quatre hôpitaux d'Alberta, Canada. Les employés des hôpitaux s'attendent à ce que les bénévoles fournissent des soins instrumentaux et affectifs, mais ils restreignent également leur tàche en imposant des limites aux heures de travail réalisé par les bénévoles ainsi qu'à la somme d'information qu'ils reçoivent sur les patients. Les bénévoles surmontent ces contraintes en entretenant des conversations informelles destinées à augmenter leurs connaissances, tout en étant flexibles par rapport aux heures accordées aux patients, afin de pouvoir s'occuper de leurs besoins émotionnels. L'auteure considère également la répartition des sexes chez les bénévoles et l'influence qu'elle exerce sur leurs attentes. Carework done by hospital volunteers is examined using interview data, task descriptions and volunteer statistics from four hospitals in Alberta, Canada. Hospitals expect volunteers to provide instrumental and affective care but also constrain this work by limiting volunteers' work time and the amount of information they are given about patients. Volunteers overcome these constraints by initiating informal conversation to broaden their knowledge and capitalizing on flexibility in how they spend their time to attend to patients' emotional needs. I also consider how the volunteer workforce is gendered and how this influences expectations of volunteers.

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Her areas of interest include gender, work, the professions, and voluntarism. Her current research projects concern the way that volunteers supplement the work of paid professionals in the hospital, particularly by providing emotional care for patients and their families. "Because of the tensions between defining work and family time and the difficulties with scheduling time off, family became essential in the efforts of these clergy to defend private time from work demands."