© 2008 The author. Journal compilation © 2008 Blackwell Publishing Ltd Nursing Inquiry 2008; 15(1): 30– 39 Feature Blackwell Publishing Ltd The dissection of risk: a conceptual analysis Patrick O’Byrne University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada Accepted for publication 28 February 2007 O’BYRNE P. Nursing Inquiry 2008; 15: 30–39 The dissection of risk: a conceptual analysis Recently, patient safety has gained popularity in the nursing literature. While this topic is used extensively and has been analyzed thoroughly, some of the concepts upon which it relies, such as risk, have remained undertheorized. In fact, despite its considerable use, the term ‘risk’ has been largely assumed to be inherently neutral — meaning that its definition and discovery is seen as objective and impartial, and that risk avoidance is natural and logical. Such an oversight in evaluation requires that the concept of risk be thoroughly analyzed as it relates to nursing practices, particularly in relation to those practices surrounding bio-political nursing care, such as public health, as well as other more trendy nursing topics, such as patient safety. Thus, this paper applies the Evolutionary Model of concept analysis to explore ‘risk’, and expose it as one mechanism of main- taining prescribed/ proscribed social practices. Thereby, an analysis of risk results in the definitions and roles of the discipline and profession of nursing expanding from solely being dedicated to patient care, to include, in addition, its functions as a governmental body that unwittingly maintains hegemonic infrastructures. Key words: conceptual analysis, Foucault, nursing, risk. While the concept of patient safety is gaining momentum in the nursing domain, the concept of risk has been relatively undertheorized. Although the term ‘risk’ is used extensively, it has been deemed neutral and, consequently, has been ignored. As such, this warrants a critical analysis of risk as it relates to clinical nursing issues, especially those related to the biopolitical aspects of power over life (public health for example). This paper applies the evolutionary model (Rodgers and Knafl 1993) of concept analysis to explore the concept of risk, and to show its central importance in the practice of nursing. Current conceptualizations of nursing (in which nursing is a patient-oriented, caring discipline that focuses on healthcare concerns, such as patient safety) are also discussed. Dissecting the concept of risk will allow exposure of its underlying function as a method of social regulation. From this perspective, a conceptual analysis of risk reframes nursing not only as a caring discipline, but also as a governmental body that operates to unknowingly ensure the continuation of the current socio-political infrastructure. THE DISSECTION TABLE: CURRENT CONCEPTUALIZATIONS OF NURSING The definitions of nursing vary both horizontally (between individuals) and vertically (over time); therefore, to situate risk as a concept of importance to nursing, a brief definition of the discipline will be provided. To contextualize this definition, one must return to Florence Nightingale (1859), who created modern nursing, in part, to provide respectable employment for women (Hektor 1994; MacDougall 1997; Selanders 1998). Yet, it took nearly a century before a pleth- ora of theorists began proposing new conceptualizations of nursing (George 1995; Toomey and Alligood 2002; Meleis 2007). As a result of this time-consuming process (Chinn and Kramer 1999; Kikuchi 1999; Meleis 2007), the four com- ponents of the nursing metaparadigm, which determine the subject matter and scope of the discipline, were developed. Correspondence: Patrick O’Byrne, University of Ottawa, Faculty of Health Sciences, School of Nursing, 45 Symth Road, Ottawa, ON KIH8M5, Canada E-mail: <pjobyrne@uottawa.ca>