LaTonya J. Trotter is a sociologist whose work explores the relationship between changes in the organization of medical work and the reproduction of racial, economic, and gender inequality.

Her publications have received awards sponsored by the American Public Health Association, the Society for the Study of Social Problems, and the American Sociological Association.

She is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Bioethics and Humanities at the University of Washington.

More than Medicine

She is the author of More than Medicine: Nurse practitioners and the problems they solve for patients, health care organizations, and the state. More than Medicine was the 2022 winner of the British Sociological Association’s Foundation for the Sociology of Health and Illness Book Prize.

In More than Medicine, Trotter investigates our health care crises through the case of the nurse practitioner. Professional nursing has made the case--to state legislatures, insurers, and health care organizations--that nurse practitioners (NP) are part of the solution to our intertwined crises of cost and personnel. Trotter chronicles the everyday work of a group of NPs on the front lines of that crises as they cared for 400 African-American older adults living with poor health and limited means. 

Through her account, Trotter shows how this group of NPs expanded the medical encounter to include a mix of health, social, and coordination problems—illustrating the ways in which these providers are not just filling-in for absent physicians, but are filling in for the absence of the state in attending to the problems of poverty and unequal access to health care.