scholarly journals Occupational Identities and Physical Exertion in (re)configurations of New Technologies in Eldercare

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeppe Zielinski Nguyen Ajslev ◽  
Helene Højbjerg ◽  
Malene Friis Andersen ◽  
Lars Louis Andersen ◽  
Otto Melchior Poulsen
Keyword(s):  
New Technologies ◽  
Elderly Care ◽  
Physical Exertion ◽  
Analytical Framework ◽  
Positioning Theory ◽  
Working Environment ◽  
Care Work ◽  
Empirical Knowledge ◽  
Agential Realism ◽  
Care Workers

New technologies are perceived as a solution to the rising proportion of people requiring elderly care across the Nordic countries. Implementing technologies has unforeseen consequences for the content of work and the working environment. This interview-based study within Danish elderly care investigates the consequences of physical exertion for the work and occupational identities of care workers. Through analytical framework integrating positioning theory and agential realism, the study shows that new technologies in certain constellations may further synergies between the reduction of physical exertion and occupational identities, and in others may harm this relation. The study contributes to empirical knowledge about implementing technologies and to discussions of moral literacy and workarounds within care work by suggesting that the ability to openly judge and question physical and ethical consequences of employing technologies is a valuable competence for care workers and, in addition, that furthering these competences is a challenge for managers and legislators.

scholarly journals Technology Implementation in Elderly Care: Subject Positioning in Times of Transformation

2019 ◽  
Vol 38 (5-6) ◽  
pp. 628-649
Author(s):  
Beata Segercrantz ◽  
Maria Forss
Keyword(s):  
Technology Implementation ◽  
Elderly Care ◽  
Care Work ◽  
Innovation Implementation ◽  
Daily Work ◽  
Specific Effects ◽  
Care Workers ◽  
Semistructured Interviews ◽  
Subject Positioning

Innovation is often celebrated as a solution to various challenges in care work. Thus, a growing number of care workers are likely to experience innovations in their daily work. This article examines how care workers and project workers in elderly care are affected by contemporary transformations by exploring: (1) how they construct meanings around innovation implementation and (2) are subject positioned in relation to these meanings. Drawing on discourse analysis, we conduct a case study and analyze semistructured interviews, observations, and organizational documents. We illustrate how innovation is constructed in terms of optimism, and also as a source for struggle, with specific effects on care workers’ subject positioning. The findings thus contribute to new insights into the contemporary dominating discourse of innovation and its implications at the level of practice and subjectivity.

scholarly journals Health promotion in care organizations as material-discursive practices

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Beata Segercrantz ◽  
Annamari Tuori ◽  
Charlotta Niemistö
Keyword(s):  
Health Promotion ◽  
Organizational Context ◽  
Elderly Care ◽  
Care Work ◽  
Discursive Practices ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Organization Studies ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Care Workers ◽  
Health Promoting

PurposeDrawing on a performative ontology, this article extends the literature on health promotion in organizations by exploring how health promotion is performed in care work. The focus of the study is on health promotion in a context of illness and/or decline, which form the core of the studied organizational activities. The paper addresses the following question: how do care workers working in elderly care and mental health care organizations accomplish health promotion in the context of illness and/or decline?Design/methodology/approachThe article develops a performative approach and analyses material-discursive practices in health promoting care work. The empirical material includes 36 semi-structured interviews with care workers, observations and organizational documents.FindingsTwo central material-discursive health promoting practices in care work are identified: confirming that celebrates service users as residents and the organizations as a home, and balancing at the limits of health promotion. The practices of balancing make the limitations of health promotion discernible and involve reconciling health promotion with that which does not neatly fit into it (illness, unachievable care aims, the institution and certain organizing). In sum, the study shows how health promotion can structure processes in care homes where illness and decline often are particularly palpable.Originality/valueThe paper explores health promotion in a context rarely explored in organization studies. Previous organization studies have to some extent explored health promotion and care work, but typically separately. Further, the few studies that have adopted a performative approach to material-discursive practices in the context of care work have typically primarily focused on IT. We extend previous organization studies literature by producing new insights: (1) from an important organizational context of health promotion and (2) of under-researched entanglements of human and non-human actors in care work providing a performative theory of reconciling organizational tensions.

scholarly journals Why are care workers from the global south disadvantaged? Inequality and discrimination in Swedish elderly care work

2020 ◽  
Vol 43 (16) ◽  
pp. 155-174 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alireza Behtoui ◽  
Kristina Boréus ◽  
Anders Neergaard ◽  
Soheyla Yazdanpanah
Keyword(s):  
Elderly Care ◽  
Global South ◽  
Care Work ◽  
Care Workers

scholarly journals Material Construction of Care Workers’ Identity

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sanna Laulainen ◽  
Anneli Hujala
Keyword(s):  
Professional Identity ◽  
Elderly Care ◽  
Rhetorical Analysis ◽  
Role Playing ◽  
Care Work ◽  
Care Homes ◽  
The Unconscious ◽  
Identity Strategies ◽  
Course Of Action ◽  
Care Workers

This article takes a critical look at the unconscious and unnoticed effects of materiality on care workers’ identity. The data was collected through nonactive role-playing using written accounts, in which the respondents described how they felt about working in fictitious ‘good’ or ‘bad’ elderly care homes. The data was analyzed with rhetorical analysis. Five different identity strategies were identified in the accounts. Strong professional identity was defended by downplaying the significance of materiality. Adjustment and passive compliance were used to adjust to physical shortcomings of the work environment. A ‘rebellion’ was described as an extreme course of action to resolve the contradiction between good care and poor facilities. At its best, the materiality of care homes, in particular homelikeness, seemed to support professional identity. These identity strategies illustrate how care workers balance between the physical realities of care homes and the requirements of the ethos of care, which are often incompatible with each other. It is crucial that managers as well as workers themselves recognize and acknowledge these connections affecting motivation and commitment to care work. Investments in better environments could be one way to improve the image and the attractiveness of the care branch and relieve the recruitment problems.

scholarly journals Characteristics of Elderly Care Work That Influence Care Workers’ Turnover Intentions

Healthcare ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 259
Author(s):  
Jeongmi Lim
Keyword(s):  
Emotional Labor ◽  
Quantitative Methods ◽  
Turnover Intentions ◽  
Elderly Care ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Care Work ◽  
Labor Rights ◽  
Term Care ◽  
Government Supervision ◽  
Care Workers

Turnover and retention of care workers in long-term care (LTC) settings is an important issue. However, much research about turnover in LTC settings has focused on licensed nurses or nurse assistants. Moreover, many studies have utilized quantitative methods. The purpose of this study was to understand the characteristics of elderly care work that influence the turnover intentions of care workers in LTC. In-depth interviews were conducted with 10 care workers and analyzed using the content analysis method. As a result, seven categories were extracted as the characteristics of the elderly care work associated with turnover, including low social appreciation about care work, precarious employment, unprotected labor rights and safety, an unfair wage system, unclear scope and role of work, absence of training and supervision to enhance professionalism, and emotional labor. For the turnover prevention and retention of care workers, it is necessary to resolve the insecurity of care work. In particular, guidelines for improving the wage level and working conditions of care workers should be instituted, and at the same time, government supervision is required. Education is necessary to strengthen the professionalism of care workers and ensure skilled care work.

scholarly journals A Practical Experience on the Amazon Alexa Integration in Smart Offices

Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 734
Author(s):  
Răzvan Bogdan ◽  
Alin Tatu ◽  
Mihaela Marcella Crisan-Vida ◽  
Mircea Popa ◽  
Lăcrămioara Stoicu-Tivadar
Keyword(s):  
Project Management ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Practical Experience ◽  
Working Environment ◽  
Management Tool ◽  
Task Completion ◽  
Test Cases ◽  
Business World ◽  
Office Environment ◽  
The Voice

Smart offices are dynamically evolving spaces meant to enhance employees’ efficiency, but also to create a healthy and proactive working environment. In a competitive business world, the challenge of providing a balance between the efficiency and wellbeing of employees may be supported with new technologies. This paper presents the work undertaken to build the architecture needed to integrate voice assistants into smart offices in order to support employees in their daily activities, like ambient control, attendance system and reporting, but also interacting with project management services used for planning, issue tracking, and reporting. Our research tries to understand what are the most accepted tasks to be performed with the help of voice assistants in a smart office environment, by analyzing the system based on task completion and sentiment analysis. For the experimental setup, different test cases were developed in order to interact with the office environment formed by specific devices, as well as with the project management tool tasks. The obtained results demonstrated that the interaction with the voice assistant is reasonable, especially for easy and moderate utterances.

scholarly journals Registered nurses’ role experiences of caring for older stroke patients: a qualitative study

BMC Nursing ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Wei Cheng ◽  
Jiong Tu ◽  
Xiaoyan Shen
Keyword(s):  
Nursing Education ◽  
Older People ◽  
Registered Nurses ◽  
Elderly Care ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Working Environment ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Stroke Patients ◽  
Care Needs ◽  
Nursing Clinical Practice

Abstract Background With China’s population ageing rapidly, stroke is becoming one of the major public health problems. Nurses are indispensable for caring for older patients with acute and convalescent stroke, and their working experiences are directly linked to the quality of care provided. The study aims to investigate registered nurses’ experiences of caring for older stroke patients. Methods A qualitative descriptive design was adopted. Data were collected via semi-structured interviews with 26 registered nurses about their lived experiences of caring for older stroke patients. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the data. Results Two main themes were identified. First, the nurses identified an obvious gap between their ideal role in elderly care and their actual practice. The unsatisfactory reality was linked to the practical difficulties they encountered in their working environment. Second, the nurses expressed conflicting feelings about caring for older stroke patients, displaying a sense of accomplishment, indifference, annoyance, and sympathy. Caring for older stroke patients also affects nurses psychologically and physically. The nurses were clear about their own roles and tried their best to meet the elderly people’s needs, yet they lack time and knowledge about caring for older stroke patients. The factors influencing their working experiences extend beyond the personal domain and are linked to the wider working environment. Conclusions Sustaining the nursing workforce and improving their working experiences are essential to meet the care needs of older people. Understanding nurses’ lived working experiences is the first step. At the individual level, nurse mangers should promote empathy, relieve anxiety about aging, and improve the job satisfaction and morale of nurses. At the institutional level, policymakers should make efforts to improve the nursing clinical practice environment, increase the geriatric nursing education and training, achieve a proper skill mix of the health workforce, and overall attract, prepare and sustain nurses regarding caring for older people in a rapidly aging society.

Academic Labor: Who Cares?

2016 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 405-428 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen M. Cardozo
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Care Work ◽  
Disparate Impact ◽  
Contingent Labor ◽  
Tenure System ◽  
Care Workers ◽  
Academic Labor ◽  
Diversity Issues ◽  
Labor Issues ◽  
Predominantly Female

This article analyzes the neoliberal turn to contingent labor in academe, specifically the development of a ‘teaching-only’ sector, through the lens of feminist, interdisciplinary and intersectional studies of care work. Integrating discourses on faculty contingency and diversity with care scholarship reveals that the construction of a casualized and predominantly female teaching class in higher education follows longstanding patterns of devaluing socially reproductive work under capitalism. The devaluation of care may also have a disparate impact on the advancement of women within the tenure system. In short, academic labor issues are also diversity issues. To re-value those who care, intersectional alliances must be forged not only between faculty sectors, but also among faculty, care workers in other industries, and members of society who benefit from caring labor.

Time to get up

2010 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-89 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Backhaus
Keyword(s):  
Elderly Care ◽  
Care Facility ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Care Workers ◽  
Analytical Point ◽  
Japanese Elderly ◽  
Compliance Gaining

This paper looks at compliance-gaining interaction in a Japanese elderly care facility from a conversation analytical point of view. Focus is on the various ways compliance is sought for by the caring staff with getting the residents out of bed and starting the daily morning care procedures. Three extracts are discussed in detail. The analysis shows how the residents in all three cases display clear signs of resistance to get up, but finally have to submit to the planned course of actions pursued by the care workers. A closer look at how this is played out in interaction suggests that the residents’ compliance is enforced rather than gained.

Care-Arbeit und Care-Berufe

2021 ◽  
Vol 81 (6) ◽  
pp. 452-458
Author(s):  
Martin Werding
Keyword(s):  
Wage Gap ◽  
Value Added ◽  
Preliminary Evidence ◽  
Care Work ◽  
Charitable Organizations ◽  
Institutional Settings ◽  
Private Households ◽  
A Value ◽  
Care Workers ◽  
Professional Care

Abstract Care work can be provided in various forms and in differing institutional settings, ranging from private households over social networks and charitable organizations to public or private entities employing professional care persons. All these forms of care work create a value-added, but are subject to very different economic conditions. Focusing on professional care and building on German micro-data, the article shows preliminary evidence that there might be a »care wage-gap«, i.e., a systematic disadvantage of care workers compared to other professions in terms of their remuneration. It points out how this presumption could be thoroughly scrutinized and suggests possible reasons - among other things, the existence of informal care - that could be tested in subsequent steps.

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