A Gendered Analysis of Work, Stress and Mental Health, Among Professional and Non-Professional Workers

This study examines the differences in mental health experiences of workers in professional and non-professional roles, with a particular focus on the influence of gender. We examine: i) the perceived mental health of a subset of professional workers including accounting, academia, dentistry, medicine, nursing, and teaching, chosen because they represent different gender composition and sectors; and ii) work stress and work absences. Statistical analyses were applied to data from the Canadian Community Health Survey and a related Mental Health and Well-Being survey. Those in the selected professions reported better mental health, higher job satisfaction, and a lower prevalence of mental disorders, but higher self-perceived life and work stress compared to workers in non-professional roles. Workers in these professions reported higher job security and higher job control, but also higher psychological demands. Women in these professions showed significantly higher physical exertion and lower job authority and higher rates of work absences.

A Discretionary Toolkit: Reasoning When Teaching Controversial Issues in Norwegian Upper Secondary School

Using a toolkit approach in combination with the concept of street-level bureaucracy and theories of discretion, this article has empirically investigated the resources that influence teachers’ discretionary reasoning when teaching controversial issues. The analysis has been based on 32 classroom observations at two upper secondary schools in Oslo, Norway, in one Religion and Ethics and one Social Science class, and interviews with 16 teachers who taught the same subjects. The results have shown that professional competence, professional and personal values, and relationships with pupils worked as a toolkit of resources that teachers could draw upon when making discretionary judgments in different contexts. A better understanding of teachers’ use of discretionary reasoning may enable curriculum developers and policymakers to support teachers in the complex social landscape of teaching controversial issues.

Students’ interprofessional workplace learning in clinical placement

Students’ learning in the workplace during their clinical placements is an important part of their education to become healthcare professionals. Despite the number of studies of student interprofessional learning in clinical placements, little is still known about the significance of interprofessional learning and how it is facilitated and arranged for to occur. This article aims to investigate interprofessional learning between students collaborating in a workplace-driven arrangement integrated into a clinical placement. A focused ethnographic research approach was applied, comprising observations of ten students participating in the arrangement organised by clinical supervisors on a medical emergency ward at a Swedish university hospital, followed by group interviews. Using a boundary-crossing lens, the article analyses the workplace arrangement, in which students’ learning across professional boundaries and their negotiations around a boundary object were prerequisites to coordinate their interprofessional knowledge and manage emerging challenges while being in charge of care on the ward.

Dilemmas and Discretion in Complex Organizations: Professionals in Collaboration with Spontaneous Volunteers During Disasters

Discretion is of major interest in research on professions. This article focuses on professionals’ discretionary reasoning about collaboration with spontaneous volunteers. By applying theories on discretion and institutional logics and drawing on disaster management research, we analyse interviews with fire and rescue service professionals involved in managing a large-scale forest fire in Sweden. We identify five major dilemmas concerning the involvement of spontaneous volunteers in the official disaster response and analyse the influence on professional reasoning of multiple institutional logics (professional, citizen, bureaucratic and market) embedded in the emergency organization. The analytical framework connects structure and agency by linking institutional logics to discretional reasoning, and the findings clarify professional emergency responders’ perspectives on the opportunities and challenges of involving spontaneous volunteers in an operation.

Professional Challenges in Medical Imaging for Providing Safe Medical Service

This study explores the organization of medical physicists’, radiologists’, and radiographers’ professional work and the challenges they encounter ensuring quality and safe medical service within medical imaging. A practice theory perspective was used for data collection, which consisted of 14 open interviews, and data analysis. The concept of tension was used for the interpretation of findings. Three tensions are presented in the findings: 1) between diverse general and practical understandings about the activities in practice; 2) between material-economic conditions and activity in practice, and 3) between discursive-culture conditions and activity in practice. This study found that new technology, economical rationality, and the organisation of work processes lead to fewer face-to-face meetings between different professions. Therefore, medical imaging as dispersed practices misses opportunities for learning across practices, which can lead to patient safety risks. To ensure patient safety, new forms for learning across practices are needed.

Clinical Teaching as a Challenge in Transforming the Nursing Profession in Estonia

The changes in European healthcare education, building on the Bologna Process, aimed at the integration of clinical work and teaching and promoted a holistic patient and learner-centred professional paradigm. The article, based on the findings of two qualitative studies (2017–2019), focuses on the transformation of the nursing profession in the context of the Estonian healthcare curriculum reform. Thematic written interviews accompanied by a drawing task were collected from clinical nurse teachers and graduating students. The data was analysed using hermeneutic content and comparative analysis. The findings showed that the students had internalised the patient-centred paradigm and integrated teaching into their clinical work, but their learning was hampered by the institutional atmosphere dominated by clinical values. Among the nurses, only the “ideal clinical teachers” had combined clinical work and teaching in their professional paradigm. The tensions in the clinical internship limit the attainment of the reformed profession.

Quandaries of Autonomy and Empowerment in Evidence-Based Nursing Care

Empowerment and evidence-based practice represent two influential principles in nursing care: that decision-making should be based upon the patient’s autonomous choice, and the most up-to-date research findings, respectively. In this article, patient empowerment is taken to imply a transfer of control and power from the nurse to the patient through communication and care and acknowledging the patient’s perspectives and values. Empowerment-based nursing may thus be central to enhancing a patient’s autonomy. Evidence-based nursing combines up-to-date research findings, the nurse’s clinical expertise and the patient’s preferences. This article concerns some of the potential conflicts these principles may give rise to in everyday deliberations in nursing care. It is argued that patient empowerment and autonomy potentially both have paternalistic connotations. It is also questioned whether an increased emphasis on patient empowerment and autonomy may lead to a risk of diminished professional autonomy.

To Co-Opt or To Be Co-Opted? The Role of Professional Elites in Strengthening Professional Control Vis-à-Vis Clients

This article studies how professional elites, as exemplified by first teachers (FTs)—a new prominent position for teachers in Sweden—respond to clashes between market and professional logics, and how this affects professional control vis-à-vis clients. Based on a collaborative ethnography, findings suggest that the professional elites use different responses to the clashes between the logics. Professional control can be strengthened by FTs co-opting the market logic strategically in the interest of the profession. However, FTs sometimes also succumb to cliental influence, becoming co-opted themselves by the market logic, which weakens professional control. Tentatively, context needs to be highlighted in order to understand why different responses are used, and in this identity work and relationships to managers seem essential to create a foundation for FTs to respond in ways that increase professional control vis-à-vis clients.