Gaming the system to care for patients: a focused ethnography in Norwegian public home care

• Main Authors: Maria Strandås, Steen Wackerhausen, Terese Bondas
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: BMC 2019-02-01
• Series: BMC Health Services Research
• Subjects: Home care services; Health service organization; Home care management; Nursing; New public management; Nurse patient relationship
• Online Access: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12913-019-3950-3

Abstract Background With its emphasis on cost-reduction and external management, New Public Management emerged as the dominant healthcare policy in many Western countries. The ability to provide comprehensive and customized patient-care is challenged by the formalized, task-oriented organization of home-care services. The aim of this study is to gain deeper understanding of how nurses and the patients they care for, relate to and deal with the organizational systems they are subjected to in Norwegian home care. Methods The focused ethnographic design is based on Roper and Shapira’s framework. Data collection consisted of participant observation with field notes and semi-structured interviews with ten nurses and eight patients from six home care areas located in two Norwegian municipalities. Results Findings indicate cultural patterns regarding nurses’ somewhat disobedient behaviors and manipulations of the organizational systems that they perceive to be based on economic as opposed to caring values. Rigid organization makes it difficult to deviate from predefined tasks and adapt nursing to patients changing needs, and manipulating the system creates some ability to tailor nursing care. The nurses’ actions are founded on assumptions regarding what aspects of nursing are most important and essential to enhance patients’ health and ensure wellbeing – individualized care, nurse-patient relationships and caring – which they perceive to be devalued by New Public Management organization. Findings show that patients share nurses’ perceptions of what constitute high quality nursing, and they adjust their behavior to ease nurses’ work, and avoid placing demands on nurses. Findings were categorized into three main areas: “Rigid organizational systems complicating nursing care at the expense of caring for patients”, “Having the patient’s health and wellbeing at heart” and “Compensating for a flawed system”. Conclusions Our findings indicate that, in many ways, the organizational system hampers provision of high-quality nursing, and that comprehensive care is provided in spite of - not because of - the system. The observed practices of nurses and patients are interpreted as ways of “gaming the system” for caring purposes, in order to ensure the best possible care for patients.