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Lofty ideals and lowly troubles among nursing home managers

Bäck, Monica Andersson LU and Levay, Charlotta LU (2018) p.62-74
Abstract
This chapter explores how nursing home managers grapple with local manifestations of the wicked problems that plague elderly care. It shows the tension between managers' lofty ideals of high-quality, individualized care and their continuous struggle to handle very basic troubles that ultimately appear to be grounded in a lack of resources, such as high personnel turnover and staff complaints about inconvenient work times. The chapter explains and illustrates the gap between lofty ideals and lowly troubles among managers which it found at most investigated nursing homes but which was more or less absent from one of them, a private non-profit home with relatively ample resources and a strong focus on concrete quality work. In the nursing... (More)
This chapter explores how nursing home managers grapple with local manifestations of the wicked problems that plague elderly care. It shows the tension between managers' lofty ideals of high-quality, individualized care and their continuous struggle to handle very basic troubles that ultimately appear to be grounded in a lack of resources, such as high personnel turnover and staff complaints about inconvenient work times. The chapter explains and illustrates the gap between lofty ideals and lowly troubles among managers which it found at most investigated nursing homes but which was more or less absent from one of them, a private non-profit home with relatively ample resources and a strong focus on concrete quality work. In the nursing homes, wicked problems take the form of constant pressures to keep costs down and at the same time improve care for increasingly vulnerable residents. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
and
organization
publishing date
type
Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding
publication status
published
subject
host publication
The Management of Wicked Problems in Health and Social Care
pages
13 pages
publisher
Taylor & Francis
external identifiers
  • scopus:85060000660
ISBN
9781351592536
9781138103627
DOI
10.4324/9781315102597
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
b72ffac3-7b2a-4036-b56c-c976a784294a
date added to LUP
2019-01-24 08:13:12
date last changed
2024-01-15 12:28:39
@inbook{b72ffac3-7b2a-4036-b56c-c976a784294a,
  abstract     = {{This chapter explores how nursing home managers grapple with local manifestations of the wicked problems that plague elderly care. It shows the tension between managers' lofty ideals of high-quality, individualized care and their continuous struggle to handle very basic troubles that ultimately appear to be grounded in a lack of resources, such as high personnel turnover and staff complaints about inconvenient work times. The chapter explains and illustrates the gap between lofty ideals and lowly troubles among managers which it found at most investigated nursing homes but which was more or less absent from one of them, a private non-profit home with relatively ample resources and a strong focus on concrete quality work. In the nursing homes, wicked problems take the form of constant pressures to keep costs down and at the same time improve care for increasingly vulnerable residents.}},
  author       = {{Bäck, Monica Andersson and Levay, Charlotta}},
  booktitle    = {{The Management of Wicked Problems in Health and Social Care}},
  isbn         = {{9781351592536}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{09}},
  pages        = {{62--74}},
  publisher    = {{Taylor & Francis}},
  title        = {{Lofty ideals and lowly troubles among nursing home managers}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9781315102597}},
  doi          = {{10.4324/9781315102597}},
  year         = {{2018}},
}