"More" work for nurses : the ironies of eHealth
Frennert, Susanne LU
; Petersson, Lena
LU
and Erlingsdottir, Gudbjörg
LU
(2023)
In BMC Health Services Research
23.
p.1-12
- Abstract
BACKGROUND: eHealth applications are considered a technological fix that can potentially address some of the grand challenges in healthcare, including burnout among healthcare professionals, the growing burden of patients with chronic conditions, and retaining and recruiting healthcare professionals. However, as the deployment of eHealth applications in healthcare is relatively novel, there is a lack of research on how they affect the work environment of healthcare professionals. This study explores how work evolves-particularly for nurses-during the utilisation of three eHealth applications.
METHODS: The study is a qualitative case study with an interpretive approach. The utilisation of three different eHealth applications was... (More)
BACKGROUND: eHealth applications are considered a technological fix that can potentially address some of the grand challenges in healthcare, including burnout among healthcare professionals, the growing burden of patients with chronic conditions, and retaining and recruiting healthcare professionals. However, as the deployment of eHealth applications in healthcare is relatively novel, there is a lack of research on how they affect the work environment of healthcare professionals. This study explores how work evolves-particularly for nurses-during the utilisation of three eHealth applications.
METHODS: The study is a qualitative case study with an interpretive approach. The utilisation of three different eHealth applications was studied. Seventy-five healthcare professionals were interviewed, most of whom were nurses (n = 47). Interviews were transcribed verbatim and qualitative content analysis was used to analyse the text.
RESULTS: Three main themes were identified: work that is ignored and overlooked; actions needed to complete visible work; and more sedentary work activities. The findings suggest that work surrounding the utilisation of eHealth applications in care practices is mostly performed by nurses. While the promise of more efficient workflows resulting from healthcare's digital transformation may be realised to different degrees, the utilisation of eHealth applications creates additional invisible labour for nurses.
CONCLUSION: We identified through our analysis that the extra work created by eHealth applications is invisible at the organisational level. Most of the invisible labour was performed by nurses, who were engaged in utilising the eHealth applications. This needs to be recognised when implementing eHealth applications in care practices.
(Less)
- author
- Frennert, Susanne
LU
; Petersson, Lena
LU
and Erlingsdottir, Gudbjörg
LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2023-04-27
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- eHealth applications, Telemedicine/methods, Health Personnel, Digital health, Qualitative Research, Nurses, Invisible work, Articulated work
- in
- BMC Health Services Research
- volume
- 23
- article number
- 411
- pages
- 12 pages
- publisher
- BioMed Central (BMC)
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:85156225797
- pmid:37106404
- ISSN
- 1472-6963
- DOI
- 10.1186/s12913-023-09418-3
- project
- Förbättrade arbets- och patientflöden i primärvården med digitalt Flow
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- a250ebe8-ab43-4ae6-9485-3920a921e57e
- date added to LUP
- 2023-05-11 07:49:43
- date last changed
- 2024-06-15 02:49:06
@article{a250ebe8-ab43-4ae6-9485-3920a921e57e,
abstract = {{<p>BACKGROUND: eHealth applications are considered a technological fix that can potentially address some of the grand challenges in healthcare, including burnout among healthcare professionals, the growing burden of patients with chronic conditions, and retaining and recruiting healthcare professionals. However, as the deployment of eHealth applications in healthcare is relatively novel, there is a lack of research on how they affect the work environment of healthcare professionals. This study explores how work evolves-particularly for nurses-during the utilisation of three eHealth applications.</p><p>METHODS: The study is a qualitative case study with an interpretive approach. The utilisation of three different eHealth applications was studied. Seventy-five healthcare professionals were interviewed, most of whom were nurses (n = 47). Interviews were transcribed verbatim and qualitative content analysis was used to analyse the text.</p><p>RESULTS: Three main themes were identified: work that is ignored and overlooked; actions needed to complete visible work; and more sedentary work activities. The findings suggest that work surrounding the utilisation of eHealth applications in care practices is mostly performed by nurses. While the promise of more efficient workflows resulting from healthcare's digital transformation may be realised to different degrees, the utilisation of eHealth applications creates additional invisible labour for nurses.</p><p>CONCLUSION: We identified through our analysis that the extra work created by eHealth applications is invisible at the organisational level. Most of the invisible labour was performed by nurses, who were engaged in utilising the eHealth applications. This needs to be recognised when implementing eHealth applications in care practices.</p>}},
author = {{Frennert, Susanne and Petersson, Lena and Erlingsdottir, Gudbjörg}},
issn = {{1472-6963}},
keywords = {{eHealth applications; Telemedicine/methods; Health Personnel; Digital health; Qualitative Research; Nurses; Invisible work; Articulated work}},
language = {{eng}},
month = {{04}},
pages = {{1--12}},
publisher = {{BioMed Central (BMC)}},
series = {{BMC Health Services Research}},
title = {{"More" work for nurses : the ironies of eHealth}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12913-023-09418-3}},
doi = {{10.1186/s12913-023-09418-3}},
volume = {{23}},
year = {{2023}},
}