No abstract

During 2020, the COVID-19 crisis expanded the use of digital tools in public health and social care. The aim of this qualitative, single-case study was to scrutinize how homecare professionals experienced meaningfulness in their work in the midst of a crisis and with the utilization of the videophone in long-term homecare service provision. The empirical data consisted of 20 thematic interviews carried out among homecare professionals and their managers in the city of Tampere, Finland. The results indicated that the videophone can generate significance, self-realization and broader purposes among homecare professionals, thus providing meaningfulness for work in the midst of a crisis and continuous work-related changes. In addition, a crisis may support change in the meaningfulness of e-welfare in work-related tasks and aid in overcoming reluctance amongst public-sector social care (homecare) professionals towards an e-welfare initiative: the videophone (VideoVisit).

The Network Competence (NetCom) project consists of a master's degree programme as well as education and development services for its corporate partners. The goals of the project are to develop regional ICT industries in cooperation with University of Lapland and other public organizations. ICT education and research should be based on the long-term needs of the industry. The project is currently surveying the needs of its corporate partners, and the implications of the fmdings for training and development are being considered in the project's feedback and evaluation processes.