Doing gender in the context of telenursing: Analyses of authentic calls to a telenursing site in Sweden

Abstract

Introduction: Aim: The aim of the present study was to analyze authentic health calls to a telenursing site in Sweden regarding reasons for calling and outcome of the calls with focus on a gender perspective. Background: Telephone advice nursing is an expanding service in many Western countries. In Sweden, all regions are now connected to a national telenursing service. Healthcare in Sweden is stipulated by law to be equitable. This includes the teleursing service, which is a new actor in Swedish healthcare system, and which often is a citizen's first contact with healthcare. Methods:The study had a descriptive and comparative design. 800 authentic calls to SHD were analysed regarding reasons for calling, and outcome of the calls. Results:The results showed that men, and especially fathers, received more referrals to general practitioners than women. The most common caller was a woman fluent in Swedish (64%), and the least likely caller was a man non-fluent in Swedish (3%). All in all, 70% of the callers were women. When the calls concerned children, 78% of the callers were female. In total, 9% of the calls were made by a man calling for another person. Callers were predominately young (mean age 29 years for women and 33 for men). Conclusions:It is important that telenursing does not become a "feminine" activity, only suitable for young callers fluent in Swedish. Given the telenurses' gatekeeping role, there is a risk that differences on this first level of health care can be reproduced throughout the whole healthcare system. In striving for more equitable telenursing services, future research might investigate if campaigns encouraging men to call, and more frequent use of translators could enhance access to telenursing services.

Influence of self‐care advice on patient satisfaction and healthcare utilization

“…The sample size of fathers calling for their children was very small (n = 9), possibly explaining why the analysis remained non-significant despite the large OR between mothers and fathers. That fathers are more often referred to medical care than mothers has been found in other studies as well (Kaminsky et al 2010, Hakimnia et al 2014. However, in our study, we found indications that fathers might rate the symptom severity higher than mothers, suggesting that the referral to medical care was indeed medically induced.…”

“…, Hakimnia et al . ). However, in our study, we found indications that fathers might rate the symptom severity higher than mothers, suggesting that the referral to medical care was indeed medically induced.…”

Telephone nursing in Sweden: A narrative literature review

“…Mothers instead received self‐care advice as the outcome of calls, although mothers and fathers called with similar symptoms. Hakimnia et al () reported similar results in a study of 800 authentic calls. In that study, men received more referrals to general practitioners (GPs) than women did (OR: 2.54).…”

“…To attain an equitable distribution of public health education, however, discriminating aspects must be observed (e.g. to welcome fathers, men, immigrants, and callers from deprived areas to TN services to the same extent as other citizens), because gender, age, and ethnicity have been proven to play a role in who calls SHD and in call outcomes (Kaminsky et al ; Hakimnia et al , ; Höglund & Holmström ). Female callers are of the majority, and seem to be predominant internationally, whereas calls from individuals in deprived areas are less common (Buja et al ; McAteer et al ).…”

“…The findings that men, calling on behalf of their children or for themselves, received referrals to a higher extent than women (Kaminsky et al ; Hakimnia et al ), suggest that aspects other than merely the severity of symptoms can affect RN assessments and advice. In a Norwegian study, Holm Hansen and Hunskaar () found that non‐native callers said that they trusted the telephone nurse to a lesser extent, and did not receive relevant answers to their questions to the same degree as native‐speaking callers.…”