Technologies in caregiving: professionals’ strategies for engaging with new technology

Abstract

This article explores the adoption of new technology in organisations that provide senior citizen care. Inspired by Niklas Luhmann’s systems theory, we study how technology reduces complexity by identifying client needs and ensuring predictability in service delivery. However, how technologies are adopted in practice is not determined by technology since it is also structured by care‐workers' continuous decision‐making. Against this backdrop, we explore how technologies alter the conditions for decision‐making in two settings of elderly care, and we describe how care workers seek to adapt technologies to their practical needs as well as conception of care ethics. Developing a systems theory approach, the article eschews a priori assumptions of technological constraint on care‐workers’ professional autonomy, offering a more open‐ended exploration of diversified strategies for coping with new technology. Our case studies show that employees develop diversified strategies for technology adoption, including both non‐usage, heated resistance, excessive embrace, and creative adaption.

The Impact of Information and Communication Technology on Doctors’ and Registered Nurses’ Working Conditions and Clinical Work – A Cross-Sectional Study in a Norwegian Hospital

“… 11 , 22 , 35 Then again, the standardization of work also simplifies the complexity of patients’ needs, improves work routines and enhances the quality of health care services. 9 , 36 , 37 Hence, the outcomes of incorporating ICT into health care organizations appear not to be related to the technology itself but to the choices and processes involved when integrating ICT into health care professionals’ clinical work. 38 …”

‘Bringing the Covert into the Open’: A Case Study on Technology Appropriation and Continuous Improvement

“…To document and analyze technology appropriation in an organization with a continuous improvement (CI) program in place, we conducted an in-depth case study [41][42][43][44] on how care workers appropriated a personal digital assistant (PDA) in a nursing home. Previously, empirical studies have shown that deployments of the PDA for its intended functionalities-that is to remotely register and retrieve resident data-range from great successes to utter failures [16,31,37,[45][46][47][48][49][50]. The few studies explicitly elaborating PDA appropriation underline that care workers appropriate the PDA covertly, regarding both the intended [16,31] and the unintended functionalities [30,31].…”

DJES nr. 1 - Samlet Tidsskrift

“…velfaerdsteknologiske implementeringer herunder telemedicin, telehealth og telehomecare (se fx Sorknaes, 2013;Lunde, Drachmann & Christiansen, 2017;Højlund & Villadsen, 2020;Pols, 2012;, Harrison, Koppel & Bar-Lev, 2007Andersen & Hindhede, 2018). Teknologierne har i dag overtaget og forandret opgaverne for både de professionelle og borgerne.…”