PurposeTrust plays an important role in the organisation of healthcare services. In Norway, the establishment of mandatory municipal acute wards with 24 h inpatient services introduces a new unit into the healthcare system. This article discusses how this new health care service succeeds in building trust with patients and among healthcare workers.Design/methodology/approachThe article is an in-depth case study of a single, exemplary inter-municipal acute ward. The study draws on interviews with COPD patients, the leader and doctors at the ward. The study also includes observations of daily work at the municipal acute ward. Moreover, administrators and healthcare workers at related healthcare institutions have been interviewed. Data were analysed using a qualitative method.FindingsThe study reveals that trust is built in complex relations and that it has both individual and systemic factors. The practices employed in the daily treatment and care of patients and in encounters between health care personnel and patients are important trust-building processes; however, these processes depend on structures and routines that promote efficient and adequate inter-organisational communication and patient-oriented procedures.Practical implicationsThe study provides insight into how trust dynamics work on multiple organisational levels and how they depend on both individual and systemic factors. Additionally, the study may provide a picture of the importance of trust in organising healthcare services in the future.Originality/valueLessons regarding trust building inspired by data from a case-study care institution can be applied in different care settings and countries.
Locus of self-worth shifts from internal in cultures of dignity to external in cultures of honor. It remains yet unknown whether it can be modified, for example, under an influence of important life events, as migration to a culture of a distinct logic. Our study aimed to analyse relationships between the locus of self-worth and the acculturation strategies on life satisfaction. We collected data from 60 heterosexual Polish couples living in Poland, 120 Polish migrant couples in Norway, and 60 Norwegian couples living in Norway. Groups differed from each other in life satisfaction and in locus of self-worth, with Norwegians valuating the self the most internally and Poles in Poland the most externally. Our results on locus of self-worth show that Polish culture fits in the classification of culture of honor, while Norwegians represent culture of dignity. Moreover, a series of hierarchical linear regressions demonstrated that both locus of self-worth and acculturation strategy are significant predictors of participants’ life satisfaction, with a moderating role of migrants’ attachment to Polish culture and adaptation to Norwegian society.
IntroductionThe world’s population is ageing. As older persons live longer and increase in number, society faces a greater disease burden and, in public welfare, a corresponding resource deficit. New technology is one solution to this deficit but there is scarce knowledge about ethical aspects of such innovations in care practices. In CARING FUTURES, we address this scarcity by interrogating how new technology in care can become ethically sound and, correspondingly, how ethics of care can become more technology aware. Our concern is to protect quality care for the future.Methods and analysisCARING FUTURES advances transdisciplinarity through knowledge exchange around technology-mediated care and ethics of care, involving key stakeholders. We rely on established and innovative methods to generate experience-near and practice-near knowledge. Through this empirical research, we seek to expand understanding of technology-mediated care and to enrich ethics of care theory.Ethics and disseminationEmpirical studies have been approved or await approval by national ethics committees. CARING FUTURES is designed to create societal impact through Knowledge Transfer Events targeting stakeholders in health, care and welfare, and Educational Packages for students of care—providing knowledge-exchange forums for future academics and practitioners of care. The project’s societal impact is also ensured in that participating researchers are also practitioners and/or educators of care personnel for the future. Project findings will be disseminated through scientific publications and conference presentations. Through communication in both traditional and digital media platforms, we engage in dialogues between researchers, user groups, policy makers and the wider public.
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