5. What Counts? Managing Professionals on the Front Line of Emergency Services

Multiple Dimensions of Work Intensity: Ambulance Work as Edgework

“…Literature on emotional, temporal and physical risks in ambulance services suggests that such work may be inherently intense (Alexander and Klein, 2001;Bennett et al, 2004;Clohessy and Ehlers, 1999;Corman and Melon, 2014;Mahony, 2001;Pajonk, et al, 2011;Sterud, et al, 2006Sterud, et al, , 2011Young and Cooper, 1995). Ambulance professionals are regularly involved in rushing to the scene of emergencies and taking rapid action in unstable and unfamiliar environments (Cydulka et al, 1989).…”

“…Mannon (1992) produced a similar monograph also based on long-term observation of a US ambulance service. These and other accounts (Authors, XXXX; Boyle and Healy, 2003;Charman, 2013;Corman and Melon, 2014;Mahony, 2001;Palmer, 1983;Reynolds, 2008;Seim, 2017;Scott and Tracy, 2007;Tangherlini, 2000) go beyond psychological, ergonomic, or risk and safety issues to consider the culture, activities, organization and contested social meanings of ambulance work. The present paper builds on this tradition, mobilizing the notion of edgework as a way of exploring the meaning of work for professionals operating in such challenging contexts.…”

“…When it does appear, it tends to be incidental (Greatbatch et al, 2005;Oborn et al, 2013;Prichard et al, 2014;) or framed as 'other' in relation to the healthcare workforce (Kessler et al, 2012). However, detailed, meaningful and evocative accounts exist (Authors, XXXX; Boyle and Healy, 2003;Charman, 2013;Corman and Melon, 2014;Kyed, 2016;Mahony, 2001;Nurok and Henckes, 2009;Reynolds, 2008;Scott and Tracy, 2007;Seim, 2017;Tangherlini, 2000). This relative neglect is in contrast to research on healthcare professions more generally (Ackroyd and Bolton, 1999;Adams et al 2000; Buchanan et al, 2013;Cooke, 2006), and a voluminous literature on the sociology of uniformed professions (Charman, 2013;Loftus, 2009;Maynard-Moody and Musheno, 2003;Moskos, 2008;Reiner, 1992, and many more).…”

Problems of actuality in meal and nutrition care: Nurses’ perceptions of transfer of knowledge between different care settings

“…According to Corman and Melon, these are two distinct and often contradictory ways of getting to know patientsas real people with bodily needs and as text-based objects of professional attention -which represent and result in two kinds of caregiving. 12 One is formal caregiving, written and shared by professionals and administrators, that of a recording task that fits the organizational scheme. The other form of caregiving, which is submerged, unwritten, and shared by the people who live and work on the floors, 13 is that of invisible care work, which is written out of the charts, not considering to whom work should be visible.…”

“…Extractions or cues in medical charts conceal as much as they reveal. 13 This is due to filling in a text said to objectify knowledge, and text that appears objective is based on limited information, 12 pushing aside the narrative and more elaborated part of nursing 22 and increasing the invisibility of meal and nutrition care. Problems of actuality exist, in spite of text-based care possessing the potential to improve the transfer of knowledge between actors in different social worlds, 34 due to the possibility of the same words and images presenting different places at different times.…”