Assembling care: How nurses organise care in uncharted territory and in times of pandemic

Abstract

This article draws on ethnographic research to conceptualise how nurses mobilise assemblages of caring to organise and deliver COVID care; particularly so by reorganising organisational infrastructures and practices of safe and good care. Based on participatory observations, interviews and nurse diaries, all collected during the early phase of the pandemic, the research shows how the organising work of nurses unfolds at different health-care layers: in the daily care for patients and their families, in the coordination of care in and between hospitals, and at the level of the health-care system. These findings contrast with the dominant pandemic-image of nurses as 'heroes at the bedside', which fosters the classic and microlevel view of nursing and leaves the broader contribution of nurses to the pandemic unaddressed. Theoretically, the study adds to the literature on translational mobilisation and assemblage theory by focussing on the layered and often invisible organising work of nurses in health care.

Responsive and Resilient Healthcare? Moments of Resilience in post- hospitalisation services for COVID-19

“…Our ndings show how collaboration across professional and organisational boundaries created learning processes and resilience (33). This demonstrates that whilst clinicians were reacting to the disruption they were proactively seeking strategies to create a resilient service that re ected the complexity of the emerging sequelae post COVID-19 (32).…”

“…As events unfolded, situated resilience emerged as clinicians interacted with and assembled sociotechnical resources (knowledge, skills, staff, IT) to identify what needed to be done to set up follow-up provision for patients (32). For services to be set-up, it was dependant on scaling-up the response from the micro-level to the meso-level.…”

The use of diaries for understanding the experience of health and illness

“…In addition, because the writing of dairies can be time-consuming and frustrating (Meth, 2003) the use of more creative approaches such as audio or video may be more appealing to participants (Buchwald et al, 2009). Indeed, Kuijper et al (2022) in their study about how nurses mobilise assemblages of caring to organise and deliver COVID-19 care found that keeping a diary may be burdensome for participants, in particular in times of crisis. Further, writing a diary can be a complex task to participants when they suffer from a health condition (Milligan et al, 2005).…”

“…Indeed, Kuijper et al. (2022) in their study about how nurses mobilise assemblages of caring to organise and deliver COVID‐19 care found that keeping a diary may be burdensome for participants, in particular in times of crisis. Further, writing a diary can be a complex task to participants when they suffer from a health condition (Milligan et al., 2005).…”

‘Nurses are seen as general cargo, not the smart TVs you ship carefully’: the politics of nurse staffing in England, Spain, Sweden, and the Netherlands

“…Shortages of nurses put healthcare systems under pressure, as governments are confronted with a mounting backlog of non-COVID care and rising care demands due to demographic transition. The COVID-pandemic has put nurses in the spotlight, and, especially in the first months, made nurses into a celebrated profession (Croft and Chauhan, 2021; Mohammed et al ., 2021; Kuijper et al ., 2022). The COVID-pandemic also elucidated the looming crisis of nurse workforce shortage, accelerated further by the pandemic.…”