Debesay Jonas, Harsløf Ivan, Rechel Bernd, Vike Halvard
Faculty of Health Sciences, Department of Nursing, Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Sciences, P.O. Box 4, St. Olavs Plass, N-0130 Oslo, Norway.
Faculty of Social Sciences, Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Sciences, P.O. Box 4, St. Olavs Plass, N-0130 Oslo, Norway.
Soc Sci Med. 2014 Oct;119:74-80. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2014.08.025. Epub 2014 Aug 19.
Since the mid-1990s, public sector health care services in Norway have been restructured, in line with New Public Management ideas. This restructuring has coincided with demographic changes that have led to a more culturally diverse patient population. Both developments have created new challenges for community nurses in managing their work. This qualitative study applies the concept of "emotional labor" to examine nurses' experiences in working with ethnic minority patients in the context of pressures arising from organizational reforms. The analysis sheds light on the nurses' attempts to comply with system-induced efficiency considerations, while catering to the special situation of patients with language barriers and unfamiliar cultural traditions. The article demonstrates how efficiency requirements and time constraints either aggravate the nurses' insecurity in dealing with minority patients or, in some cases, compel them to assume more work responsibilities so as to mitigate the effects of such constraints.
自20世纪90年代中期以来，挪威的公共部门医疗服务按照新公共管理理念进行了重组。这种重组恰逢人口结构变化，导致患者群体的文化更加多元化。这两种发展态势都给社区护士的工作管理带来了新挑战。这项定性研究运用“情感劳动”的概念，来审视护士在组织改革带来的压力背景下，与少数民族患者打交道时的经历。分析揭示了护士在迎合有语言障碍和不熟悉文化传统的患者特殊情况的同时，试图遵守系统引发的效率考量的种种努力。本文展示了效率要求和时间限制如何要么加剧护士在应对少数族裔患者时的不安全感，要么在某些情况下迫使他们承担更多工作职责，以减轻此类限制的影响。
