Hospitalssygepleje i transformation?

Et casestudie af arbejdsmarkedspolitik i mødet med konkret arbejde

Abstract

Hospital Nursing in Transformation?

A Case Study of Labor Market Policy in the Encounter with Everyday Work This article examines how the political ambition of achieving a more equitable distribution of irregular shifts among hospital nurses becomes institutionalized, and how the initial resistance to this ambition among hospital nurses materializes within existing practices. The study is a case study grounded methodologically in institutional ethnography, combining political and organizational texts with field observations, interviews, and focus groups with nurses and managers, presented through a composite narrative. Drawing on theories of hospital organization and professional work – its meaning, subjectivation, and practice – the analysis identifies three central tensions between: autonomy and heteronomy, specialist and generalist roles, and collective versus individual work forms. While policymakers and hospital management frame the redistribution of shifts as a solution to equity and sustainability in healthcare, it is experienced in practice as a form of Taylorist control that undermines professional expertise, flexibility, and security. By applying institutional ethnography and work-life theory, the article contributes to work-life research by demonstrating how governance logics and subjectivation practices intersect within welfare institutions. The findings point to the need for future solutions that not only redistribute shifts but also support professional expertise, autonomy, and new forms of communities of practice across organizational units.