Question

visible and invisible worker​

Answer 1

ur answer

Recently, many initiatives promoting a holistic view of the patient have been developed. In the

last 20 years, different models and frameworks have been advanced to operationalize these dif-

ferent forms of holistic care. This article focuses on one specific case of holistic person-centred

care, using the sociological theories of articulation work and invisible work to investigate the

efforts involved in sustaining its realization. The article builds on a small ethnographic study

conducted at a ward in a Swedish hospital implementing person-centred care. Following a nurse,

and her patient, through a ‘person-centred’ admission process and its subsequent procedures, it is

argued that person-centred care depends on nurses performing many new tasks which are rarely

recognized and appreciated. Secondly, it is argued that nurses are continually asked to do what

Anselm Strauss defined as articulation work, coordinating between these different new tasks

and established duties. Thirdly, the article discusses the tensions arising when implementing

a formalized model of care, which builds on a critique of standardization and objectification,

and the work that is excluded and invisible in such routinized operationalization. Finally, it is

concluded that while the successful implementation of person-centred care is often argued to rely

on the willingness of nurses to surrender old habits, it seems rather to hinge on the skilled inven-

tiveness of these nurses and their ability to overcome the practical difficulties they encounter.