Abstract
The achievement of integrated care requires innovative, cross-sectoral and interdisciplinary collaboration in relation to workforce capacity and capability. Such collaboration can be furthered by collaborative, participatory health research in which people in the field under study and university researchers co-produce knowledge across different epistemologies and institutional contexts. However, co-producing knowledge across different knowledge forms and institutions faces challenges rooted in tensions. The tensions arise in the complex relational work which collaboration across disciplines and institutions necessitates. This paper is based on the assumption that critical, reflexive analysis of these tensions can further develop innovative collaboration and, in so doing, enhance workforce capacity and capability in relation to integrated care. Our research question is as follows: In collaborative research practices across institutions, how do different knowledge forms come into play, what tensions arise and with what implications for the enhancement of workforce capacity and capability in relation to integrated care?”
We address this question through critical, reflexive analysis of a collective research project designed to enhance workforce capacity and capability, and more specifically, the recruitment and retention of nurses. The main collaborative research partners are junior and senior researchers from the Region Zealand and Roskilde University, including professors, associate professors, Ph.D. students and a Postdoc. The collective project consists of the following collaborative, participatory sub-projects: 1) conflict de-escalation in hospitals (Ph.D.) 2) nurses’ workplace environment and satisfaction (Ph.D.) 3) nurses’ choice of specialisation (Postdoc). Theoretically, our analysis draws on dialogic communication theory, Foucauldian poststructuralist theory and Bennett and Brunner (2020: 2)’s concept of a ‘buffer zone’: a “dynamic, contextual space and set of practices necessary to undertake collaborative research within contemporary, complex arrangements”. Using the methods of document analysis and discourse analysis, we analyse the following data: advertisements for the doctoral and postdoctoral posts; policy documents about the recruitment and retention of nurses; audio recordings of meetings between the collaborative research partners; email correspondence between the partners.
The analysis provides insight into the tensions that arise in struggles for legitimacy across conflicting understandings of co-production, knowledge/evidence and intended outcomes. One main tension arises between an orientation towards outcomes designed to generate innovative solutions to complex problems and an orientation towards processes designed to provide a strong foundation for dialogic learning across difference. An orientation towards outcomes of practice change carries the risks of overly instrumentalizing co-production, solving pre-defined problems along technocratic lines and reproducing the existing hierarchy of power and knowledge. An orientation towards research processes of dialogic learning and caring can face difficulties in meeting the criteria for “evidence” that dominate the practice and research fields and finding a constructive course of action leading to practice change. In conclusion, we expand on how the approach to critical-reflexive analysis illustrated in the paper represents a strategy for furthering the innovative collaboration which enhances workforce capability and capacity and is at the core of people-centred integrated care.
We address this question through critical, reflexive analysis of a collective research project designed to enhance workforce capacity and capability, and more specifically, the recruitment and retention of nurses. The main collaborative research partners are junior and senior researchers from the Region Zealand and Roskilde University, including professors, associate professors, Ph.D. students and a Postdoc. The collective project consists of the following collaborative, participatory sub-projects: 1) conflict de-escalation in hospitals (Ph.D.) 2) nurses’ workplace environment and satisfaction (Ph.D.) 3) nurses’ choice of specialisation (Postdoc). Theoretically, our analysis draws on dialogic communication theory, Foucauldian poststructuralist theory and Bennett and Brunner (2020: 2)’s concept of a ‘buffer zone’: a “dynamic, contextual space and set of practices necessary to undertake collaborative research within contemporary, complex arrangements”. Using the methods of document analysis and discourse analysis, we analyse the following data: advertisements for the doctoral and postdoctoral posts; policy documents about the recruitment and retention of nurses; audio recordings of meetings between the collaborative research partners; email correspondence between the partners.
The analysis provides insight into the tensions that arise in struggles for legitimacy across conflicting understandings of co-production, knowledge/evidence and intended outcomes. One main tension arises between an orientation towards outcomes designed to generate innovative solutions to complex problems and an orientation towards processes designed to provide a strong foundation for dialogic learning across difference. An orientation towards outcomes of practice change carries the risks of overly instrumentalizing co-production, solving pre-defined problems along technocratic lines and reproducing the existing hierarchy of power and knowledge. An orientation towards research processes of dialogic learning and caring can face difficulties in meeting the criteria for “evidence” that dominate the practice and research fields and finding a constructive course of action leading to practice change. In conclusion, we expand on how the approach to critical-reflexive analysis illustrated in the paper represents a strategy for furthering the innovative collaboration which enhances workforce capability and capacity and is at the core of people-centred integrated care.
Original language | English |
---|---|
Publication date | 2022 |
Publication status | Published - 2022 |
Event | ICIC22: 22nd International Conference on Integrated Care - Odense, Denmark Duration: 23 May 2022 → 25 May 2022 |
Conference
Conference | ICIC22: 22nd International Conference on Integrated Care |
---|---|
Location | Odense |
Country/Territory | Denmark |
Period | 23/05/2022 → 25/05/2022 |