Medication management in Swedish nursing homes: an ethnographic study of resistance, negotiation and control

Abstract

ABSTRACT Medication management in elderly care has become a considerable part of the care work. It involves health care professionals, such as registered nurses, formally delegating their tasks to non-professionals, typically care workers. The aim of this article is to explore the medication management in nursing homes for older people. The focus lies on how care workers and residents interact in relation to the medication management routines. Participant observations were made in seven nursing homes, and the analysis of the empirical material applied the theoretical concepts of local routine culture and materiality. The nursing home residents may try to resist or negotiate the medication management routines, express their reluctance in words or actions, ask questions or make demands. While routines produce institutional bodies, acts of resistance and negotiation may strengthen a person’s sense of self. Medication management affect the relationship between care workers and residents, by enabling interaction. Looking at medication management as a social phenomenon deepens the understanding of how it affects care work and illustrates that in the context of nursing home care, health care and social care are not separate but rather intertwined.