Description of some sociological methodology to facilitate understanding change management issues when implementing electronic nursing documentation in residential aged care.
Methods to understand patterns of adoption of an electronic nursing documentation system in residential aged care facilities
1. Methods to understand patterns of adoption of an
electronic nursing documentation system in
residential aged care facilities
Kieren Diment1, Ping Yu1, Karin Garrety2,
1Health Informatics Research Lab, Faculty of Informatics, University of Wollongong, NSW
2 School of Management, University of Wollongong, NSW
PhD Scholarship funded by ARC Linkage Grant held by Dr Ping Yu:
Introducing computer-based nursing documentation into residential aged care:
A multi-method evaluation of success
2. Preliminary research
Progress at 6 months
Assessment of organisation change
after the introduction of electronic
nursing documentation in residential
aged care
3. Study Sites
• One management
group (so far ...)
• High Care
• Low Care
• Mixed Care
7. Continuous comparative technique
• Generate and revise conclusions
based on evidence from research
materials
• coding and conceptualisation
• continuous re-examination
and review
• Iterative process
8. Continuous comparative technique
1. Grounded theory - default, frequently cited
due to being “the most popular approach”.
• Varying degrees of tabula rasa
assumption
• minimise role of researcher
assumptions
• Data driven
• Difficult to identify implicit data
9. Continuous comparative technique
2. Situational analysis1: post-modern grounded
theory
• Suited to detailed individual case
studies, micro-sociology.
• Addresses many concerns with
grounded theory
• e.g. role of silence in discource
• Emphasises visualisation as a research
technique
1. Clarke, A. (2005) Situational Analysis. Grounded theory after the postmodern turn SAGE
10. A situational map of
nursing practice:
Visualisation of
sociological
situations
From Clarke, A. (2005) Situational Analysis. Grounded theory after the postmodern turn. SAGE Publications.
11. Continuous comparative technique
3.Institutional Ethnography1:
• Using interview research to
understand how “ruling
relations” shape local
experiences.
1. DeVault, M., & McCoy, L. (2006). Institutional ethnography: Using interviews to investigate ruling
relations. In J. Gubrium & J. Holstein (Eds.), Handbook of Interview Research: Context & Method (pp. 751-776).
12. Continuous comparative technique
3.Institutional Ethnography1:
• Top down / bottom up
• Emphasises experience
• Emphasises invisible work
• Origins in feminist sociology
1. Campbell, M. (2004) Mapping Social Relations: A Primer in Doing Institutional Ethnography AltaMira Press
13. Management
Group
Nursing Nursing Nursing
Home Home Home
Manager
Deputy
Manager
Recreation Registered
Activity Physio Nurses or
Assistant Low Care TL
Officer
Enrolled
Nurses
Personal Personal Personal
Care Care Care
Workers Workers Workers
14. A way of combining situational maps with other
visualisations would be nice
15. 1. Novak, J. D. (1998) Learning, Creating, and Using Knowledge: Concept Maps™ As Facilitative Tools in
Schools and Corporations Lawrence Erlbaum.
22. Organisational
hierarchy
•
Management
Professional nursing has
Group
roots in the military Nursing
Home
Nursing
Home
Nursing
Home
“I started as an AIN for many Manager
many years and in those days we
had to stand up when the matron Deputy
Manager
came into the room that's how
much better [the hierarchy has] Recreation Registered
Physio
got.” Activity Nurses or
Officer Assistant Low Care TL
Deputy Residential Services
Manager Enrolled
Nurses
Personal Personal Personal
Care Care Care
Workers Workers Workers
23. Organisational
hierarchy
• Also replicable as concept map Management
Group
Nursing Nursing Nursing
Home Home Home
Manager
Deputy
Manager
Recreation Registered
Physio Nurses or
Activity
Assistant Low Care TL
Officer
Enrolled
Nurses
Personal Personal Personal
Care Care Care
Workers Workers Workers
Be careful to define tabula rasa here - blank slate origins in aincient greek philosophy - in this case it means that the data that you collect is the central andthe researcher should enter the research act without assumptions. This is tricky. For example in the context of this research project I have experiences in mental health nursing and as a computer programmer that will affect my relationship to the data.
Micro-sociology - individuals’ relationships to their social situation. Becomes tricky when trying to differentiate
silence section is interesting. What’s the meaning of a pause in an interview transcript. The grounded theory approach can’t answer this, but it’s potentially important.
Note that it emphasises visualisation as a researcher technique not a presentation technique.
You can see why it’s a practitioner rather than a presentation technique here. The diagram is rather difficult to read.
“ruling relations” - power. organisation within hierarchies are examples of this
E.g of invisible work in Aged care - RN talking to family - which is at least invisible to the funding agency, but an important part of the job (source: care worker from standalone low care hostel)
By the meso-level we mean that we’re interested in within the nursing home, between nursing homes and between management groups.
Top down understanding (NH/Mgmt group). Bottom up understanding (individual staff). This slide is a visualisation of some aspects of the ruling relations within nursing homes
We can see where the diagram is most connected and where connections are sparse more easily.
I
It’s also easier to spot ambiguities with the concept map due to the strict rules required.
The concept map’s rigid structure allows us to have alternative views
Machine readable due to strict structure.
So now we will spend the last few slides looking at how to work this into my project.
So here we have merged the hierarchy concept map with a concept map representing data that have come from interviews about different staffs’ potential to display resentment, resistance and refusal with respect to the electronic documentation system.
We can see links to distant parts of the map
The strategic approach can most affect the items furthest away (i.e. most connected to PCWs). These are: professional culture, take steps to reduce refusal (show the low skill PCWs the minimum they need), make best use of human resources (educated computer literate carers - 1 per site), allow the training pattern to take that apparently democratic approach.
Propoganda. Managers and carers don’t really communicate with each other much outside of low care hostels, but the manager can reduce resistance by looking at the drivers of resentment which are mostly attributes most relevant to personal carers. I’m going to talk about the data in my talk at NIA tomorrow.