Workarounds and tension: healthcare workers' occupational experiences with workarounds

Abstract

The purpose of this interpretive description study was to seek a better understanding of workers’ occupational safety experiences with workarounds. In recent years, the phenomenon of workarounds in healthcare has received considerable attention, but little of that attention has been directed at workers’ occupational safety experiences. Seven participants from a rural western Canadian health region, representing a range of nursing related positions, described their experiences via semi-structured face-to-face interviews. Data from these interviews was coded and subsequently categorized into four themes: being heard, meeting expectations, upholding values and finding a balance. From these themes, a proposed explanatory framework based on general systems theory is offered to healthcare stakeholders as a tool to better understand and manage workarounds in their workplaces. But most significantly, what the researcher offers in this study is insight into healthcare workers’ descriptions of tensions related to their experiences with workarounds.