Policy Press

Unpaid Work in Nursing Homes

Flexible Boundaries

Edited by Pat Armstrong

Published

Jul 18, 2023

Page count

146 pages

Browse the series

Transforming Care

ISBN

978-1447366164

Dimensions

234 x 156 mm

Imprint

Policy Press

Published

Jul 18, 2023

Page count

146 pages

Browse the series

Transforming Care

ISBN

978-1447366188

Dimensions

234 x 156 mm

Imprint

Policy Press
Unpaid Work in Nursing Homes
Download via OAPEN

EPDF and EPUB available Open Access under CC-BY-NC-ND licence.

The COVID-19 pandemic has made unpaid care more visible through its absence, while also increasing the need for it.

Drawing on a range of research projects covering Canada, Germany, Norway, Sweden, the UK and the US, this book documents a broad spectrum of unpaid work performed by residents, relatives, volunteers and staff in nursing homes.

It demonstrates how boundaries between paid and unpaid work are flexible, varying considerably with conditions, time, place and intersectional populations.

By examining the complex labour process within nursing homes, this book provides insight and understanding which will be critical in planning for nursing home care post-pandemic.

"This groundbreaking study of unpaid care – defined as work, labour and/or love – provides a much-needed challenge to neoliberalism's assumption that care consists of packages of time-limited, unskilled tasks.” Hilary Land, University of Bristol

Pat Armstrong is Distinguished Research Professor Emerita at York University, Canada.

1. Introduction – Pat Armstrong and Marta Szebehely

2. Accessing Nursing Home Care: Family Members’ Unpaid Care Work in Ontario and Sweden – Petra Ulmanen, Ruth Lowndes, and Jacqueline Choiniere

3. Body Work-That-Isn’t: Supporting Nursing Home Residents’ Autonomy in Self-Care and Sexual Expression – Susan Braedley

4. “They Make the Difference Between Survival and Living”: Social Activities and Social Relations in Long-Term Residential Care – James Struthers and Gudmund Ågotnes

5. Residents Who Care: Rethinking Complex Care and Disability Relations in Ontario Nursing Homes – Janna Klostermann

6. “Family Workers”: The Work and Working Conditions of Families in Nursing Homes – Christine Streeter

7. Staff Perspectives on Families’ Unpaid Work in Care Homes – Ruth Lowndes, Marta Szebehely, Gudmund Ågotnes, and Oddrunn Sortland

8. Contextual Conditions and Social Mechanisms in Rural Communities and Care Homes – Oddrunn Sortland, Petra Ulmanen, and James Struthers

9. Bringing the Outside In and the Inside Out: The Role of Institutional Boundaries in Nursing Homes – Frode F. Jacobsen and Gudmund Ågotnes

10. A Labour of Love Is Still Labour – Pat Armstrong, Hugh Armstrong, and Marta Szebehely