介護現場の対話と介護観の形成

抄録

This study aims to uncover how care workers shape their Kaigo-kan (caring perspective) under harsh working conditions. We conducted a qualitative case study using the grounded theory approach based on 31 personal interviews of care workers, caregivers and their families, medical care professionals, the service managers of learning therapy, and some nursing home executives. Our preliminary findings, based on field reports of different case studies, showed that the usage of learning therapy has enabled care workers to shape their Kaigo-kan during their career development process as a common language of theory in use, and to better engage with caregivers and other professionals; while the role of care workers is unstable and quite diverse because of the role ambiguity caused by the harsh working environment. A possible explanation of this situation is that the major health care institutional logic might be dysfunctional and that there is a necessity of a human-centered and proper working rhythm at nursing homes where many care workers are forced to try to understand competing institutional logics. In that sense, care is not simply evaluated as a “service product” in a cost-benefit analysis; it is analyzed in terms of communal and human proximity. Future research should thoroughly examine the effect of Kaigo-kan shaped by learning therapy on organizational quality of care.