The weather-stains of care: Interpreting the meaning of bad weather for front-line health care workers in rural long-term care

• Published in: Social science & medicine (1982) Vol. 91; pp. 194 - 201
• Main Authors: Joseph, Gillian M., Skinner, Mark W., Yantzi, Nicole M.
• Format: Journal Article Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: Kidlington Elsevier Ltd 01.08.2013; Elsevier; Pergamon Press Inc
• Subjects: Adaptation, Psychological; Attitude of Health Personnel; Biological and medical sciences; Canada; Caregivers; Geography; Health care; Health Care Services; Health care work; Health participants; Health Personnel - psychology; Health services; Humans; Long Term Care; Long term health care; Medical personnel; Medical sciences; Miscellaneous; Organizational Policy; Personnel Staffing and Scheduling; Phenomenology; Policy Research; Public health. Hygiene; Public health. Hygiene-occupational medicine; Qualitative Research; Research integration; Risk assessment; Rural; Rural Areas; Rural Health Services - organization & administration; Seasons; Vulnerability; Weather; Workers; Canada; North America; America; ANW, Canada; Weather; Rural; Phenomenology; Canada; Research integration; Health care work; Long-term care; Human; Integration; Stain; Rural environment; Health staff; Health care staff; Care; Interpreting; Scientific research; Work; Social medicine; Social aspect; Public health; Long term care; Information interpretation
• ISSN: 0277-9536; 1873-5347
• DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2012.08.009

This paper addresses the gap in health services and policy research about the implications of everyday weather for health care work. Building on previous research on the weather-related challenges of caregiving in homes and communities, it examines the experiences of ‘seasonal bad weather’ for health care workers in long-term care institutions. It features a hermeneutic phenomenology analysis of six transcripts from interviews with nurses and personal support workers from a qualitative study of institutional long-term care work in rural Canada. Focussing on van Manen's existential themes of lived experience (body, relations, space, time), the analysis reveals important contradictions between the lived experiences of health care workers coping with bad weather and long-term care policies and practices that mitigate weather-related risk and vulnerability. The findings contribute to the growing concern for rural health issues particularly the neglected experiences of rural health providers and, in doing so, offer insight into the recent call for greater attention to the geographies of health care work. ► The implications of seasonal bad weather for health care work are identified as a gap in health services research and policy. ► A hermeneutic phenomenology approach is effective in interpreting the experiences of weather among front-line long-term care workers in rural institutions. ► Contradictions between the lived experiences of health care workers coping with bad weather and long-term care policies and practices are revealed.