Resistance, tensions and consent to digital working in healthcare

Abstract

Earlier research has extended knowledge about how the nature of healthcare work is changing, and the implications this has for professionals seeking to deliver effective, robust and state-of-the-art services. However, since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic there has been a rapid mobilization of digital services across the sector that has raised new challenges. In this Special Issue (SI), we therefore aim to offer novel insights on how new patterns of work are playing out in this new era of digital healthcare. As digitalization has become widespread, even ubiquitous, it is now necessary to identify the theoretical, practical and empirical issues that affect the organization of health work now and how it might affect it in the future. Our overarching research question in this SI, which we address through the nine selected articles we present in this Editorial, is: How is digital work in healthcare being organized post-Covid 19, and how does this impact interprofessional collaborations, clinical work practices, professional identities and relations of power?