Papers

Troubling Care – A critical look at the systemic shift toward healthcare digitization

Format: Papers, RSD10, Topic: Health & Well-being, Topic: Sociotechnical Systems

Shivani Prakash, Felicia Nilsson and Josina Vink

The Oslo School of Architecture and Design

Amid recognition that care is contentious and highly political, conscientious design in healthcare systems cannot simply work blindly toward what is thought to be ‘good care’. Systemic design must grapple with the inherent conflicting values in care. This paper works to ‘unsettle’ care by exploring the tensions amid the evolving landscape of the Norwegian healthcare system. We attempt to embody Haraway’s idea of “staying with the trouble” in a design process positioned within a systemic transition toward digitization in healthcare. Drawing on 14 months of fieldwork, we explore the contradictions and plurality of lived experiences in this context through textual and visual collages that intentionally juxtapose divergent values of care. This paper exposes an entanglement of troubles which include: knowing by measuring/experiencing through sensing; the situated view/the isolated view of the patient; and helping the dependent/coaching the independent. This research highlights that one important way of caring in systemic design might be to hold on to the troubles in the thick present, rather than reconciling or re-framing to solve emerging either/or tensions.
Keywords: Care; Trouble; Tensions; Digitization; Healthcare

Citation Data

Author(s): Shivani Prakash, Felicia Nilsson and Josina Vink
Year:
Title: Troubling Care – A critical look at the systemic shift toward healthcare digitization
Published in: Proceedings of Relating Systems Thinking and Design
Volume:
Article No.:
URL: https://rsdsymposium.org/
Host:
Location:
Symposium Dates:
First published: 3 September 2021
Last update:
Publisher Identification:

Copyright Information

Proceedings of Relating Systems Thinking and Design (ISSN 2371-8404) are published annually by the Systemic Design Association, a non-profit scholarly association leading the research and practice of design for complex systems: 3803 Tønsberg, Norway (922 275 696).

Attribution

Open Access article published under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International License. This permits anyone to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or form according to the licence terms.

Suggested citation format (APA)

Author(s). (20##). Article title. Proceedings of Relating Systems Thinking and Design, RSD##. Article ##. rsdsymposium.org/LINK

Publishing with RSD

Proceedings of Relating Systems Thinking and Design are published online and include the contributions for each format.

Papers and presentations are entered into a single-blind peer-review process, meaning reviewers see the authors’ names but not vice versa. Reviewers consider the quality of the proposed contribution and whether it addresses topics of interest or raises relevant issues in systemic design. The review process provides feedback and possible suggestions for modifications.

The Organising Committee reviews and assesses workshops and systems maps & exhibits with input from reviewers and the Programme Committee.

Editor: Cheryl May
Advisors:
Peter Jones
Ben Sweeting

The Scholars Spiral

In 2022, the Systemic Design Association adopted the scholars spiral—a cyclic non-hierarchical approach to advance scholarship—and in 2023, launched Contexts—The Systemic Design Journal. Together, the RSD symposia and Contexts support the vital emergence of supportive opportunities for scholars and practitioners to publish work in the interdisciplinary field of systemic design.

The Systemic Design Association's membership ethos is to co-create the socialization and support for all members to contribute their work, find feedback and collaboration where needed, and pursue their pathways toward research and practice outcomes that naturally build a vital design field for the future.

SDA MEMBERSHIP

Verified by MonsterInsights