Identity Work within Attempts to Transform Health Care

• In Event: 322 - Section on Medical Sociology Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 02. Healthcare Professionals

Abstract

Work within teams, while increasingly common, is poorly understood. Applying sociological research on small group processes, organizational research on designing effective teams, and applied knowledge on teamwork practices, this paper pushes analysis of team functioning to include workers’ experiences of self. Specifically, this paper links care team roles to team members’ identities in a health care model designed to transform late life care. We examine a newly implemented healthcare team with an innovative mission to deliver late life services, and find that role ambiguity can both create tensions and provide opportunities for meaning making. Our findings highlight temporal dimensions of identity and team work.

Authors

• Cindy L. Cain, University of Minnesota

• Monica Frazer, Allina Health

• Rusudan Kilaberia, University of Minnesota