TY - JOUR
T1 - Doing care work on the fly – exploring the unnoticed socio‐emotional skills of male ambulance staff
AU - Kyed, Morten
PY - 2020/3
Y1 - 2020/3
N2 - Prehospital ambulance work is a healthcare arena hitherto neglected by sociologists of health and illness. This is unfortunate because it is an interesting and dynamic area, and in contrast to most healthcare sectors, it is male dominated. Via ethnographic fieldwork, this article examines the particular caring practices and socio-emotional skills that ambulance staff use in practising prehospital care work. The empirical analysis outlines six recurring prehospital practices: medicine work, machine work, scene management, becalming work, communication work and bodywork. Each practice represents a different element of prehospital care practice and is best understood as a repertoire, as many different assemblages of these care practices can work effectively in prehospital situations. The article concludes that despite institutionalised blue-collar masculinity, numeric dominance and scarce formal education in ambulance psychology, male ambulance staff are generally proud and reflexive care practitioners.
AB - Prehospital ambulance work is a healthcare arena hitherto neglected by sociologists of health and illness. This is unfortunate because it is an interesting and dynamic area, and in contrast to most healthcare sectors, it is male dominated. Via ethnographic fieldwork, this article examines the particular caring practices and socio-emotional skills that ambulance staff use in practising prehospital care work. The empirical analysis outlines six recurring prehospital practices: medicine work, machine work, scene management, becalming work, communication work and bodywork. Each practice represents a different element of prehospital care practice and is best understood as a repertoire, as many different assemblages of these care practices can work effectively in prehospital situations. The article concludes that despite institutionalised blue-collar masculinity, numeric dominance and scarce formal education in ambulance psychology, male ambulance staff are generally proud and reflexive care practitioners.
KW - ambulance work
KW - care practices
KW - care practising
KW - emergency care
KW - masculinity
KW - socio-emotional skills
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85075198946&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1111/1467-9566.13014
DO - 10.1111/1467-9566.13014
M3 - Journal article
SN - 0141-9889
VL - 42
SP - 433
EP - 448
JO - Sociology of Health and Illness
JF - Sociology of Health and Illness
IS - 3
ER -