Tele-nursing: the English and Swedish Cases

Abstract

The application of call centre methodology is evident within the public sector internationally. This can be said to represent the application of information technology, customerization and other aspects of New Public Management, such as performance measurement and postbureaucratic transformation of the public services. Call centres disrupt careers, occupational structures, and work organisation. To the extent that states internationally apply ‘call centre’ logics, it is suggested that they are applying ‘technological convergence’, making work in private and public sector call centres similar; and public sectors similar across the world as they adopt this standard delivery format. To test this proposition, this paper examines health sector call centres in two countries, Sweden and the UK, and explores points of convergence and divergence in the practice of health information. Explaining the outcomes of public sector call centre the paper moves beyond globalisation (convergence) and societal differences (divergence) propositions standard in comparative analysis in the international public management. Instead we apply the system, society and dominance framework and argue that over-lapping contradictory pressures from common technologies (system effects), divergent contexts (societal effects) and unsettled single logic for call centre practice (dominance effects) better explain the comparative findings on nurses working with health call centres.