Healthcare professionals' entrepreneurial capacity for the co-creation of home-based care

In this project, we follow an innovation process where a new technology for drug administration (“IV infusion”), currently performed in hospitals, can instead be carried out in the patient’s home as part of close-to-patient care. This allows for shorter inpatient stays and reduces the risk of healthcare-associated infections. The technology requires the involved healthcare professionals to develop new ways of working together, demanding a high level of attentiveness and an understanding of each other’s roles, as well as sensitivity to the needs and safety of patients and their relatives.

The professions involved include dispensing pharmacists, pharmacists, nurses, physicians, municipal nurses, and local care teams. The co-creation of new work practices among these healthcare professionals is the focal point of this study. While new technology can be an important resource in the development of close-to-patient care, it must be combined with organizational and relational adaptations.

Conducted in collaboration with Region Västmanland, the research project aims to develop an understanding of which practices (working methods and approaches) facilitate a transition to close-to-patient care, as well as how advanced drug therapies can be provided in the home. The project supports healthcare professionals in integrating co-creative capabilities into their work and in developing a profession-owned language of change, enabling staff to see themselves as active change agents capable of addressing the organizational challenges facing health and medical care today.