Resistance, Innovation, and Improvisation: Comparing the Responses of Nursing Home Workers to the COVID-19 Pandemic in Canada and the United States
Robert Henry Cox, Daniel Dickson, Patrik Marier
Abstract
Comparing the situation of workers in nursing homes in two Canadian provinces and two states in the USA, this study draws on narrative accounts from frontline workers and finds that despite variation in the severity of the outbreaks they experienced, nursing home workers in each jurisdiction demonstrated three types of responses to pandemic policy changes that are theorized as resistance, innovation, and improvisation. Data for the study was compiled using a novel method of interrogating newspaper articles to identify narrative accounts and interviews with nursing home workers.Note: In the interests of space, street-level theory and the pandemic context underpinning the articles for this Special Issue are discussed in detail in the Introduction to the Issue