Abstract
Our final paper draws on the evidence presented in this supplement to discuss how policy trends in health care delivery are shaping health care work and health outcomes. As several contributors note, these policy trends have had heterogeneous effects across Canada and in other countries. Nevertheless, all of the cases discussed reveal a pressing need for a gendered understanding of health care policy, as well as of the diverse locations in which the effects of health care policy are experienced. Three central themes in this supplement illustrate the gendered dimensions of health care policies and health care work: the downloading of work from more highly paid workers to less well-paid or unpaid care workers; the link between deteriorating conditions of health care work and shortages of health care workers; and the increased presence of responsibilization and familialism as practices central to health care policy. We consider the Canadian case, where such trends have been more prominent, alongside experiences in Iceland and Finland, where they have been less fully developed, and draw some comparative lessons.
Résumé
Notre dernier article s’inspire des données probantes présentées dans ce supplément pour montrer que les tendances politiques dans la prestation des soins de santé influencent le travail des soignants et les résultats sanitaires. Comme plusieurs de nos collaboratrices l’ont noté, ces tendances politiques ont eu des effets hétérogènes au Canada et dans d’autres pays. Néanmoins, tous les cas analysés révèlent le besoin pressant d’une connaissance sexospécifique des politiques de soins de santé, ainsi que des divers lieux où les effets de ces politiques se font sentir. Trois des thèmes centraux de ce supplément illustrent les dimensions sexospécifique des politiques sanitaires et du travail des soignants: le déchargement des tâches des travailleurs bien rémunérés vers des soignants moins bien rémunérés ou bénévoles; le lien entre la détérioration des conditions de travail des soignants et les pénuries de travailleurs de la santé; et la présence accrue de la responsabilisation et du familialisme, qui jouent un rôle de plus en plus central dans les politiques de santé. Nous étudions le cas du Canada, où ces tendances ont été relativement plus présentes, ainsi que les cas de l’Islande et de la Finlande, où ces tendances se sont moins développées, en tirant des enseignements de nos comparaisons.
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Hallgrímsdóttir, H.K., Teghtsoonian, K. & Brown, D. Public Policy, Caring Practices and Gender in Health Care Work. Can J Public Health 99 (Suppl 2), 43–47 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03403804
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03403804