The invisible work of video consultation use in Danish general practice: an ethnographic study

Abstract

Objective: to delineate the characteristics of the work undertaken by general practitioners (GPs) and staff in implementing and utilising video consultation within their situated clinical contexts.

Methods: the data material comprises 33 semi-structured interviews with GPs and staff and 132 hours of ethnographic fieldwork across seven clinics in Denmark. The data collection period spanned from June 2021 to August 2022. Reflexive thematic analysis was employed to analyse the data, drawing inspiration from the concept of invisible work as proposed by Susan Leigh Star and Anselm Strauss.

Results: four types of invisible work were identified through the analysis: (1) the work of introducing video consultations, (2) the work of stabilising video consultation use, (3) the work of coordinating users and systems, (4) the work of repair as a response to breakdowns.

Conclusions: the video consultation changes the organisational structure and leads to a reconfiguration of professional roles and existing work practices. Moreover, implementing and using video consultations demands articulation, inclusion and affective work by GPs and staff, and this work includes allocating time to coordinate tasks, do workarounds and repair breakdowns.

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Identifiers

ORCID for Helen Atherton: orcid.org/0000-0002-7072-1925

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