Background: Introducing new technologies into healthcare practices may challenge professionals' traditional care cultures. The aim of this review was to map how the ‘ethics of care’ theoretical framework informs empirical studies of technology‐mediated healthcare.Method: A scoping review was performed using eight electronic databases: CINAHL with full text, Academic Search Premier, MEDLINE, the Philosopher's Index, SocINDEX with Full Text, SCOPUS, APA PsycInfo and Web of Science. This was followed by citation tracking, and articles were assessed against the inclusion criteria.Results: Of the 443 initial articles, 18 met the criteria and were included. We found that nine of the articles used the concept of ‘ethics of care’ (herein used interchangeably with the terms ‘feminist ethics’ or ‘relational ethics’) insubstantially. The remaining nine articles deployed care ethics (or its equivalent) substantially as an integrated theoretical framework and analytical tool. We found that several articles suggested an expansion of ethics of care to encompass technologies as part of contemporary care. Furthermore, ethics of care contributed to the empirical research by recognising both new relationships between patients and healthcare professionals as well as new ethical challenges.Conclusion: Ethics of care is sparsely used as a theoretical framework in empirical studies of technology‐mediated healthcare practices. The use of ethics of care in technology‐mediated care brings new dilemmas, relational tensions and vulnerabilities to the foreground. For ethics of care to be used more explicit in empirical studies, it is important that it is recognised by research community as an adequate, universal ethical theory.

Purpose Trust plays an important role in the organisation of healthcare services. In Norway, the establishment of mandatory municipal acute wards with 24 h inpatient services introduces a new unit into the healthcare system. This article discusses how this new health care service succeeds in building trust with patients and among healthcare workers. Design/methodology/approach The article is an in-depth case study of a single, exemplary inter-municipal acute ward. The study draws on interviews with COPD patients, the leader and doctors at the ward. The study also includes observations of daily work at the municipal acute ward. Moreover, administrators and healthcare workers at related healthcare institutions have been interviewed. Data were analysed using a qualitative method. Findings The study reveals that trust is built in complex relations and that it has both individual and systemic factors. The practices employed in the daily treatment and care of patients and in encounters between health care personnel and patients are important trust-building processes; however, these processes depend on structures and routines that promote efficient and adequate inter-organisational communication and patient-oriented procedures. Practical implications The study provides insight into how trust dynamics work on multiple organisational levels and how they depend on both individual and systemic factors. Additionally, the study may provide a picture of the importance of trust in organising healthcare services in the future. Originality/value Lessons regarding trust building inspired by data from a case-study care institution can be applied in different care settings and countries.

Background: Providing healthcare for the elderly population is challenging due to a shortage of staff. The challenge is addressed by increased use of technology. The article explores the impact of welfare technology on healthcare personnel’s care ethical considerations in Norway’s primary healthcare sector. Through a qualitative study of how healthcare professionals, managers, and technology suppliers understand and perceive welfare technology in healthcare, we examine whether instrumental values displace care-ethical values in primary healthcare practices. Methods: The study is based on a qualitative analysis of interviews with healthcare workers, healthcare managers and technology suppliers in primary healthcare in Norway. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with managers and quality developers at the municipal administrative level and healthcare managers and staff in healthcare units. Interviews with suppliers/manufacturers of welfare technology (GPS, pill dispensers and robotics) were also conducted. We combined an inductive approach with theoretical exploration as we alternated between the empirical data, a thematic approach, and theories of technology and care ethics. Results: In the analysis of the empirical material, we identified two overarching themes that were related to our research question: 1) demands and solutions and 2) two sides of autonomy. The informants generally highlighted the benefits of welfare technology, but the informants were also ambiguous about the use of welfare technology. Autonomy was seen as an important value but was attached with ambivalence. Conclusion: Care ethical considerations are significantly present within healthcare professionals’ understandings of technology even though managers and technology suppliers were advocating for welfare technology in a more instrumental sense. Despite extensive acclaim for user autonomy, healthcare personnel make decisions about care and technology use independently of the resource situation. They hold onto a professional room of freedom in between the patient’s needs, available resources, and suitable technology. They are sceptical about applying technological solutions if they suspect it will lead to potentially adverse consequences, such as loneliness or increased insecurity due to technological illiteracy. By engaging a relational autonomy approach in their care practices, healthcare professionals control technology rather than submit to technology and we see that rather than being displaced by technical-economic reasoning, care ethical reasoning also accommodates technology.

This report is a delivery within the “Integrated System of Domestic Violence Prevention” (ISDVP) bilateral project between Poland and Norway. The bilateral ISDVP project is implemented within the framework of the Norwegian Financial Mechanism (Norwegian FM) 2014–2021 and founded by Norwegian EEA grants. EEA grants represents the contribution of Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway towards a green, competitive, and inclusive Europe. The PL- Justice programme is within program area no22 “Prevention of Domestic and Gender-based Violence” in Iceland, Lichtenstein and Norway grants priority sectors and programme areas for 2014-2021. All planned activities shall follow the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence. The main objective of the ISDVP project is to improve the system for the prevention of domestic violence (DV) and gender-based (GBV) violence. This report intends to contribute to the fulfilment of the ISDVP project’s overall aim to adopt and implement state-wide effective, comprehensive, and coordinated politics encompassing all relevant measures to prevent and combat all forms of violence in Poland. Moreover, following the PL‑Justice–Norwegian FM Programme’s agreement, the aim of this report is to present existing solutions and alternative measures for preventing DV in Norway and to review existing methods used in Norway for providing relational support. To achieve these objectives, desk research has been the preferable method. Desk research (also known as secondary research) reviews governmental documents and reports (e.g., child welfare services), supranational-level documents and reports (e.g., the UN and EU levels), Norwegian research reports, social services acts and academic literature. The review shows that the Norwegian approach to prevention is very broad, as it reflects the diversity and complexity of the problem as well as the understanding of DV. The Norwegian government emphasises the interactional aspects of violence in that violence involves an influential and continuous interaction between individuals and the various situations they encounter. Important risk factors are an interaction of societal and individual factors, such as unequal power relations between the sexes; childhood experiences of violence; cultural and subcultural factors; consumption of alcohol and drugs; family disagreements; and conflicts. DV occurs in different ways, varies in severity, occurs in many types of close relationships and can affect individuals at all ages. DV is gender biased and produced within and part of a gender order. Persons of both sexes are victimised, but generally, women are more severely hit than men. Children are also an important group here, as they become disturbingly affected by DV. Moreover, the Norwegian experiences, positive as well as negative, also point to a set of recommendations that could possibly be related to the challenges of the ISDVP project, as it aims to improve the system for the prevention of DV and GBV and to take the necessary legislative and other measures to adopt and implement state-wide effective, comprehensive efforts to prevent and combat all forms of violence. Our recommendations include experiences and factors which may be related to the task of successfully dealing with couples, or previous couples, in partnerships that are at risk of falling into violence. Hence, we recommend the following. The actual services should have different relational and individual tools at their disposal to cope with diversified needs. The recruitment of couples to the service should be voluntarily based, with opportunities for access by different channels. A new kind of service needs promotional efforts of a different kind. This must be planned for. The development of integrated services requires a cross-sectoral competence strategy aimed at increasing phenomenon knowledge, competence in action and interaction competence among individual service providers and in individual services. Finally, although the focus in the project is on couples, it is very important to integrate gendered perspectives in all the main components of the project, it’s content and implementation. Given the severity of DV, including GBV, the prevention of violence before it occurs is urgent and inevitable to combat GBV/ DV. Because the boundaries between prevention and treatment can be difficult to draw, prevention at all levels is important.

I mange sammenhenger omtales arbeidsinnvandrere som midlertidig arbeidskraft. For Vestlandet er de mye mer. De er og vil i fremtiden fortsatt kunne være en viktig ressurs for næringer og lokalsamfunn. Men dette forutsetter strategier og engasjement fra berørte lokale og regionale aktører, foruten selvsagt også vilje til deltakelse fra arbeidsinnvandrerne selv. Disse temaene har vært de sentrale i forskningsprosjektet “Arbeidsinnvandring til Vestlandet. Arbeidsinnvandring som ressurs i regional utvikling” som har vært gjennomført i de fire vestlandsfylkene Møre og Romsdal, Sogn og Fjordane, Hordaland og Rogaland i perioden 2013-2016. Prosjektet har hatt som hovedmål å utvikle kunnskap om arbeidsinnvandringens rolle og betydning i regionen. Vi har særlig lagt vekt på i hvilken grad og hvordan kommunene på Vestlandet, i eget arbeid og i samarbeid med andre aktører, har håndtert arbeidsinnvandringen slik at det ressurspotensialet som denne gruppen representerer for arbeidslivet og samfunnslivet har blitt ivaretatt på best mulig måte. Prosjektet har bestått av tre delprosjekt som hver for seg belyser ulike sider ved kommuners og fylkeskommuners måte å arbeide på i møte med arbeidsinnvandringen til landsdelen. Første delprosjekt har lagt vekt på å fremskaffe ny kunnskap om hvem arbeidsinnvandrerne til Vestlandet er, hvor de bosetter seg og hvilke næringer de arbeider innenfor samt hvilke effekter arbeidsinnvandringen kan sies å ha, særlig når det gjelder demografisk utvikling og næringsliv. Delprosjekt to har omhandlet møtet mellom arbeidsinnvandrerne og det kommunale tjenesteapparatet, kommunenes politikk og organisering av tjenestetilbudet overfor arbeidsinnvandrerne som gruppe samt hvordan tjenestetilbudet overfor denne gruppen fungerer. Delprosjekt tre har belyst kommunenes og fylkeskommunenes tilrettelegging av informasjon for arbeidsinnvandrere og hvorvidt denne målgruppen opplever denne informasjonen som relevant og tilfredsstillende. Resultatene fra de tre delprosjektene blir grundig redegjort for i hver sin del av den foreliggende rapporten, henholdsvis i kapittel 2, 3 og 4. Avslutningsvis, i kapittel 5, forsøker vi i kortform å trekke frem hovedpoenger og motivasjon for at kommuner og fylkeskommuner på Vestlandet skal jobbe videre med de utfordringer som har kommet frem i vår forskning. I dette innledende kapitlet gis en samlet oversikt over forskningsprosjektet. Bakgrunn, problemstillinger og opplegg blir gjort nærmere rede for i avsnittene 1.1 – 1.3. Hva vi har funnet gjennom våre undersøkelser fremgår så av avsnittene 1.4 – 1.9. I avsnitt 1.10 trekkes frem noen utfordringer som vil være viktig å gripe fatt i for å realisere det potensial som arbeidsinnvandrere representerer for landsdelen.