Professionals' ideals of care in the context of technological innovation in healthcare, a focus group study

Societally, we are witnessing unprecedented rapid advancements in medical and welfare technology, and technologies are increasingly embedded across healthcare services. Yet, little is known about how such developments might impact health professionals' ideals of care. This study aimed to generate experience- and practice-near knowledge about healthcare professionals' ideals of care, and to explore whether their ideals were affected by technological innovation in public healthcare organizations.

A qualitative approach was used, based on six focus group interviews and reflexive thematic analysis. The study enrolled 26 healthcare professionals, comprising registered nurses, specialist nurses, and physicians, from six clinical settings.

After identifying the range and use of technology in the respective clinical contexts within the six focus groups, we generated three reflective themes from our inductive analysis: (i) Healthcare personnel feel they can be the professionals they want to be when they have a good relationship with their patients. (ii) The conditions for caring relations vary in the different clinical contexts. (iii) Changes affecting care are not driven by technological innovation.

Despite increasing technological integration in healthcare, professionals consistently upheld relational ideals of care. They felt personally responsible for providing relational care, and experienced guilt and distress when unable to do so. Systemic pressures, such as time constraints, documentation demands, and individualized responsibility, threaten these ideals, underscoring the need for broader institutional, political, and societal support to sustain professional relational care.