Ann-Therese Hedqvist

I am a doctoral student in caring sciences at Linnaeus University in Kalmar. In parallel with my doctoral studies, I have been working clinically since 2017 as an ambulance nurse in the ambulance service in the Kalmar Region. My background is as a specialist nurse in prehospital emergency care as well as in elderly care. I also have a degree in informatics and have previously worked as a systems developer and educator in IT.

One of my aspirations is to be a part of the development of working methods where healthcare staff work and communicate with each other together with the patient as a person where technology can streamline and support but not replace the human encounter. In my experience from ambulance care, municipal home care and medical department, I have met the elderly person with complex care needs and seen the gaps that delimited the various activities. With a population that is getting older and living longer with chronic diseases, the elderly patient in need of coordinated care is frequently encountered. It is also these persons who are primarily affected by care transitions and who are sensitive to when care is divided into small units, when care becomes fragmented.

Research

The ongoing transition to Good quality local healthcare will lead to a shift from hospital care to more proactive care close to the patient. With increasing age and life expectancy, we will in the future be faced with challenges in providing safe and secure, good quality care in primary care, municipal and inpatient care as well as in prehospital emergency care.

There are shortcomings today in how professionals and care providers interact and coordinate care for the elderly with complex care needs. However, being in good hands should be something every patient should have the right to feel. Being in good hands means that the gaps become less prominent because the different parts of the care system work together as a whole, where the patient is at the center. Therefore, with my dissertation I want to investigate opportunities to bridge different caregiver and professional boundaries and achieve a cohesive care for the elderly person with complex care needs.