Högskolan i Skövde

Background: Collaborative Health Care (CHC) is an integrated health care model in Sweden in which municipal and regional health care resources are coordinated to provide fast, coherent, and seamless health care in patients’ homes.

Aim: Explore registered nurses’ experiences of working within the Collaborative Health Care model.

Methods: A qualitative, inductive design was used and was reported in accordance with the COREQ checklist. Semi-structured individual interviews were conducted via video with eight registered nurses—six women and two men aged 27–65 years—with experience working in the CHC health care model. The interviews lasted between 40 and 105 min and were recorded and transcribed verbatim.

Results: The findings consist of three categories, divided into nine subcategories and illustrated by quotes. The CHC is experienced as a work model in progress, spurring initial feelings of anxiety and frustration. Working in the health care model is described as challenging due to uncontrolled increase in workload, complex assessments, and limited knowledge about the patient. Participants found CHC to be beneficial in several ways for patients and their relatives, for health care professionals, for participating organizations, and for society at large.

Conclusion: Implementing an integrated health care model like CHC can initially be experienced as challenging. Health care professionals can experience initial feelings of frustration and anxiety, since the usual workload may be affected by unexpected assignments, requiring knowledge to conduct complex, and sometimes novel, assessments. Working in CHC is a learning process resulting in increased competence. Participants found CHC to be beneficial in several ways, making the most out of resources in organizations and society at large to provide coordinated integrated care to patients in their homes.