The covid-19 pandemic had a big impact on the whole world, and a great deal of research was directed at the subject. Earlier research has foremost been directed at the covid-19 pandemic as a crisis, the management of the crisis and vaccinations. The effects of the pandemic, primarily from the perspective of street-level bureaucrats, is a relatively unexplored subject. The discretion of street-level bureaucrats in healthcare in the district of Kalmar is explored in this paper, together with the question and explanation of if and how the discretion has changed. The problems are mostly focused on how the changes are experienced in the post-pandemic timeline, how the discretion is affected and what might be the cause to the changes in discretion. The problems are studied based on Lipsky´s theory of street-level bureaucrats with the support from Jönsson´s theory of discretion. The theories have also been used for the development of the interview questions, that in turn have been used to collect the empirical data for this study. Semi structured interviews were used to collect the empirical data in physical interviews with doctors and nurses who work in district Kalmar. The result of the interviews has since been analyzed with qualitative text analysis with the support of the aforementioned theories. The result and the analysis showed a change in the cornerstones of the street-level bureaucrats’ framework according to Jönsson´s theory. The changes in district Kalmar during the pandemic can still be seen in the post-pandemic timeline in several ways. Therefore, a change in the street-level bureaucrats’ discretion can be seen and explained. Street-level bureaucrats have had an increase in knowledge and developed coping mechanisms, simplifications, and routines for the before uncertain situations, which in turn have resulted in a more comfortable street-level bureaucrat with changed discretion. Further research may show how these changes and effects can be seen in the future and other districts, which can contribute to the scientific gap that this study has shown about the remaining effects in the post-pandemic timeline.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:umu-220138 |
| Date | January 2023 |
| Creators | Thorfelt, Natalie |
| Publisher | Umeå universitet, Statsvetenskapliga institutionen |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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