Overview

Health care workers are burned out. Health care leaders know that workers are burned out but do not yet have the right tools to fix the problem. Called to Care? argues that we can mitigate burnout by examining what is most meaningful about health care work. Using interviews and observation of a wide range of health care workers, Cain shows that workers who care for our most vulnerable adults find their work to be meaningful when they are able to connect to the work and make progress on something that matters. In most cases, these meaningful experiences are also consistent with better care for patients. And yet organizational practices, policy environments, and cultural meanings get in the way of meaningful work, creating burnout. But it doesn't have to be this way. Called to Care? illustrates that workplaces can and should align meaningful work experiences with quality care for patients.

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9781978839304

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Reviews

""Called to Care? is empirically and analytically unique in its investigation of burnout and its relationship to meaningful work in health care. In being attentive to care workers in a variety of occupational locations, Cain adds both breadth and depth to our understanding of burnout."" --LaTonya J. Trotter ""author of More than Medicine: Nurse Practitioners and the Problems They Solve for Patients, Health C"" ""The central tension in Called to Care? is that many of the things that healthcare workers find meaningful on the job are often at odds with what is mandated and rewarded at the organizational level. Cain's research is timely, engaging, and sociologically rich."" --Clare L. Stacey ""author of The Caring Self: The Work Experiences of Home Care Aides""

Author Information

Cindy L. Cain is an associate professor of sociology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. She contributed to From Crisis to Catastrophe: Care, COVID-19, and Pathways to Change (Rutgers University Press, 2023) and Caring on the Clock (Rutgers University Press 2015). In addition to her scholarly work, Cain has experience as a care worker for children, adults at the end of life, and people with developmental disabilities.

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