Negotiating Professional Tasks in a Hospital: A Qualitative Study of Rheumatologists and Occupational Therapists in the Management of Hand Osteoarthritis

PURPOSE: Societal change and rise in demand for healthcare call for new health professional practices and task redistribution. Through negotiated order theory, this study explores how hospital rheumatologists (RT) and occupational therapists (OT) negotiate professional tasks in the clinical management of hand osteoarthritis. METHODOLOGY: Fourteen qualitative interviews and 16 observations in clinical consultations were conducted in two hospitals specialized in rheumatology in Norway. Participants included eight OTs, six RTs, and patients in consultations. Data were analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis. RESULTS: Three themes were developed from codes: hierarchical ordering of hospital work impacts interprofessional negotiations; diagnostic organization of tasks preserves RT authority; and evidence-based recommendations in rheumatology enhance OT responsibilities. Overall, RTs and OTs enact tasks in succession where higher-ranking RTs establish a diagnosis and decide the subsequent in-hospital trajectory entrenched in a medical knowledge system. When medicine does not hold evidence-based treatment alternatives for patients, OTs respond by providing therapeutic interventions that are legitimized through international recommendations in rheumatology when they equip patients with tools to cope with chronic illness. CONCLUSION: Negotiations over tasks do not take place from equal power positions when status and knowledge hierarchies frame professional practices. The enactment of tasks is concurrently highly influenced by the arena of the workplace, where the two professional groups both cross boundaries and work together in concert despite professional differences in order to meet patient interests and provide relevant healthcare.