The research question of the article is to explore whether the method dialogue meetings could be relevant for collaboration reflective learning among researchers and practitioners when welfare technology should be implemented in municipalities, or not. A testbed was planned to be implemented in a retirement home in a Swedish municipality, and the practitioners worked with a pre-study of that testbed. The aim of the article is to describe the collaboration and dialogue between the researchers and the practitioners in the dialogue meetings, and to reflect upon the potential of dialogue meetings as an arena for democratic collaboration and reflection among researchers and practitioners. The research methodology approach is participatory action research with mixed methods (dialogue meetings, focus groups,participant observations). During the dialogue meetings, the researchers learned more about the use of traditional research methods, and the practitioners learned more about how they could improve their use of the methods in order to facilitate change processes in their organization. Dialogue meetings could be relevant for reflective learning among researchers and practitioners in different organizational contexts, as a method to promote bridging the gap between practice and research in a democratic way; create inter-professional collaboration and reflection, and contribute to work change processes and sense-making.

Background

Extensive research describes how nurses experience their work environment. The conditions are described as stressful and dissatisfying with nurses intending to leave their workplace. Knowledge about the personal perception regarding why nurses consider leaving the hospital workplace is limited. The purpose of this study was to understand why hospital nurses remain in their workplace, which facilitates their continuation in the profession.

Objective

The objective was to explore and describe factors explaining why hospital nurses remain in the workplace.

Methods

This was a descriptive qualitative study with a purposive sample of hospital nurses in Sweden. The salutogenic theory was the basis for the interview guide and the semi-structured questions. Individual interviews were conducted in a hospital in western Sweden. Content analysis was performed to organize the coded data according to the sense of coherence.

Results

Data saturation was achieved with 12 interviews. Within the three themes of coherence (comprehensibility, manageability, and meaningfulness), ten subthemes were categorized from the data as follows: job satisfaction and fun at work, acknowledgement and productivity, togetherness and team security, manageable workload, variable work and challenging situations, workplace and personal space balance, collaboration and supportive leadership, valued role and good work, commitment and involvement, and pride in the professional role.

Conclusions

The main findings of this study have shown the critical importance of being in a meaningful, comprehensible and manageable work context that supports nurses in maintaining their professional identity.