Background:  In 2002, the Swedish government assigned University West (UW) to develop work integrated learning (WIL). WIL is linked to learning in both organizational contexts and higher education. Research activities at UW are rooted inpractice and expected to contribute to practice and societal impact and focus on “Learning in and for a New Working Life”. Doctoral studies represents important premise suppliers for future research and contribution to the development of WIL, thus UW has provided doctoral programs with a specialization in work integrated learning since 2012.

This paper will explore how WIL and practical implications are described in dissertation work published between 2018-2019, within the doctoral program of Informatics with specialization in WIL (IWIL) at UW.

Methods: Seven dissertations within IWIL were analyzed based on questions related to descriptions of the practice domain and – perspective, relation between research(er)and practice, and the research’s implications for practice. All analyses were discussed based on the intention of WIL as a basis of values.Results: Dissertations were mainly based on engaged research approaches. Despite approach, the analyses revealed the collaborative processes to be scarcely described. Practice domain, problems and challenges are generally well displayed, but mainly representing the research perspective. Lessons learned, insights and reflections arising as part of collaborative processes are not pronounced clearly. Practical implications are often vague, difficult to identify, and presented from a research perspective operationalized as “principles” or recommendations. Added value and implemented changes are slightly discussed. Conclusion: The dissertations meet the intention of contributing to “learning in a new working life”. However, to be in line with WIL the research(er) need more focus on the practice perspective to provide “learning for a new working life”. Different perspectives on practical implications, outcome of collaborative processes and final result should be more explicit in dissertations within doctoral programs within IWIL

Användningen av testbäddar inom näringsliv och offentlig sektor blir allt viktigare i takt med att introduktionen av ny och mer komplex teknik i samhället ökar. Hälso- och sjukvården och äldreomsorgen är en viktig del av samhällsekonomin, där primärvården är en outnyttjad miljö för innovation. Samhället står inför utmaningar, där sjukvårdens begränsade resurser ska räcka till att ta hand om en åldrande befolkning. Testbäddar diskuteras inom hälso- och sjukvård, som ett redskap till att utveckla innovativa produkter och tjänster som kan bidra till att vårdens resurser används på ett mer effektivt sätt. Nya och innovativa produkter och tjänster som företag utvecklar för att bättre kunna tillgodose människors behov av hälso- och sjukvård, kommer att förändra primärvården.

Arbetsmetoder kommer att förändras och professioner som arbetar inom primärvården behöver lära sig om ny teknik. Universiteten behöver förbereda vårdstudenterna på de nya arbetssätten. Det är därför viktigt att utforska lärande i testbäddar, i relation till samarbete mellan primärvård, företag samt akademin, för att testa och implementera digital teknik för en effektivare sjukvård.Testbädden används av företag för att testa sina produkter och tjänster i en verklig praxis. Testbädden ger också möjligheter för professionerna inom primärvården att testa ny teknik och nya arbetsmetoder som följer användningen av ny teknik inom vården. Forskarna tillhandahåller aktuell forskning och kunskap om användning av teknik i primärvården.

Således blir testbädden en arena för lärande mellan vårdprofessioner, företag och forskare som samarbetar för att lära sig och utveckla ny kunskap om hur patienterna kan erbjudas en mer tillgänglig och effektiv primärvård.

Primary care needs to find strategies to deal with today’s societal challenges and continue to deliver efficient and high-quality care. Employee-driven innovation is increasingly gaining ground as an accessible pathway to developing successful and sustainable organisations. This type of innovation is characterised by employees being engaged in the innovation process, based on a bottom-up approach. This qualitative study explores employees’ experiences of employee-driven innovation at a primary care centre in Sweden. Data are collected by focus group interviews and analysed by inductive qualitative content analysis. The result is presented with the overarching theme “Standing together at the helm” followed by three categories: “Motivating factors for practising employee-driven innovation”, “Challenges in practising employee-driven innovation” and “Benefits of employee-driven innovation”, including nine subcategories. The study found that employee-driven innovation fosters organisational innovation, empowers employees, and enhances adaptability at personal and organisational levels. This enables individual and collective learning, and facilitates the shaping, development, and adaptation of working methods to meet internal and external requirements. However, new employees encountered difficulty grasping the concept of employee-driven innovation and recognising its long-term advantages. Additionally, the demanding and task-focused environment within primary care posed challenges in sustaining efforts in innovation work. The employees also experienced a lack of external support to drive and implement some innovative ideas.

Primary care (PC) faces major challenges due to demographic changes, medical and technological advances, increased healthcare costs and higher expectations from well-informed citizens. PC needs to adapt as society changes and in order to meet an increased demand for care, there is a need to be innovative in terms of the services that PC offers. The use of testbeds is becoming more common when introducing new technology into society, but in PC, testbeds are still a fairly new phenomenon. Thus, testbeds are discussed in order to create more effective, efficient and innovative healthcare practices. New health technology has the potential to better satisfy peoples need of healthcare and will eventually change healthcare practice. Testbeds provides opportunities for the healthcare professionals to test new technologies and adopt new work practices which will follow the use of new technologies. Likewise, patients can learn about new technologies and how to use the new care services made possible by the technology. In the testbed, companies can benefit from the knowledge of end users, such as healthcare professionals and patients, as they collaborate to test new technologies and services in real practice. Thus, the testbed has the potential to become an arena for learning between healthcare professionals, patients and companies, collaborating in order to learn and develop healthcare technology based on the need in PC.

This paper aims to explore the collaboration between a company, healthcare professionals and the public in a testbed environment in PC, and how collaboration can contribute to learning for all involved. The following research questions guided this study:- What learning arise when a company, healthcare professionals and the public collaborate?- What are the facilitators and barriers for learning in the collaboration between a company, healthcare professionals and the public?

The testbed in this study is located on a PC centre in a relatively small municipality with approximately 6600 inhabitants on the west coast of Sweden. The company is a small size company that develops 3D patient information films for healthcare that can be shown on waiting room screens as well as online at patients’ homes. So far, the company has focused on creating films intended for hospital care, such as information about operations and treatments, but now the company want to expand its scope to also include PC. Having limited knowledge about the PC context, the company use the testbed to co-create an information film on fall prevention through collaboration with healthcare professionals and representatives from the target group, namely frail older people. To explore the collaboration when co-creating this film, a case study is conducted. Data is collected by filming and recording collaboration meetings, e-mail conversations, discussion groups and/or individual interviews. We expect this study to provide insights in what learning takes place when companies and end users collaborate on developing healthcare technology and thus contribute with a deeper understanding of “best practices” regarding the collaboration processes in testbeds. In the longer perspective, a well-functioning testbed in PC can potentially contribute with innovative technologies and services that can increase the healthcare's resource efficiency and quality.

Purpose

To meet future healthcare needs, primary care is undergoing a transformation in which innovations and new ways of working play an important role. However, successful innovations depend on joint learning and rewarding collaborations between healthcare and other stakeholders. This study aims to explore how learning develops when entrepreneurs, healthcare professionals and older people collaborate in a primary care living lab.

Design/methodology/approach

The study had an action research design and was conducted at a clinically embedded living lab at a primary care centre on the west coast of Sweden. Data consisted of e-mail conversations, recordings from design meetings and three group interviews with each party (entrepreneurs, healthcare professionals and older people). Data were analysed with inductive qualitative content analysis.

Findings

An overarching theme, “To share each other’s worlds in an arranged space for learning”, was found, followed by three categories, “Prerequisites for learning”, “Strategies to achieve learning” and “To learn from and with each other”. These three categories comprise eight subcategories.

Originality/value

This research contributes to knowledge regarding the need for arranged spaces for learning and innovation in primary care and how collaborative learning can contribute to the development of practice.