TY - JOUR
T1 - Accounting and washing
T2 - Good care in long-term psychiatry
AU - Pols, A.J.
PY - 2006
Y1 - 2006
N2 - This article analyzes how the recent call for accounting in health care interferes with daily care practice and raises the question of how accounting practices relate to the aim of good care. The most influential accounting methods in the Netherlands suggest ways for professionals to legitimize their activities. The analysis of washing patients in long-term mental health care shows that different styles of accounting evaluate and legitimize care while structuring notions of what good care is. A specific style of accounting enforces certain values but does not tell about the tragic or unexpected effects that come with it, nor does it provide a repertoire to deal with these. Thus, care practices incorporating specific styles of accounting remain dependent on forms of care that are not accountable or ask for new forms of reflexivity
AB - This article analyzes how the recent call for accounting in health care interferes with daily care practice and raises the question of how accounting practices relate to the aim of good care. The most influential accounting methods in the Netherlands suggest ways for professionals to legitimize their activities. The analysis of washing patients in long-term mental health care shows that different styles of accounting evaluate and legitimize care while structuring notions of what good care is. A specific style of accounting enforces certain values but does not tell about the tragic or unexpected effects that come with it, nor does it provide a repertoire to deal with these. Thus, care practices incorporating specific styles of accounting remain dependent on forms of care that are not accountable or ask for new forms of reflexivity
U2 - https://doi.org/10.1177/0162243906287544
DO - https://doi.org/10.1177/0162243906287544
M3 - Article
SN - 0162-2439
VL - 31
SP - 409
EP - 430
JO - Science, Technology, & Human Values
JF - Science, Technology, & Human Values
IS - 4
ER -