Striving for different opinions or seeking verification: the storylines of collaborative decision-making in workplace meetings in long-term care

Purpose Collaborative decision-making increases nursing professionals’ work engagement and should therefore be the focus of all social and health care organisations. The aims of this study were to identify and analyse the interactional collaborative decision-making practices used in team meetings in long-term care facilities and to examine how nursing professionals and supervisors are positioned within the decision-making process. Design/methodology/approach The data, gathered during 2023, comprised video-recorded workplace meetings (n = 10) in four long-term care facilities. The analysis drew from discourse analysis and positioning theory. Findings Two storylines of collaborative decision-making were identified: striving for different opinions and seeking verification. Within these storylines, the nursing professionals were positioned as care work experts or proposal acceptors. The supervisors were positioned as facilitators or verifiers. Practical implications Supervisors could benefit from training programs in which they are invited to reflect on real-life examples of decision-making in staff meetings. Such training could help raise awareness of different decision-making styles and support the development of more inclusive and transparent collaborative practices. Originality/value Although the collaboration of healthcare professionals is a widely studied topic, little attention has been paid to how collaborative decision-making is practised on the interactional level within teams of nursing professionals and their supervisors.