Pierre Nikolov Doktorand

PhD thesis .....in progress:

Navigating Healthcare Borders

Patient participation in healthcare decision-making remains a complex issue. Participatory-oriented models such as “person-centered healthcare”, however, are difficult to operationalize and transfer into everyday practice. These models are decontextualized and neglect, I argue, the webs of professional relations and procedural logics enabling healthcare practice. I aim to synthesize the agency and structural dimensions in professional healthcare to develop the concept of “relational agency”.

Empirical case: patients that initially sought healthcare in Sweden, but due to local/national access barriers elected surgery in another EU-country. This particular multi-context case is applied to analyze the limits and potentials of agency in the healthcare space.