ABSTRACT
This chapter emphasizes the important point that articulating the trajectory of a specific patient is quite a different phenomenon from articulating the short-term work of the unit across many patients simultaneously. It discusses the articulation of safety work because that work is almost always within concentrated focus of hospital staffs, is of such great moment for patients, and is such a complex business for everybody including the patients. The chapter discusses the work of preventing and handling respiratory infections, which patients undergoing certain types of surgery are very likely to get unless carefully "managed". It lays the groundwork for understanding why trajectory work could not be rationalized as easily as, say, industrial production. The chapter mentions that head nurses are key articulators because they know the immediate resource requirements and how to align them. The articulation of medical work is assuredly made quite complex by this possibility of untoward interaction among types of trajectory work.
