ABSTRACT
This chapter uses ethnographic research of long-term residential care in Canada to explore the complexities and tensions among the full range of actors involved in providing care. It is based on two studies. First, an international study whose researchers also studied nursing homes in the UK, the US, Germany, Norway and Sweden searching for promising practices. Second, a smaller Canadian study explored the relationship between paid and unpaid care work in nursing homes, focusing on front-line staff relationships to families, paid companions, volunteers and students. The chapter uses two particular aspects of residential care to explore women's work and promising practices in Canadian nursing homes, namely food and laundry. It also explores new ways to conceptualize and organize long-term residential care. The chapter identifies promising practices that encourage dignity and respect for both providers and residents.
