The bidirectional mistrust: Callers' online discussions about their experiences of using the national telephone advice service

Purpose Purpose: To explore and describe online communication about the experiences and attitudes towards Swedish Healthcare Direct, a national telephone advice nursing service Design/methodology/approach Design/methodology/approach: A descriptive research design was adopted using a six-step netnographic method. Three Swedish forums were purposefully selected and data from the virtual discussions were collected. Findings Findings: Three themes emerged: expectancy and performativity of the nurses, absurdity in accessibility, and the scrutinizing game. The most prominent finding was the scrutinizing game, which included aspects of a bidirectional mistrust from both nurses and callers. Another salient finding was the attitudes that callers held toward nurses who used a technique interpreted as “passing the buck”. Research limitations/implications The use of a nethnographic method is novel in this area of research. Consequently, the body of knowledge has regarding telephone advise nursing service has signific...