Health institutions, temporary work agencies, and the mobility power of nurses

Abstract

The objective of this article is to explore how the mobility power of nurses (the ability to move between employers or leave the labor market) contributes to changing relations between health institutions and temporary work agencies in the Norwegian welfare state. Based on case study as the research strategy, the article contributes to the political economy of labor relations approach and the debate over the role of TWAs and temporary nursing in the health sector. The mobility power of Swedish nurses who shift from agency nursing to direct temporary nursing in health institutions (bank nursing) partly explains the constrained growth of agency nursing in the Norwegian hospital sector. However, contracting flows of Swedish nurses to Norway since 2015 challenge internal labor hire and could make health institutions more agency-dependent in future. The data employed are semi-structured interviews, official statistics, reports, and news clippings.