L’adaptation des services de santé à l’égard de personnes migrantes : cas des services infirmiers en première ligne

How do organizations adapt when faced with changes that exceed their current capacities? More specifically how and why do healthcare organizations choose to adapt- or not- their services to the needs and characteristics of new and established migrant populations? In this thesis, we attempt to answer these questions using a conceptual model of multilevel governance, applicable to healthcare organizations that provide primary care to migrant population.  In a context of regionalized immigration, the dynamics of the migration process are well documented, however organizations abilities to adapt are less so. We conducted a multiple case study, collecting data from semi-structured interviews with providers from two healthcare organizations from Montéregie region (South shore of Montréal, Québec) as well as stakeholders from local, regional and national scale. The data collected has allowed us, (1) to identify the most significant stakeholders in adaptation process and to highlight the connectivity between them; (2) to reveal eight action levers that we divided in three categories: administrative, emerging and enabling. The possible imbrications of these three categories facilitate the creation of connectivity structures that legitimate the organization’s adaptation; and (3) to show the ambiguity of adaptation through the influence of facilitating or hindering factors at several levels of governance. This thesis is structured on four articles. The first article is conceptual: adaptation and multilevel governance are therein defined through the framework of complexity theory. We anchor our subject in the vulnerability and migration schemata, while apprehending the system’s adaptation at the local scale. The result is a conceptual framework with six research propositions. The second article elaborates on the dynamics among stakeholders within healthcare organizations, its networks and the Environment. The specific role of the connectivity between stakeholders is highlighted. In the third article, we focus on the different action levers, which are analysed in three categories: administrative, emerging and enabling. The stakeholders seek to adapt their practices to the particular context of providing timely and appropriate care to migrant patients. A transition from connectivity between actors and structures is then made possible through multilevel governance. Finally, the fourth article is an analysis of the different factors that influence a healthcare organization’s adaptation with regards to the Environment. The results show that many identified factors are firstly action levers (see article 3), and become through time and recursively of influence factors.  In addition, the type of interdependence developed between the stakeholders tends to shape either “stable” Environment which transfers the responsibility of the adaptation to the operational stakeholders or “rugged” Environment based on diverse and decentralized interactions between stakeholders through multilevel of governance. From this constant adjustment with the Environment appears the ambiguity of the adaptation for a healthcare organization.

Keyphrases: Adaptation, Administration des services infirmiers, Migration, Complexity, Governance, Adaptation, Health Administration, Primary care, Nursing Administration, Migration, Public Health, Population Approach