"Well, what we can do is [ ] to organize data, to evaluate studies"-Self-images of public health academics in Germany during the COVID-19 pandemic: a qualitative study.

BACKGROUND: Despite the significant role of scientific knowledge pertaining to public health, the discipline of public health remained outside the centre stage within the pandemic discourse. Against this background, we investigated the role of German public health academics during the pandemic in our study, focusing on their orientations and associated values. METHODS: We interviewed 21 public health scholars from Germany and collected 36 documents published by public health scientific societies. We analyzed data by grounded theory and situational mapping. RESULTS: We identified five types of self-images identified among healthcare academics: the scientific study supplier, the expert facing political issues, the restrained scholar, the public informer and the changemaker. The typology yields insights into the multiple dimensions of public health and its role in times of crisis. CONCLUSIONS: The findings provide implications to inter- and transdisciplinary interaction and to managing the expectations of public health professionals in relation to crisis management.

"We never lived together either": Couples' housing (re-) arrangements in later life.

Social gerontology mainly addresses couples' housing arrangements in later life by focusing on partner's care, related adaptations in place, and changing role expectations within the couple relationship. Thereby, the resulting image does not fully represent today's diversity of couples' housing arrangements. This article considers housing arrangement and relationship orientation of older couples as entangled in social practice, providing a broader perspective on the diversity and dynamics of couples living arrangements in later life. In a qualitative study, we conducted joint in-depth interviews with ten couples from Germany aged 58 to 88 years. Couples talked about their shared biography and living together today. Data were merged with fieldnotes on housing constellations and analyzed following the documentary method. Couples co-constitute living together by using space in different ways. We found three relationship orientations of couples corresponding to practices of couples' housing arrangements: balancing physical and emotional presence by negotiating shared space, exploring presence by having a third common place, and reducing presence by separate housing. These orientation types which are linked with spatial (re-) arrangements reveal positioning to housing preferences in past relationships and point to societal concepts of coupledom as regards housing in later life. Space gives options for both being apart from and feeling close to the partner, partially at the same time. Diversity and dynamics of housing arrangements correspond to diversified and altering relationship orientations in later life. Considering couples' housing arrangements in later life as mutually constitutive broadens the options to examine the meaning of space in aging together. Moreover, this perspective can be combined with a critical approach towards stereotypical (hetero-) normative biases in research.

COVID-19 crisis management of German ICU clinicians in leadership - a metaphor analysis.

The COVID-19 pandemic coincided with an already long-standing crisis in health systems around the world characterized by economic pressure and increasing staff shortage. "Crisis" became a global metaphor to convey collective experiences of the COVID-19 threat. Little is known on how crisis metaphors influence thought and speech on crisis management and the challenging staff situation of intensive care unit (ICU) clinicians in leadership positions and how they act. Therefore, we were interested in (1) which metaphorical concepts ICU clinicians in leadership use to express experiences and strategies in dealing with coinciding crises, (2) how these change over time, and (3) how metaphors in speech reveal self-images of crisis management. We conducted a systematic metaphor analysis focusing on data from three participants of a qualitative interview study with twenty-four healthcare professionals in ICUs in Germany. The participants were interviewed at two time points between April 2020 and March 2021. We identified and reconstructed metaphorical concepts of three interviewees (ICU clinicians in leadership) with regard to the pandemic management, and developed a typology based on the dimensions of mood, modus operandi, location, and scope. The typology consists of eight self-images (protagonists) for the crisis management of ICU clinicians in leadership, such as the figure of the soldier ("to unite everyone behind this flag"), the distributor ("sometimes it is a crazy patchwork [wahnsinniges Gestückel]") or the critic ("we are the fool for everything"). They embody different qualities of a leader and refer to intra- and inter-role conflicts within multiple crisis conditions. Metaphor analysis reveals different self-images of ICU leadership clinicians in relation to crisis management. This illustrates that thinking and perceptions of crisis management may strongly differ between and within leaders and may change over the course of crises. Our findings highlight the need both to improve knowledge on challenges associated with leadership in crises and preparedness, and to support clinicians in their leadership by recognizing and addressing differences and changes in leaders' self-image.

Politics in Search of Evidence-The Role of Public Health in the COVID Pandemic in Germany: Protocol for a Situational Analysis.

The protocol presents a research project that explores the relationship between science and politics in the COVID-19 pandemic from the perspective of public health (PH) scientists in Germany with situational analysis (SA). In context of this global crisis, we ask how PH scientists negotiate their roles as scientists and political citizens; how PH scientists perceive the relationship between their own and other scientific disciplines; and which normative assumptions PH scientists make in the production and dissemination of research findings. To conduct SA, we combine qualitative interviews with PH experts and published documents from scientific societies in PH and related disciplines (e.g., position and opinion papers) to analyze the complexity of integrating evidence-based knowledge into politics. Data are analyzed using different SA mapping tools, focusing on social worlds/arena maps and positional maps. The approach will reveal both explicit positions in the PH community and implicit or hidden voices and will reflect normative assumptions as well as internal structures of PH in Germany. The findings will be discussed with the philosophy sub-project and in a stakeholder workshop with politicians and the public. Further insights will be gained for politics and PH responses to future global crises.

[Joint interpretation work in qualitative health research in times of "physical distancing"]. / Gemeinsame Interpretationsarbeit in der qualitativen Gesundheitsforschung in Zeiten von "Physical Distancing".

In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers face particular challenges: as contact restrictions prevented face-to-face formats, both data collection and qualitative interpretation work (data analysis) had to be carried out in virtual space. In this article, we outline a digital option for strategically conducting joint interpretation work in qualitative health research in times of "physical distancing", which also provides inspiration for research practice in the post-pandemic future.

Intensive Care Units Healthcare Professionals' Experiences and Negotiations at the Beginning of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Germany: A Grounded Theory Study.

Faced with the pandemic of the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2), healthcare professionals (HCPs) in intensive care units (ICU) adjusted their organizational, operational, and personal procedures to ensure care for COVID-19 patients. We used grounded theory approach to explore ICU HCPs' perspectives on professional action at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany from March to July 2020. The study aimed to examine implicit principles on negotiating social practice and interaction of ICU HCPs in an exceptional situation, which was characterized by a high level of changes. We conducted theme-guided qualitative telephone/virtual interviews with 39 ICU HCPs from ten German federal states. The data collection followed the principles of theoretical sampling. We adpoted grounded theory approach proposed by Charmaz and discussed using Lüscher's theoretical concept of ambivalence. The analysis revealed five interconnected categories about the ICU HCPs' negotiation of social practice and interaction at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany. In this context, a complex field of ambivalence (key category) emerged between habits and routines of a pre-pandemic normality. Pragmatic restructuring processes were initiated, which quickly resulted in a new normality of a "daily routine of preparation". Dealing with ambivalence offers the potential for change.