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Aims: To provide insight into the everyday realities facing care aides working in long‐term residential care (LTRC), and how they perceive their role in society. Design: A qualitative ethnographic case study. Methods: Data were collected over. 10 months of fieldwork at one LTRC setting [September 2015 to June 2016] in Western Canada; semi‐structured interviews (70 h) with 31 care aides; and naturalistic observation (170 h). Data were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. Results: The findings in this work highlight the underpinned ageism of society, the gendered work of body care, and the tension between the need for relational connections – which requires time and economic profit. Four themes were identified, each relating to the lack of training, support, and appreciation care aides felt about their role in LTRC. Conclusion: Care aides remain an unsupported workforce that is essential to the provision of high‐quality care in LTRC. To support the care aide role, suggestions include: (i) regulate and improve care aide training; (ii) strengthen care aides autonomy of their care delivery; and (iii) reduce stigma by increasing awareness of the care aide role. Impact: What problem did the study address? The unsupportive working conditions care aides experience in LTRC and the subsequent poor quality of care often seen delivered in LTRC settings.What were the main findings? Although care aides express strong affection for the residents they care for, they experience insurmountable systemic and institutional barriers preventing them from delivering care.Where and on whom will the research have impact? Care aides, care aide educators, care aide supervisors and managers in LTRC, retirement communities, and home care settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim. In this paper, I describe my experiences as a novice researcher doing a critical ethnography in long-term residential care. I reflect upon the challenges and lessons learned in navigating trust and power relations in this complex sociopolitical field. Background. Critical ethnography is an important method of inquiry that can lead to disruptions in the status quo and empowerment of disenfranchised groups. In nursing scholarship, there is a body of literature about this method of inquiry. This paper further contributes to this scholarship by describing my experiences in the field, with particular attention to the linkages between the study's theoretical perspective, method of inquiry, and criteria for trustworthiness, and how these elements guided my actions in the field. Data sources. The study that provides the context for this paper was a critical ethnography that examined the organization of long-term residential care in British Columbia, Canada. The method of inquiry was underpinned by a theoretical perspective that wove together a postcolonial feminist approach with Foucauldian epistemology. The study's criteria for trustworthiness were: credibility, reflexivity, reciprocity, voice and praxis. Discussion. Throughout the study, I found myself navigating issues related to building trust in the researcher/participant relationship and navigating power relations. Using examples, I describe how I approached these issues using the criteria for trustworthiness and theoretical perspective as guides. Conclusion. Critical ethnography is a method of inquiry that can enrich nursing research and educational scholarship by generating greater understanding about the complex fields in which nurses practise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]