The arrhythmia of bodily urgency: Using rhythmanalysis to understand the organisation of care people living with dementia experience within acute hospital wards

Abstract

This article posits Henri Lefebvre's concept of Rhythmanalysis as a novel methodology for observing and understanding the everyday life of the hospital ward and its consequences. To do so we draw on observational data taken across three multi-site studies of acute NHS hospital wards in England and Wales (22 wards across 12 hospitals) between 2015 and 2023. Our analysis of the rhythms of the ward, and of the arrhythmias patients can produce, allow us to develop a detailed and embodied perspective of how the ward is experienced by the many different actors within it. In this paper, we focus on one particular group, people living with dementia, considering how they fit both within and outside the rhythms of the ward, and the dressage used by staff to maintain those rhythms. We conclude by discussing rhythmanalysis as a means to observe and record otherwise underseen aspects of hospital care which can provide a means for researchers to better understand relationships of power, personhood and dignity, and their consequences, within clinical environments.