Objectives: To better understand how a dialogue about the influence of nursing home residents on their everyday activities evolve among diverse practitioners and to identify the consequences of such an understanding in practice.

Methods: Inspired by a collaborative approach, five workshops, one focus group and follow up interviews were conducted. The participants were 19 diverse practitioners. Analysis followed a dialogical approach.

Findings: Tensions, opportunities and challenges were articulated and discussed during the workshops and are developed in: a) Bypassing the “humane”? The dilemma between using shields preventing engagement or acting in a clandestine manner b)“What is our stance?” Seeking common ground on which to stand regarding everyday activities and c) Recognising expertise and seeking connections.

Discussion: For the staff, acting in a clandestine manner seems to create ways of enabling “humane” practices towards nursing home residents. The “clandestine manners” seem to be grounded in an effort on the part of the staff to make sense of the everyday activities for the nursing home residents. These “clandestine manners” could be seen as responses to institutional routines and a lack of common ground on the understanding of everyday activities in the context of nursing homes.