The weather-stains of care: Interpreting the meaning of bad weather for front-line health care workers in rural long-term care

► The implications of seasonal bad weather for health care work are identified as a gap in health services research and policy. ► A hermeneutic phenomenology approach is effective in interpreting the experiences of weather among front-line long-term care workers in rural institutions. ► Contradictions between the lived experiences of health care workers coping with bad weather and long-term care policies and practices are revealed.