Högskolan i Skövde

Background: It has been suggested that the university environment, to improve students’ health status and educational outcomes, should be based on a health promoting approach. More knowledge is needed about health promoting resources and lifestyle factors that may be of value for students in higher education and their future work-life balance. The aim of this study was to explore health-promoting resources, general health and wellbeing, and health promoting lifestyle factors among fourth and final semester students in higher education in healthcare and social work.

Methods: This longitudinal study is based on self-reported data collected through a web-based questionnaire that included questions about general health, wellbeing, and healthy lifestyle factors and made use of instruments: the Sense of Coherence (SOC) scale, the Salutogenic Health Indicator Scale (SHIS), and five questions from the General Nordic Questionnaire (QPS Nordic). The questionnaire was distributed among students enrolled in seven different healthcare and social work programmes at six universities in Sweden. Data was collected when students were in their fourth (2019/2020) and final (2020/2021) semesters analysed with multiple linear and logistic regressions.

Results: The survey included responses from students during the fourth (n = 498) and the final (n = 343) semester of higher education programmes in health and social work. Total SOC scores decreased between the fourth semester and the final semester. The prevalence of the health promoting lifestyle factor of physical exercise decreased between the fourth and final semesters. Students in their final semester reported valuing group work more highly than did students in their fourth semester. Despite this, students in both the fourth and the final semester reported high SOC, low levels of good general health and perceived wellbeing, and sleeping problems.

Conclusions: Students’ report of good general health were associated with wellbeing, high-intensity physical training, and no sleeping problems A high SOC level was associated with good general health, perceived wellbeing, and no sleeping problems. A higher SHIS level was also associated with wellbeing and no sleeping problems. Therefore, we suggest further research focusing on how to prepare students in healthcare and social work during higher education for a future work-life in balance targeting effects on sleep quality. 

Objective The aim was to explore whether occupational balance is associated with health, health-promoting resources, healthy lifestyle and social study factors among students during higher education within healthcare and social work.

Design The study has a multicentre repeated cross-sectional design. Data were collected via a self-reported, web-based questionnaire based on the validated instruments: the 11-item Occupational Balance Questionnaire (OBQ11), the Sense of Coherence (SOC) Scale, the Salutogenic Health Indicator Scale (SHIS) and five questions from the General Nordic Questionnaire (QPS Nordic) together with questions about general health and lifestyle factors.

Setting Students at six universities in western Sweden at one of the following healthcare or social work programmes: biomedical scientists, dental hygienists, nurses, occupational therapists, physiotherapists, radiology nurses and social workers.

Participants Of 2283 students, 851 (37.3%) participated.

Results The students experienced that occupational balance increased during education. The total OBQ11 score was higher among students in semesters 4 and 6/7, compared with semester 1 students. Students with higher OBQ11 also reported higher SOC throughout their education, while health seemed to decrease. Students who reported higher levels of OBQ11 reported lower levels of health and well-being in semesters 4 and 6/7, compared with semester 1. There was an opposite pattern for students reporting lower levels of OBQ11.

Conclusions The association between higher levels of OBQ11 and lower levels of health and well-being is remarkable. There is a need for more research on this contradiction and what it means for students’ health and well-being in the long run.

School health services (SHSs) and school nurses play a crucial role in identifying and supporting students with mental illness. The integration of information and communication technology (ICT) can facilitate interorganizational collaboration in this context. Due to the limited research in this area, a scoping review was conducted to explore SHSs’ use of ICT in interorganization collaboration regarding students with mental illness. Six articles were reviewed, revealing three key themes: “types of ICT employed by SHSs in interorganizational collaboration,” “constellation of SHSs in interorganizational collaboration,” and “opportunities and challenges for SHSs using ICT in interorganizational collaboration.” Notably, two of the six articles highlighted the absence of school nurses in interorganizational collaboration. Even though ICT plays a crucial role in interorganizational collaboration, no comprehensive solution was found. This scoping review confirms that there are challenges with operability and regulations that govern the exchange of private information between organizations.

BAKGRUND Våld mot barn är ett globalt folkhälsoproblem och strider mot mänskliga rättigheter. Våld ger allvarliga och livslånga fysiska, psykiska och sociala konsekvenser för barnet och samhället.

SYFTE Var att beskriva hur skolsköterskor arbetarför att identifiera våldsutsatta elever.

METOD Studien består av 14 kvalitativa intervjuer med yrkesverksamma skolsköterskor runt om i Sverige. Datamaterialet analyserades enligt innebördsanalys (Dahlberg et al., 2008).

RESULTAT Fyra innebördsteman framkom: hälsosamtalet som ett verktyg, skapa relation och tillit, medveten om faktorer som försvårar samt samverka med skolpersonal.

SLUTSATS Skolsköterskan är en viktig vuxen i skolan och för att elever ska känna tillit behöver skolsköterskan bygga upp en relation till eleven. Relationskapande möten kan öppna upp för skolsköterskan att ställa frågor kring våld. Hälsosamtalet med tillhörande hälsoenkät är ett sätt för skolsköterskan att systematiskt identiera våldsutsatta elever. Begreppet våld behöver belysas i samtalet, vad är våld samt att våld mot barn strider mot barnkonventionen.

Child-centered care is based on the fact that children are individuals with their own rights. Since January 2020, The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) is law in Sweden. Children's meeting with professionals is important because it becomes the children's impression of healthcare that may reflect the children's future image of and feelings about the whole healthcare system. This prospective cross-sectional study aimed to explore child healthcare competence among nurses within primary healthcare. Data were collected through a web-based questionnaire among 101 primary healthcare district nurses, specialist nurses, and registered nurses. The study was compliant with the STROBE checklist. The results showed that the nurses have a good ability to apply child-centered care during children's visits to primary healthcare. To further implement a child-centered approach in primary healthcare, nurses need to have access to workplace educational opportunities continually, to enhance their child competence throughout their nursing careers.

Aim: The aim of this study was to explore healthcare professionals’ experiences of working with extended home visits for parents.

Background: It is essential to identify parents, both expectant and with a newborn child, who need support in their parenting abilities at an early stage because children’s health and well-being are affected by their home environment as well as by their parents’ health and social relationships. Home visits represent a cost-effective way of identifying and supporting families with a newborn. Further research is needed to explore healthcare professionals’ experiences working with extended home visits for parents.

Methods: This was a qualitative interview study focusing on an intervention introduced in the Enhanced Parenting—Extended Home Visits project in Sweden. Data were collected via 13 semi-structured interviews with healthcare professionals who provide the intervention in antenatal care (midwives) and child health care (CHC nurses and family supporters), and a qualitative content analysis was performed.

Findings: Data analysis resulted in one theme and four categories. The theme – to provide multidimensional adapted professional support, – and the four categories – strengthened collaboration between professionals enriches their work. Home visits provide time for conversation, which promotes continuity of care and relationships with parents; being humble guests in parents’ homes provides insight; and home visits provide the opportunity to strengthen parenting and participation in the family centre. The goals of the Enhanced Parenting—Extended Home Visits project were to strengthen parents’ confidence in their parenting abilities and to build trusting relationships with healthcare professionals. The conclusion of this study, from the participants’ perspective, is that these goals can be achieved with the intervention.

Implications for Practice: Extended home visits seem to help healthcare professionals provide collaborative, multi-professional support for parents, both expectant and with a newborn child, with unique support needs.

Background: Globally, the digital sources developed and available in antenatal care differ, and infrastructure challenges may impede the further development of such sources. Challenges accompanying digital developments can include the commonly occurring high workload, which affects healthcare professionals' ability to acquire professional knowledge about how to best support parents in using digital sources. Including healthcare professionals in the development process of digital sources may increase the likelihood that such sources will be adopted and employed by these professionals in their future care work. Therefore, the present research explored healthcare professionals' perceptions of the digital support intervention Childbirth Journey, which was constructed as a serious game for expectant parents.

Methods: Data were collected through semi-structured focus-group interviews with 11 midwives at antenatal, labour and postnatal clinics as well as with child healthcare nurses. Prior to the interviews, all participants were provided the intervention, Childbirth Journey, which is a serious game in a mobile application format consisting of two distinct parts: (1) a story-driven game and (2) a Knowledge Portal. The data were analysed using phenomenographic methods.

Results: The perceptions of Childbirth Journey by healthcare professionals, midwives and child healthcare nurses are presented in four descriptive categories: extended professional support, trustworthy contents, diversity or individuality, and both appealing and in need of development.

Conclusions: Current study revealed that Childbirth Journey may be utilised as a digital support for parents, allowing healthcare professionals to offer a digital solution as a complementary support to standard, face-to-face meetings with caregivers. However, the research results also revealed that some elements of Childbirth Journey must be improved, thereby representing a main contribution of this study: insights into how to better develop digital tools under the umbrella of health care. Thus, we conclude that in order to create sustainable and safe digital care solutions that function as trustworthy professional supports instead of technical products that risk harming users, the perspectives of both patients and healthcare professionals should be considered in the exploration and development of these solutions.

Background: Mental ill health is increasing among adolescents, and self-injury is one expression of mental ill health. Sexual risk taking among adolescents is often associated with exposure to violence. Sex could be used as a strategy to regulate negative emotions and feelings of emptiness. The health promotion work of school nurses (SNs) can be one way to identify students who are exposed to or at risk of sexual ill-health and sexual risk taking. By using the SEXual health Identification Tool (SEXIT) in health dialogues, SNs can identify students exposed to or at risk of sexual ill-health and sexual risk taking. Aim: To describe SNs’ experience of using SEXIT in health dialogues with students. Methods: An exploratory design was used. Six SNs participated in semi-structured individual interviews, and the data were analysed with qualitative content analysis. Results: Three categories were identified: ‘SEXIT provides support and structure’, ‘SEXIT provides conditions for designing a good dialogue’, and ‘working with SEXIT includes managing challenges’. Conclusions: SNs have a critical role in the identification of students with sexual ill-health and sexual risk taking as well as those exposed to violence. SEXIT could be included and systematically used in the health dialogue as it enables a natural dialogue with students about a sensitive topic and creates the prerequisites to identify adolescents at risk of sexual ill health.

Aim: This study aims to describe how school nurses identify students who are being exposed to violence.

Design: The study has a qualitative design focusing on illuminating the meanings embodied in lived experiences

Method: Fourteen qualitative interviews with school nurses were conducted and a descriptive qualitative meaning analysis was used to cast light on the phenomenon. The COREQ checklist was used to ensure trustworthiness.

Results: Four themes were highlighted: opportunity in the health dialogue, necessity to create and prove trustworthiness, cooperation with other professionals, and awareness of factors that could complicate reporting exposure to violence. The study provided new insights such as the school nurse having an important role in the identification of students exposed to violence. It is important that school nurses have an open approach and are systematic in the health dialogue, using questions about violence to create opportunities for students to talk about their living conditions.

Mental illness is a global health problem and encompasses many conditions with varying degrees of severity. Telephone contact is often the patient’s initial contact with the healthcare system. This study aimed to illuminate telenurses’ experiences of managing calls with patients affected by mental illness in primary healthcare. Semi-structured individual interviews were conducted with 11 telenurses and a qualitative content analysis was conducted. The COREQ checklist was used to ensure trustworthiness. The analysis revealed three themes, labelled as: ‘Finding a solution to solve and deal with circumstances’; ‘Being emotionally affectedand re-evaluating the situation’; and ‘Using distracting approaches and creating space for reflection’. The results show that tele-nurses adopt different strategies to manage negative and positive situations. This requires telenurses to be adaptable with the patient affected by mental illness as well as within each call and the conditions within the healthcare organization to manage calls with patients affected by mental illness.