Mental ill-health is an increasing problem in Swedish society. If a parent is suffering from mental illness, it can have negative consequences for the child’s wellbeing, health and developmental process. The challenge for school nurses is to identify and support these students. The aim of this study is to describe school nurses’ experiences from meeting and supporting students who have parents with mental ill-health. Interviews with six school nurses were performed after snowball recruitment with purposive sampling and analysed using qualitative content analysis. School nurses’ experience of meeting and supporting students who have parents with mental ill-health shows that this is complex and demands competence and collaboration. Their competences in collaboration with others as well as their ability to show an open and tolerant attitude were important in order to build trustful relations with students, their parents and other professionals.
Gay and lesbian youth can experience ignorance and a lack of acknowledgement surrounding their sexual orientation during their time in school. This qualitative interview study describes how Swedish gay and lesbian students experience their secondary school years on the basis that society has heteronormative values.
The data is based on eight telephone interviews with gay and lesbian young adults, aged 18–25 and was analysed using a qualitative narrative approach.
The findings presented four themes: not fitting into the norm of heterosexuality, lacking confirmation of their own homosexuality, finding courage, seeing the school as a supportive or a non-supportive environment.
A way to normalise homosexuality can be to discuss sexual development and attraction from a health-promoting perspective. Professionals working in school need to feel comfortable with issues such as sexuality in order to create a situation of confidence for the student.
Background: The physical environment has an impact on wellbeing. School nurses can use this to promote students’ health. Aim: The aim of this study is to elucidate school nurses’ perceptions of using the physical environment at their office, as a tool in nursing. Method: A qualitative interview study was conducted with five Swedish school nurses, using semi-structured questions. Data were analysed using qualitative content analysis. Results: Three categories (offering a health environment for wellbeing, being present in the environment for the children and using the environment for health education) and six subcategories emerged during analysis. Conclusions: School nurses made their office a place for wellbeing by using it for health information, as a sanctuary and as an environment that supports children’s need for integrity. How the school nurses used their environment depended on their personality. Obstacles included people in the school who had little knowledge of what school nurses’ work consists of and also the difficulty of appearing available to the children.