Nordic Journal of Nursing Research

The aim of the study was to describe and explore public health nurses’ perceptions of involvement and their attitudes concerning the mental health aspects of their work in schools. Furthermore, we wished to explore their need for useful approaches and training topics. The teenage years in particular are associated with an incidence of mental health problems such as depression. Public health nurses in schools have an extensive role in relation to health promotion and the prevention of both physical and mental health. A cross-sectional study with 284 public health nurses from 163 municipalities in Norway was carried out, using the Depression Attitude Questionnaire. The public health nurses reported various degrees of confidence and time spent working with mental health issues. Confidence was found to be related to further education and courses.

The Patient Preferences for Patient Participation tool (The 4Ps) was developed to aid clinical dialogue and to help patients to 1) depict, 2) prioritise, and 3) evaluate patient participation with 12 pre-set items reiterated in the three sections. An earlier qualitative evaluation of The 4Ps showed promising results. The present study is a psychometric evaluation of The 4Ps in patients with chronic heart or lung disease (n = 108) in primary and outpatient care. Internal scale validity was evaluated using Rasch analysis, and two weeks test–retest reliability of the three sections using kappa/weighted kappa and a prevalence- and bias-adjusted kappa. The 4Ps tool was found to be reasonably valid with a varied reliability. Proposed amendments are rephrasing of two items, and modifications of the rating scale in Section 2. The 4Ps is suggested for use to increase general knowledge of patient participation, but further studies are needed with regards to its implementation.

Knowledge about public health and public health work is important for meeting current and future health challenges. A group of nursing students in a cohort participated in a practicum programme pertaining to the study of the academic subject ‘Nursing and Society’. The municipality’s public healthcare services were the learning arena. The purpose of this pilot project was to explore whether participation in the municipality’s public healthcare services is a pedagogical approach that enhances nursing students’ acquisition of knowledge about the public health perspective in nursing. Combined methods were used in the evaluation. Data were collected through focus-group interviews and questionnaire surveys. The results reveal that participation in the municipality’s public healthcare services while studying the subject contributed towards enabling the students enrolled in the practical study to visualize the public health perspective in nursing.

This study investigated first-line managers’ experience of and responses to a concise leadership intervention to facilitate the implementation of oral care clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) in nursing homes. Leadership is known to be an important element in knowledge implementation but little is known as to what supports managers to facilitate the process. By means of a process evaluation with mixed methods, the context and a three-month leadership program was explored, including activities during and in relation to the program, and the effects in terms of oral care CPG implementation plans. While the managers appreciated the intervention and considered improved oral care to be a priority, their implementation plans mainly focused the dissemination of an oral care checklist. The findings suggest that extended implementation interventions engaging both managers and clinical staff are needed, and that a concise intervention does not facilitate first-line managers to adopt behaviors known to facilitate knowledge implementation.

The aim of the study was to describe nurses’ experiences of how stigma affected the care and health of patients with leprosy. Health-related stigma exists worldwide and affects patients, relatives and caregivers. Mere word ‘leprosy’ is often met with disgust, shame and fear. Knowledge of health-related stigma is important for developing care in different parts of the world. The study has a qualitative, descriptive design. Seven semi-structured individual interviews were conducted with nurses working at a hospital specializing in leprosy care. The study was carried out in the central region of Ghana. Data were analysed using qualitative content analysis. The findings are presented as one theme, ‘Increased knowledge and holistic interventions are important in care for patients with leprosy’, and three sub-themes: ‘knowledge and beliefs are intimately interlaced with leprosy-related stigma’, ‘information is important but not enough to change behaviours and attitudes’ and ‘long-term interventions in a social context’. We conclude that caring for patients with leprosy involved long-term interventions, not at least in relation to education on a society level as well as concerning patients’ abilities to learn a skill to make an income in order to be less dependent on healthcare facilities.

This study is based on an issue in nurses’ meal and nutrition care, relating to nurses’ perceptions of transfer of knowledge between different care settings. Through the notion ‘problems of actuality’, the aim is to identify how and why different methods in care may complicate preventive effort related to undernutrition among older adults. It is a qualitative study that lends itself to ethnography and ethnomethodology, with data collected through the use of semi-structured interviews and insights into patients’ medical charts. Through explications of nurses’ methods in meal and nutrition care, and how this work is accomplished within each setting, the study identifies that the different methods involved in meal and nutrition care (defined respectively as social-bodily care and text-based care), create problems in the transfer of knowledge between different care settings. Due to disconnection between social-bodily care work and text-based care work, there is a lack of transfer of knowledge, through which important parts of meal and nutrition care work become invisible. The study finds a need for noticing the disjuncture between social-bodily care and text-based care and for both methods of care, to be recognized as methods that support a delivery of care.

Few studies focus on how reflection seminars can support the learning of knowledge in caring science when inserted throughout the curriculum. The aim of this study was to describe students’ experiences of participating in reflection seminars, using lifeworld theory and focusing on caring science. A qualitative descriptive study based on interviews was carried out, and ten students between 21 and 33 years of age volunteered to participate. A reflective lifeworld research approach was used. Reflection seminars contribute to developing students’ ability to relate to caring and life. A deeper understanding is obtained when reflection sessions are spread over a longer period and when reflection becomes a process. The process helps caring science to become more natural and useful. Reflective seminaries based on a theoretical foundation contribute to facilitate learning more readily. A good atmosphere pervaded by a lifeworld perspective characterized by openness and thoughtfulness contributes to learning.