In this paper we have had as purpose to analyze the discourse about motherhood as it shows in media which appeal to mothers. This is in order to get an understanding about standards and valuations existing in today´s community concerning what it means to be a mother. The paper´s empiric material consists of the magazine Mama, which appeal to mothers with children younger than 12 years of age. We have with the help of an attempt of a discourse analysis analyzed how the motherhood discourse is reproduced and constructed in the material, and we can in our analysis see that it in the magazine is conveyed a message about what a mother "is" and "should" be. It is even evident that in the material there are pictures and texts where the mother has the basic responsibility for the children and for the home, and that these pictures strengthen the motherhood discourse. They become an accordingly normative ideal for mothers to endeavor. We also see in our analysis that there is a conception that a woman is expected to fulfil and balance different roles in many fields, as an example you should be able to combine being a good mother, career woman and a wife at the same time. And it is very important to be a great success in all these fields

This thesis tells a story about how the Iranian Government commands and controls homosexual men through disciplining and normalization. The main focus of this study is to clarify and inform how homosexual men can experience their lives in Iran. The study is built on storytelling based on a documentary film and different literature.

Be Like Others (2008), also known as Transsexuals in Iran created by Tanaz Eshaghian, Desiring Arabs (2007) written by Joseph A. Massad, What's really wrong with the Middle East (2011a) and Unspeakable Love, Gay and Lesbian Life in the Middle East (2011b) by Brian Whitaker. The various informational sources, informs about how homosexual men experience their everyday life and what has pushed them to undergo a gender reassignment treatment or surgery. Why they among other things are forced to go through surgery that changes their gender identity or expression to fit into the norm in Iran. But also tells different stories and news affecting LGBTQ life situations in the Middle East and what needs to change in order to improve their daily life. The Iranian government implements various regulations and laws that discipline and normalize Iranian inhabitants resulting in gay men changing expression or identity to fit into the norm. Homosexuality in Iran is a controversial subject, for instance, when the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad visited Columbia University in New York on 24th September 2007, he took the opportunity to express that Iran is a LGBTQ-free state. This statement led the author to tell a story about various situations and how life is for homosexual man in Iran. In the narrative storytelling, a discussion about whether homosexual men in Iran exists or not and under what conditions of life they survive, based on discipline and normalization of Iran, takes place. The study's main conclusions is that the Iranian government controls people to maintain the normal gender role and relations and therefore to maintain this normal heterosexual norm through disciplining and normalization.

Social sustainability is a multidimensional concept in which safety is one of the dimensions, and is an important factor in creating a good quality of life. The public space is a key factor in a healthy and well-functioning city. A good environment is a source for motivating citizens to better health and wellness. Public space also has a great impact on safety, good urban planning is essential to create a good environment to live in. High level of safety also creates the conditions for achieving socially sustainable development.

The driving forces behind this study is that the public space is an important place where everybody will be welcomed and feel safe. The public space creates the opportunity for social relations, exchange of knowledge and constitute an important function in society. The publicspace should protect and promote the citizen, and the citizen must take care and show respect for the public space. Thus, this study aims to investigate young people's experience of publicspace in relation to social sustainability and safety.

The method used in the study is a quantitative approach, questionnaires have been distributed to high school students in Stenungssund. The survey ended with the possibility for respondents to mark on a map of Stenungsund the places they feel secure, insecure and like.

The results of the study show that young people in Stenungsund generally feel safe in public spaces. However, there are differences between how girls and boys experience safety. Boys feel increasingly confident than girls do. Students in different grades also tend to experience safety differently. The markings on the map thus showed a common understanding of what places are experienced as both secure, insecure and liked.

To prepare emergency response organisations for collaborative work in unpredictable and dynamic situations, various types of exercises are widely used. Still, our knowledge of collaboration exercises with emergency response students is limited. This study aimed to contribute to this field by exploring boundaries that emerged between collaborating organisations in exercise activities and how these boundaries could be understood for learning. Drawing on the Akkerman and Bakker framework of boundaries as learning mechanisms, this study explored an exercise, including full-scale scenarios and seminars with students from the police, ambulance and rescue services education in Sweden. Thematic analysis of interviews and observations illustrated boundaries that emerged regarding vocabulary, prioritisation, roles, knowledge gaps and overlapping responsibilities across organisations. Rather than dissolving boundaries, this article suggests that boundaries can be utilised in exercises to support the students to contextualise their knowledge in relation to the demands of collaborative work. The concepts boundary work and boundary awareness were suggested to capture more generally the dynamics of learning in exercise contexts.

Due to the emergent and dynamic nature of incidents, the complexity of emergency work is often referred to as a challenge for learning. Another recurrent challenge in emergency work is that of collaboration at and across established organizational boundaries involving actors with specific types of expertise who are operating under different regulations and responsibilities. In addition, training emergency service organizations in collaboration remains a challenge. In light of the difficulties and shortcomings that have been identified in major incident responses, the need for exercises for developing and maintaining collaborative response effectiveness prior to the next incident is often highlighted. The overall aim of this thesis is to understand how full-scale exercises can provide conditions for developing inter-organizational collaboration between the police, ambulance and rescue services at the incident site. Learning activities that carry the potential to support and develop collaborative capacity, and how the alignment of distributed expertise can be trained for, were of particular interest. Interviews with participants in eight full-scale exercises with professionals and interviews and observations of one exercise with senior-level students in Sweden served as the empirical base.Central concepts from Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) provided theoretical tools to explore the exercises and understand boundaries between organizations with a wider, systemic approach. The empirical studies show that the participants understood full-scale exercises to be valuable opportunities for becoming involved in response work, making decisions, and acting and interacting in uncertain situations and realistic environments. As in real-life responses, exercises are characterized by the stabilization and confirmation of everyday routines on the one hand, and by improvisation and change on the other hand. The studies also show that exercises tend to focus on specific scenarios,intra-organizational routines, and leadership positions. Infrequent exercises inwhich the participants were only trained in a limited role were perceived to be in adequate for developing preparedness and collaboration. However, the analysis suggested that the way in which exercises were organized and performed had implications for how participants were trained in collaboration.Realizing the potential of boundaries as resources for learning in exercises depends on how boundaries are explicated and approached. Thus, rather than striving to ignore or eliminate boundaries in exercises, the studies illustrated the learning value of explicitly reflecting on the multiple understandings around boundaries. The studies demonstrated that much of the work at an incident site takes place around negotiations. Collaboration at the incident site was not only aquestion about boundary crossing; operational tasks may not always be aligned and have to be prioritized and sequenced. The exercises comprised work situations in which no single motive could explain or determine the collaboration,due to different types of expertise, primary responsibilities and needs forinformation. These factors were understood in terms of the concepts of boundarywork and boundary awareness. These concepts point at a more divergent understanding of collaboration that reaches beyond striving to create mutual understanding between organizations in learning activities. Differences between organizations, such as in terminology, time horizons, priorities, leadership structures, understandings of safety and how intra-organizational decisions and actions could impact the collaborating organizations' work, were central triggers for discussion and negotiation. These differences required explanations in order to make the actions and decisions of one organization understandable and justifiable to another, based on organizational mandates and types of expertise.Giving emergency services the opportunity to work together, to develop an awareness of their expectations of each other in various situations, to use and interpret their own and others' terminologies, and to identify internal hierarchies and motives for prioritizations was essential dimensions of exercises

Purpose The purpose of this study is to identify what is practiced during collaboration exercises and possible facilitators for inter-organisational collaboration.

Design/methodology/approach Interviews with 23 participants from four exercises in Sweden were carried out during autumn 2011. Interview data were subjected to qualitative content analysis.

Findings Findings indicate that the exercises tend to focus on intra-organisational routines and skills, rather than developing collaboration capacities. What the participants practiced depended on roles and order of arrival at the exercise. Exercises contributed to practicing leadership roles, which was considered essential since crises are unpredictable and require inter-organisational decision-making.

Originality/value The results of this study indicate that the ability to identify boundary objects, such as injured/patients, was found to be important in order for collaboration to occur. Furthermore, lessons learned from exercises could benefit from inter-organisational evaluation. By introducing and reinforcing certain elements and distinct aims of the exercise, the proactive function of collaboration exercises can be clarified.

The purpose with our qualitative study is to investigate the vision of leadership but how does one perfect visionary leadership in an everyday activity? To help us find out the purpose of this we have conducted semi structured interviews involving leadership in occupations. These interviews have provided phenomenal inspiration since our main focus is the experiences of leadership. In our analysis we have used the method of phenomenal analysis and as well as the process of the data. Our empiricist consists of ten interviews, eight of which are conducted with co-workers and two of which are conducted with team leaders.

Our result shows that the activity doesn't have an outspoken vision between co-workers and leaders. However both the leaders have a vision about their leadership which doesn't appear literally. Our study shows that if a leaders visions appears in practice, it therefore doesn't have to be official since it is already clearly expressed. We find that through our case study that occupation can evolve their leadership as well as their employeeship with the help of our results

Overweight and obesity have been increasing problems among children in Sweden since the 1980s. These children’s health is at risk and the problems can become extensive if the youths remain overweight until adulthood. Diabetes type 2, low self confidence and cardiovascular diseases are but a few examples of health troubles caused by overweight and obesity. Obesity and its related diseases cost society three billion crowns per year in Sweden for health care and treatment, plus the cost for medicine, sick leaves and early retirement. Seen from a cultural point of view, the society ideal linked with health is to be slim. Since overweight and obesity have increased among children, we have investigated the obesity problem in a Swedish municipality. The demographics of the municipality suggests a socio-economic context of students' weight problems when the schools are in residential areas only have a few students who are overweight or obese compared to those schools that are in flat areas, where the problem of overweight and obesity is considerably larger. We have chosen school nurses as target group to examine the problem since they have contact with children and their health from the beginning of elementary school until the end of high school.

Our purpose was to examine the school nurses’ and other school and children related personnel’s conception and experience of obesity among children and young people, as well as their working methods with this problem. We were inspired by the phenomenographical approach and carried out fifteen semi-structured interviews with fifteen school nurses, one school physician and a physiotherapist, a total of seventeen people. The result reveals a demographic difference in overweight problems where culture and social economy emerged as primary factors. It appeared also that the parents must take responsibility for their children’s health by creating themselves healthy lifestyles at home, with support and help from the municipality. However, we could distinguish a lack of efforts to prevent obesity. The school nurses had a varied approach on which knowledge was needed and how one can work with overweight children and their families. We found also a need to review and revise the school nurses’ and municipality’s responsibilities.

A range of programmes and new vocations emerge as an answer to societal changes that suggest new work functions as well as new sub-specializations of already existing professions and work functions. In 2010, a multidisciplinary designed training programme started at the University West in Social Psychiatric Care (SPC). The new occupation can be said to fall within the category of pre-professions, a third generation of professionals seeking professional status. The possibility for employment is broad and unspecified and in worst case might go no further than the students' hopes of new careers. Against this background, an inside perspective is given from students experiences. The purpose was to gain a deeper understand of student's trajectory through a new education into the labour market. Eleven female students were interviewed prior to graduation. A hermeneutical phenomenological approach was conducted in order to identify central themes important in students professional becoming. As preliminary result three themes were identified. The theme 'tensions between high and low position' concerning level of involvement in treatment and care or in morea dministrative leading function, were connected to power and payment. The theme 'generalistor specialist' concerned specialist in the respect of expert on broadness suitable for coordinating positions, otherwise broadness was defined as knowing everything anddifficulties in finding professional identity. The theme 'change and tradition' concerned questions concerning establishment where new vocations seek legitimacy among employers and colleagues in the workplace. Standing at the threshold to labour market is an existentially challenging position between hope and despair.

The purpose of this paper has been to investigate how employees of a public administration perceive their employeeship. We have looked at how the employees perceive that the leadership affects the employeeship, how the employees perceive their employeeship and how the employees perceive their learning, all this with the purpose as the foundation. The data was gathered through semi-structured interviews and was analyzed based on a phenomenographic approach, this as we wanted to find the variation in the employees perception. The outcome of the analysis are three categories of description with adherent subcategories to it, where several variations about employeeship are found. "The real employeeship (?)" with subcategories "I take my responsibility with support from the leader" and "Employees are motivated by being able to take care of things themselves but can feel lonely at sometimes". "Learning by work and with others" with subcategories "The significance of relationships for learning" and "Prerequisities for learning are characterized by task and will to learn" and the description category "Influence through action and attitude". The results show that the context of the employeeship determines the type of employeeship that occurs. The responsibility is defined based on various dimensions such as the responsibility to know their limitations, responsibility for relationships in the group and the responsibility to relate to organizational terms. The employees take their responsibility through their competence and with help from leaders and collegues

The aim of the study was to investigate the employees' experience of reflection as a work method. The sample for the study consisted of 16 employees (women aged 25-55 years) from four special housing care of the elderly who regularly work with the reflection as a work method. The methodology for this study was qualitative in nature, inspired by a phenomenological approach. The empirical data collected consisted of 16 banded individual semi-structured interviews. The asked questions have been open to give the respondents the opportunity to develop their views and thoughts and to give the study a depth. All 16 interviews were then transcribed and analyzed to arrive a result.

The theoretical framework for this study includes literature and previous research about the importance of reflection for learning and skills development in the workplace.

The result has three overarching themes emerged;

Learning, professionally approach and Culture. These themes summarize the categories that have emerged in the study. The study shows that reflection as a work method provides the group with a better fellowship where they learn from each other and a respectful attitude towards each other. For the individual person, the method gives greater self-insight, improved communication skills and increased competence. The conclusion of the study show that the reflective work method can be considered as a tool that lays the foundation for a common learning where employees have the opportunity to develop both elderly care as common values in order to strengthen and develop the quality of health care.

After the curriculum supplement, which took place in 2010, in the follow-up development and evaluation, nurseries additional tasks to follow, which in turn have resulted in higher demands on employees and working team in preschools in Sweden. Our study has been conducted in a preschool in Region Västra Götaland. The business consists of three divisions, which are divided by age of the children, 1-2 years, 3-4 years, and 5-6 years. Each department works two preschool teachers and a nanny. The finding of the case study was that the business does not have enough potential to achieve all the demands from the curriculum. Interestingly was therefore to examine the extent to which pre-school activities are given sufficient opportunities to meet curriculum goals. Our purpose was to catch the boss and employee perceptions of the relationship between requirements and resources. The issues that formed the basis for our case study were: Does the business live up to the demands that the curriculum places based on the available resources of the business? What is the situation with the resources of the business? How does the business to be on the resources available? The approach we used is to get answers to the questions have been through a qualitative approach where data collection methods consisted of semi-structured interviews and participant observation. The participation in the case study has been the employee and manager in early childhood education. The choice of the various occupational categories was of interest to get an overall perspective of requirements and resources for early childhood education. The concepts of requirements and resource formed the basis for the semi-structured interviews. Employees and management interview guides had the same focus but despite this, two different interview guides. One interview guide was used to obtain the employees ' perspective, the second interview wizard to capture management's perspective on employees' administrative work of monitoring, evaluation and development. Henceforth, the case study showed that the employees and the manager's experiences of the new requirements that monitoring, evaluation and development was considered to be time consuming and that this took much time away from the children's group, mainly because of the resources of finances and lack of time. Economy shortage has contributed to large groups of children and employees, which in turn has led to the feeling of inadequacy among employees.

Background:

There is evidence that both personality traits and personal beliefs about medications affect adherence behavior. However, limited research exists on how personality and beliefs about asthma medication interact in influencing adherence behavior in people with asthma. To extend our knowledge in this area of adherence research, we aimed to determine the mediating effects of beliefs about asthma medication between personality traits and adherence behavior.

Methods:

Asthmatics (n=516) selected from a population-based study called West Sweden Asthma Study completed the Neuroticism, Extraversion and Openness to Experience Five-Factor Inventory, the Medication Adherence Report Scale, and the Beliefs about Medicines Questionnaire. Data were analyzed using confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling.

Results:

Three of the five investigated personality traits – agreeableness, conscientiousness, and neuroticism – were associated with both concerns about asthma medication and adherence behavior. Concerns functioned as a partial mediator for the influencing effects of agreeableness, conscientiousness, and neuroticism on adherence behavior.

Conclusion:

The findings suggest that personality traits could be used to identify individuals with asthma who need support with their adherence behavior. Additionally, targeting concerns about asthma medication in asthmatics with low levels of agreeableness or conscientiousness or high levels of neuroticism could have a favorable effect on their adherence behavior.

This study aims to see how young peoples experience and knowledge of road safety are in today's society and how knowledge should be designed to best reach out to the youths. As the research shows that young people, especially boys, aged 15-24 are over-represented in road accidents, we see this as an interesting start. Looking further on the research, it shows clear differences in what socioeconomic position these young people have in society and the risk of being involved in accidents, the lower the socioeconomic position, the higher the risk.

Based on a partnership with the National Society for Road Safety (NTF) it became clear that the problem was how to spread knowledge to the youth in segregated areas and it was something they wanted help to work on. Based on a qualitative survey, we wanted to use a phenomenological approach with focus groups as a method to capture young peoples knowledge as well as experiences on road safety. The result showed that it was clear their knowledge and experience was not so high and they gave us many clear proposals on how the work on road safety could look like. And in the end of this survey a lot of interesting suggestions of interventions is presented.

In Sweden most young people feel good, but there are some young people who are not doing well and this part is so large that it is considered a public health problem. The problems of young people’s lack of mental health are both national and local. According to the reports we have read, the self-reported experience of feeling bad in recent years has leveled off, but there are still too many who are doing poorly. Through qualitative interviews with professional nurses in Sjuhäradsbygden we have investigated the perceptions of factors affecting mental health and contribute to a better mental health. The results were analyzed inspired by a phenomenographic analysis. The school nurses' mandate is to work on health promotion and disease prevention and thus it was interesting to see their beliefs about the aim in this study. The results show that the state of knowledge of nurses about factors affecting mental health is broad. However there are perceptions of the difficulties that influence the factors that affecting young people's mental health. The factors are often described as structural problems based in young people's entire living environment and life situation. Four categories emerged from the analysis: requirements, support, habits and stability all important for important for children/young people during their formative years in order to be able to feel good and develop good mental health. We hope that this work contributes to a deeper understanding to people working with young people in schools about factors affecting their mental health. It may provide a state of knowledge that can be useful not only for the investigations on health promotion at a local level but also for forthcoming activities on public health

The purpose of this thesis is to do a gender analysis of six books from the series about LasseMajas detektivbyrå (LasseMajas detective bureau). These books are all very popular in the genre of childrens books. Our material consists of six LasseMaja books which are randomly chosen

. The method we have chosen in our review of the material is text analysis. The main theoretical base in our thesis is gender, but we have also chosen to use the terms stereotypes, performativity, heteronormativity and masculinity to be able to reach a deeper analytical level. What we discovered is that although these books at first seems to be quite good in the aspect of not placing men and women in stereotypical roles, they actually do contain a certain amount of stereotypes and has a way of depict the character Lasse as a typical boy and the character Maja as a typical girl. However we did notice that the character Maja was more inclined to be cross-boundary and become a sort of tomboy.

The purpose of this study was to investigate if a healthcare intervention in form of health dialogue, fitness test and training on working hours created any new knowledge among the participants and if so, what wisdom did it create. This was a collaboration together with Gothenburg city, where the healthcare intervention was implemented on workplaces within meal service. This thesis was done to do a follow-up of the already implemented healthcare intervention. The study for this paper was formed by a qualitative objective and 16 interviews provided a foundation for the study’s result. An inspiration of phenomenography approach formed the study’s objective that was to catch the participant’s experience. At the compilation of the material and the analysis was the Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) used. A part of the result that appeared was that the participants overall thought that the healthcare intervention was good because it was adaptable from all of the participant’s capabilities and therefore everyone could learn something from this, in one way or another. The individuals have gotten an increased knowledge of the impact of small workouts and that everyone has something to gain regardless of previous physical status. A change and experience of the healthcare intervention have resulted in a tighter group cohesion and a better working climate.

The aim of this study was to take part of the learning process that occurs amongst participants in the weight loss program ForMe. The program is based on a holistic concept combining diet and physical exercise with mental practice. The object of the study was chosen based on an interest in mental practice as an instrument for lifestyle change. A qualitative approach was used to answer the purpose and 9 participants have been interviewed to collect empirics. The study is inspired by a phenomenological perspective and a qualitative analysis.

The result showed that the program has contributed in several lessons for the participants. It was also shown that the lessons were all based on our studied phenomenon lifestyle change. An increased awareness is seen as one of the biggest lessons and insight about the individual freedom to choose is also referred to as an essential lesson. It is also clear that the program has contributed with a variety of useful instruments for participants to use in their weight loss journey, and also in their everyday lives.

It has been shown in our study that the holistic program ForMe is an effective method for weight loss. The study may therefore contribute to the research on effective methods for weight loss, with the aim of dealing with overweight and obesity as a public health problem.

When people’s health is threatened, they generally develop illness perceptions to make sense of their illness. The Illness Perception Questionnaire (IPQ-R), developed by Moss-Morris et al (2002), has been widely used in many countries to measure such representations. However, since studies in this crucial research area are lacking in Sweden a Swedish version of IPQ-R was validated with a focus on the seven subscales: timeline acute/chronic, timeline cyclical, consequences, personal control, treatment control, illness coherence and emotional representations. Using confirmatory factor analysis, the aim of the present study was to validate the internal structure of the Swedish version in a sample of 202 persons (144 men and 58 women) who had been diagnosed with myocardial infarction four months earlier. Additionally, inter-correlations among the seven subscales and external concurrent validity were also investigated. The results of confirmatory factor analysis revealed that, in line with the English version of the IPQ-R, the specified seven-factor model had a satisfactory fit. One item was however not considered reliable and was therefore excluded from the instrument. The internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha coefficients) and the inter-factor correlations were relatively similar to those reported in the validation study of the original English IPQ-R. In tests of concurrent validity, the seven IPQ-R subscales were, as hypothesized, mainly associated with external variables. To conclude, the Swedish version of the IPQ-R’s seven dimensions, with one item removed, (total 37 items) was found to be a reliable and valid measure of illness perception.

It has become increasingly common for health care workers in elderly care to work in difficult conditions, such as staff shortages, workloads and stress. The nursing staff manages various intercurrent difficulties in their work and these difficulties they face lead to mistakes which affect the safety for the elderly. The main purpose of the study was to investigate and analyze the nursing staff working environment by studying what deficiencies they experience in their work and how this impacts the safety.

The research questions for this study were: 1. What situations create stress among health care staff? 2. How does this affect the health care staff perceptions of their work situation and the idea of occupant safety? To answer to these questions, a semi-structured interview guide with the following themes was performed: environment and occupant safety. The interviews were conducted with six nurses at two different homes for elderly in Gothenburg. Data was analyzed and processed from the interviews to identify themes that were essential to the subject by a thematic analysis. Themes that emerged were the following; stress, staff shortage, policies and actions of managers. Even some subthemes emerged in some of the major themes that were identified. Based on the study we can conclude that the management has the obligation and a vital role when it comes to providing a safe working environment for health professionals and residents.

The purpose of this thesis is to do a critical review of the aid organization SOS Children’s Villages text- and video campaigns, from a postcolonial perspective. Our purpose is divided into two questions: Are there colonial values in the advertising campaigns? Which language- and image strategies are used by SOS Children’s Villages to put across their messages? Our material consists of 10 selected video clips, and four printed ads that are made up of an image and a short text, which are part of a campaign named: Inte ett enda barn ska behöva vara ensamt (translation: Not a single child should have to be alone). We have chosen to use text- and image analysis as a method in our review of the material. The main theoretical base in our thesis is postcolonialism, while”the Other” and ”whiteness” are two concepts we have chosen so that we can reach a deeper analytical level. We have analyzed some of the clips from the concept “The White Man’s Burden”, and have discovered that ”The Western World” tries to insert their own values and ideals into ”The Third World”. We have also discovered that the children, in some sequences, are presented as non-human and differentiated from the “white Westerners”. The last chapter in our thesis problematizes how modern technology, as Smartphones, applications and social media, are used to make it easier to give money to charity. We also discuss how “The Western World” can be seen as a contributor to the current situation in “The Third World”, which makes the aspect of high-technology even more interesting.

This qualitative study aims to examine upper secondary school adolescents approach to learning through social interaction on social media in teaching. The study was conducted using focus groups, which were interviewed based on a semi-structured interview guide. The focus groups consisted of 17 upper secondary school adolescents from a school in western Sweden. The data were then analyzed using a qualitative content analysis and the result has been analyzed from a socio-cultural perspective on learning, where social interaction is an important part. The result shows that the adolescents see social media as a teaching tool and that there is an informal learning when adolescents meet and interact on social media. The adolescents have a positive view on the use and sees it as a tool to facilitate and promote communication.

We examine the perceptions of Roma adolescents on health, well-being and quality of life (QoL) and how the Roma managed their own life situation within these areas. The data, which consists of interviews, was analysed through content analysis. The most common understanding of health and well-being was to feel good, secure and happy. A wide social network of family and friends was seen as an additional element. The respondents perceived their own health and well-being to be good. A feeling of freedom, the ability to make decisions independently and the possibilities for education and employment were the most important elements of QoL. Quality of life was perceived to have something to do with values and beliefs in the future. Social support from family and friends were the most frequently used coping strategies. The perceptions of the Roma adolescents on health, well-being and QoL turned out to be quite similar to the perceptions of the non-Roma adolescents.

The basis for this article was a health promotion program based on participatory action research and work-integrated learning (WIL). Seven Roma people were employed and trained to work as local coordinators to empower the local Roma community by strengthening their participation in society and their sense of community, as well as to promote self-led integration. The study aimed to analyze the program from the Roma coordinators' perspectives, focusing on perceived individual empowerment and perceptions of contribution to the common good and to community empowerment. The findings, based on qualitative data, primarily interviews with the Roma coordinators, indicated that the WIL approach, the participatory nature of the program, and the trust and support from the Roma colleagues and non-Roma facilitators were essential for the development of empowerment. Three main themes emerged that portrayed the participants' psychological empowerment: strengthened Roma identity, a sense of power, and a sense of enculturated social inclusion.

The purpose of this study is to examine the student health teams and teachers' perceptions of mental illness among young people in high school. Our study is conducted in four schools in a municipality in Västra Götaland. To answer our purpose is qualitative method used by 14 people were interviewed. The empirical data were analyzed by inspiration from a phenomenographic approach. The results showed that the respondents perceived mental ill health as a problem in school. They saw the phenomenon as a barrier to young people's learning, then the influencing factors such as stress and demands were contributing factors. It also emerged that parents could be one reason for the students' health. In our purpose, we also wanted to examine the staff's working methods, to strengthen students with perceived ill health. The staff's solution to this phenomenon was to implement the empowerment-oriented exercises.

I denna C-uppsats granskar vi dokumentärserien En resa för livet utifrån ett postkolonialt perspektiv. Studien grundar sig i ett övergripande intresse för hur koloniala föreställningar fortfarande genomsyrar välgörenhetsdiskursen. För att definiera studiens problemområde har vi tre frågeställningar: Hur framställs de fyra svenska artisterna respektive de filippinska medverkande i dokumentärserien? Reproduceras koloniala föreställningar i dokumentärserien och i så fall på vilket sätt? Hur presenteras fattigdomsproblemet och vilka möjliga lösningar läggs fram i dokumentärserien? Studien innefattar en text- och bildanalytisk metod vilken appliceras på materialet - samtliga fyra avsnitt av dokumentärserien En resa för livet som sändes i TV4 under januari/februari 2014. Serien producerades i samarbete med SOS Barnbyar. Vår huvudsakliga teoretiska utgångspunkt är postkolonialism och denna kompletteras med teorier kring vithet och den Andre. I vår analys har vi kommit fram till att koloniala värderingar präglar serien, bland annat genom hur de filippinska fattiga barnen och deras familjer framställs som underlägsna och passiva i kontrast till hur de fyra svenska artisterna porträtteras. I serien konstrueras Västvärlden och Tredje världen som varandras motsatser, där artisterna och SOS Barnbyar får stå för det mänskliga och civiliserade medan de filippinska barnen framställs som de Andra. Vi har också funnit hur man i och med serien kan sägas konsumera den Andre och dennes kultur genom en exotisering av densamma. Slutligen problematiserar vi En resa för livet som marknadsföring för SOS Barnbyar. Det faktum att seriens syfte var att rekrytera nya faddrar till organisationen leder till att själva orsaken till fattigdomen osynliggörs och därmed att den koloniala maktordningen reproduceras

The project "Health care interaction" among different care providers was introduced as a trial activity in the municipalities of Strömstad and Tanum in the spring of 2010. The aim of health care interaction is to provide citizens health care adapted to their specific need within shortest possible time frame; Is emergency care not needed, the aim is to avoid that the care seeker ends up in an emergency room at the hospital. In this study experiences from health care interaction is described with quantitative as well as qualitative data. Empirical data is based on available medical statistics, focus group interviews with nurses with long experience from pre-hospital emergency care and home health care, questionnaires data gathered from other health professionals involved in the activity, individual interviews with nurses and physicians at call centers for medical information, primary health care centers, home health care, pre-hospital health care and elderly care. The analysis of the data reveal opportunities and expectations among the personnel as well as their willingness to develop and improve the health care. It's also evident that the general impression among health care personnel is that increased interaction among health care providers improves the quality of the health care given. Health care interaction also contributes to improved opportunities for person-centered care with an increased degree of continuity and participation for the patient. The study also reveals that collaboration between colleagues promotes development of individual and collective knowledge. Conclusions drawn from the study is that the documentation and information system used in health care interaction needs to strengthen the participation of the care seekers as well as to improve in accessibility for the personnel involved. In order for health care interaction to evolve and develop through close follow-up and evaluation, a more transparent and uniform system for documentation is recommended. It's also concluded from the study that the call center for medical information (1177) as one of the major actors in the health care interaction program has the best potential to instigate an expansion and development of the health care interaction among care providers.

"The Handbook has four sections. Section I is concerned with the theory of cooperative education, with particular focus on the learning that occurs in the workplace. This part also addresses contemporary issues such as assessment of cooperative education, and identifies areas of needed research. Section II examines the practice of co-op worldwide. This part shows the breadth of disciplines of study, and is intended to allow co-op professionals see how co-op has been used in their discipline and other disciplines. This has been substantially revised from the first edition, with many more disciplines now covered. Each chapter in this section contains contributions from several authors, in most instances from more than one country, in order to gain an international perspective of the practice of co-op. The chapters begin with an overview of the discipline as it pertains to co-op, and consider models of practice, outcomes, constraints, and conclude with a detailed case study of co-op in the discipline. Section III is concerned with the benefits of co-op for all three parties; employers, students, and educational institutions. Section IV concludes the Handbook by considering some current issues confronting co-op, and the future of co-op."--publisher website.

Catastrophes and accidents (natural,technological, or man-made) have been subjected to scientific research from different disciplines and perspectives for a long time. Examples of these perspectives include community risk and vulnerability, human behaviour during crisis, fire behaviour and eco-system management, decision-making, communication, and collaboration issues. This paper deals with different perspectives of preparation and prevention in terms of accidents and catastrophes. The overall aim is to present an overview of different aspects on the possibility for organisations and societies to be prepared for the next incident and to highlight emergency exercises as a part of crisis management. In the second part of the paper the project “Collaboration exercises—from parallelto synchronous”, is introduced. The project is carried out in Sweden, and aims to explore how collaboration between police, ambulance and rescue services is practiced and developed during exercises. Of particular interest is inter-organisational collaboration and learning during exercises. To develop an understanding of these processes, a range of different types of emergency collaboration exercises was observed and participants were interviewed about their experiences. Tentative findings from the studies so far are briefly introduced. Some challenges of using exercises to increase the preparedness for managing the uncertainty and the unexpected are further discussed.

This study aimed to elucidate exercise participants’ understanding of critical aspects of organizing and implementation of collaboration exercises with police, fire department and ambulance services. The focus is critical aspects in exercises that have, or are expected to have, bearing on the participants’ ability to learn. Collaboration exercises are used as a tool to reinforce and develop the preparedness for future incidents. The need for such exercises was usually advocated after critique to actions during largescale real-life incidents. The study had a qualitative approach and is based on phenomenographic analysis of interviews with participants from four exercises with different scenarios. The identified critical aspects of exercises were related to realism, acceptance for mistakes, exercise extent and aims and opportunities for joint discussions. The management of an accident can be described to a large extent depend on the organizations’ joint ability to adapt to the prevailing situation and to collaborate. For exercises to contribute to these abilities, they could benefit from shifting the focus to how to organize exercises that allow participants to test different decisions and actions, with less emphasis on the choice of scenario.

Many Roma people in Sweden are on the margins of society and face problems of social exclusion, institutional discrimination, low education, unemployment, and poor health. The aim is to describe how a group of Roma people, in West Sweden, understand health, well-being, and quality of life within the Roma context, and how they cope with their life-situation. Data consisted of qualitative interviews. The data were analyzed qualitatively using a phenomenological hermeneutic approach. The respondents mainly understood the concept of Health as "being healthy" and "feeling good". Elements that were crucial part of the respondents' health perception were being employed, having an education, social support from family and friends, freedom and security, and the extent of involvement in society. The results indicate that the respondents perceive their health and life situation as good, despite of their marginalized situation and discrimination.

Roma people all over the world have often been subject to prejudice, stigma, discrimination and oppression. Many Roma have little or no education, which in combination with other factors often leads to unemployment and marginalization. Based on a case study in Sweden, this paper proposes an approach that can be used in participatory projects aiming at improving the living situation of marginalized people. In such an approach, the Roma themselves would be the leaders in all activities concerning the group. The first aim of this paper is to describe how health literacy and work-integrated learning functioned as empowering tools for a Roma-led inclusion process within a participatory action research framework. The second aim is to discuss and reflect on the use of participatory action research in community work with Roma based on the experiences of the participatory action research participants. The findings indicate that work-integrated learning may be a worthwhile approach for increasing the individual empowerment and self-led social inclusion of vulnerable people. However, the obstacles of structural discriminatory nature hindered the project to reach its full potential in its intended emancipatory goals.

Background: The purpose of this survey was to relate completion rate and results on national clinical final examinations to student’s admission background and examination results for nursing and medical courses.

Methods: The research data were based on a quantitative case study, with 286 nursing students, using statistical analysis.

Results: The programme's overall completion rate was 76%, i.e. almost one out of four students did not complete the programme. The higher students' upper secondary/high school grades, the fewer attempts they needed to pass the nursing and medical courses exams (p<0.001). The average examination attempts needed to pass courses in medical science was significantly greater than the number needed to pass courses in nursing science (p<0.001). In a multivariate analysis both upper secondary/high school grades and average examination attempts needed to pass were significant predictors for national clinical final examination score.

Conclusion: In sum, upper secondary/high school grades and examination attempts needed, especially for courses in medical science, may be regarded as important indicators of achieved knowledge and skills which are tested in the national final examination.

Collaboration between different professions entails a meeting between different skills and perspectives which can carry great potential for different types of learning. The purpose of the study is to contribute to better understanding of the opportunities and barriers for learning when professions collaborate. Based on the shared experiences from participants in a music project containing collaboration between professions interpretations have been made about what in this interaction between professions can be considered to have the greatest impact on learning. The results tend to emphasize the importance of social interaction between professions containing verbalised communication as a promoting factor for learning and development as it is important to create shared goals and opportunities for the various professions' observations and reflections to be communicated to or shared with the other professions.

The aim with this study is to overhaul how communication and learning plays a part in the partnership between the existing Occupational Health Service (OHS) and a difference of professions in a middle-sized municipal in Sweden. A procurement of a new OHS for the municipality is in progress due to the current one is about to end. In the new partnership the goal is to have a more preventive way to work with the employees' health. To enable this the results about communication are connected to its significance for learning to occur which may lead to a development of the organization. It is therefore in the interest of the municipality to map out the different perceptions about the needs, expectations as well as advantages and disadvantages regarding the current OHS.The collection of data has consisted of semi-structured interviews. The selection of respondents have been spread over managers, employees and staff specialists, both women and men. An invitation to participate in the study was sent by email and the respondents had the opportunity to decide time and place for the interview. After the occurrence of the interview the collected data have been transcribed. The transcriptions have later been analyzed with a phenomenographic analysis method where the respondents' perception about the specific phenomenom have been the focus.The result showed that the current communication is in need of development in order to reach the municipalities goals. The managers perceived that the OHS shine with their absence regarding the goal to market their preventive services which is a common goal for the municipality. For a few of the managers there was also a lack of feedback regarding the outcome of the services that have been implemented in the organization. The staff specialits agreed regarding preventive services and took responsibility to mediate what is considered preventive. All employees' perception about the OHS was that they are non-existing and a common wish is that they would become more active. More health promoting services are also preferred. A special desire was to reintroduce the health check-ups that have been removed due to financial cause.The studies therefore highlights the meaning of communication in order to learn and for a good partnership with the OHS. The study also represents a foundation for finding the right OHS for the municipality by founding the study on the involved peoples perceptions about the phenomenon.

Twenty years have passed since the philosophy and principals were formulated in the Ottawa Charter for health promotion. A critical reflection of the content and success of the Ottawa Charter was published before the IUHPE World Conference in Vancover in June 2007. This paper contextualizes and discusses Salutogenesis and Antonovsky in the development of health promotion practice and research and, further, relates the salutogenic concept Sense of Coherence (SOC) to the Ottawa Charter. An overview of the development of health promotion and the salutogenic theory of health is presented. In addition, this is illustrated in a new way using the metaphors of ‘health in the river of life’ and ‘SOC in a life course perspective’. Health promotion, including the Ottawa charter, lacks a clear theoretical foundation. The results of a systematic review of salutogenic research are used to demonstrate how the salutogenic framework could support the philosophical and practical intentions of the OC. The salutogenic model contributes to the maintenance and development of health and quality of life (QoL), i.e. the process and outcome of the principles of the OC. The metaphor of the river and the life cycle are new ways of demonstrating the paradigm shift provided by the Salutogenesis and health promotion in relation to public health and medicine. The salutogenic theory is an important contribution to the theory base of health promotion research and practice.

BACKGROUND:Cardiac self-efficacy is a person's belief in his/her ability to manage the challenges posed by a coronary disease, and its role has been evaluated in several coronary populations using the Cardiac Self-Efficacy Scale (CSE Scale). Self-efficacy has an important role in person-centred care, however there is a lack of appropriate instruments that evaluate person-centred interventions.AIM:The purpose of this study was to validate the CSE Scale by examining its psychometric properties as a first step in evaluating a person-centred care intervention in persons with acute coronary syndrome (ACS).METHODS:The study sample consisted of 288 persons (72 women, 216 men) who completed the Swedish version of the CSE Scale two months after hospitalisation for an ACS event. Construct validity was psychometrically evaluated using confirmatory factor analysis. Additionally, convergent and discriminant validity were tested using correlation analyses.RESULTS:The results revealed that the CSE Scale was represented by three dimensions (control symptoms, control illness and maintain functioning). The analyses also showed that the CSE Scale is suitable for providing a total summary score that represents a global cardiac self-efficacy dimension. Evaluation of convergent and discriminant validity showed the expected correlations.CONCLUSION:The CSE Scale is a valid and reliable measure when evaluating self-efficacy in patients with ACS. It also seems to be a useful tool to promote person-centred care in clinical practice since it may offer useful guidance in the dialogue with the patient in the common creation of a personal health plan.

The field of public mental health has been defined by an expert group convened by the Nordic School of Public Health (NHV) as encompassing the experience, occurrence, distribution and trajectories of positive mental health and mental health problems and their determinants; mental health promotion and prevention of mental disorders; as well as mental health system policies, governance and organization. The mental health priorities of the Nordic Council of Ministers in 2010 signalled a mutual Nordic exchange of knowledge in the following thematic areas: child and adolescent mental health; working life and mental health; mental health in older people; strengthening the role of primary care in mental health service provision; stronger involvement of users and carers; and reduction of use of coercion in psychiatric care. Efforts to realize these priorities included commissioning the Nordic Research Academy for Mental Health, an NHV-based network of research institutions with a common interest in mental health research across the Nordic countries, to develop, organize and follow-up projects on public mental health. The research initiatives included mental health policy analysis, register-based research and research focused on the users' perspective in a Nordic context, as well as EU-level research policy analysis. The public mental health research conducted at the NHV highlighted the complexity of mental health and emphasized that the broad determinants of mental health need to be increasingly addressed in both public health research and practice. For example, health promotion actions, improved access to health care, a healthy alcohol policy and prevention of suicides and violence are all needed to reduce the life expectancy gap - a red flag indicator of public health inequalities. By exchanging knowledge and best practice, the collaboration between the Nordic countries contributes to the welfare of the region. The expertise and traditions developed at the NHV are of significant importance in this work.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to translate and test the psychometric properties of the Norwegian language version of the Risk Assessment Pressure Sore (RAPS) scale.

Background: Risk assessment scales for pressure ulcer (PU) prevention have become an aspect of quality improvement in healthcare, but their effectiveness depends on the reliability and validity of the scale.

Methods: A convenience sample of 481 residents in 15 nursing homes in rural Norway was included between January and June 2007. The English-language version of the RAPS scale was translated into Norwegian, and this scale was used to collect the data, including a skin  examination. The number of PUs and grades were documented. Reliability was assessed in a small group of 26 residents and construct validity in the total study group.

Results: Equivalence between two assessments regarding total scores of the RAPS scale was reflected in an intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) of 0.95. Construct validity was supported, and the RAPS scale could define groups with expected low and high scores. Further evidence of construct validity was shown in a confirmatory factor analysis.

Conclusion: The Norwegian version of the RAPS scale has shown sufficient psychometric properties to be considered a reliable and valid scale for identifying risk of PUs among nursing home residents. However, further testing is needed.