Perceptions of European medical staff on the facilitators and barriers to physical closeness between parents and infants in neonatal units

AIM: Studies have provided insights into factors that may facilitate or inhibit parent-infant closeness in neonatal units, but none have specifically focused on the perspectives of senior neonatal staff. The aim of this study was to explore perceptions and experiences of consultant neonatologists and senior nurses in five European countries with regard to these issues. METHODS: Six small group discussions and three one-to-one interviews were conducted with 16 consultant neonatologists and senior nurses representing nine neonatal units from Estonia, Finland, Norway, Spain and Sweden. The interviews explored facilitators and barriers to parent-infant closeness and implications for policy and practice and thematic analysis was undertaken. RESULTS: Participants highlighted how a humanising care agenda that enabled parent-infant closeness was an aspiration, but pointed out that neonatal units were at different stages in achieving this. The facilitators and barriers to physical closeness included socio-economic factors, cultural norms, the designs of neonatal units, resource issues, leadership, staff attitudes and practices and relationships between staff and parents. CONCLUSION: Various factors affected parent-infant closeness in neonatal units in European countries. There needs to be the political motivation, appropriate policy planning, legislation and resource allocation to increase measures that support closeness agendas in neonatal units. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Fotografers och föräldrars attityder kring skönhetsretuschering i skolfotografier : En semistrukturerad intervjustudie

Through semi-structured interviews with 8 school photographers and 10 parents,this study attempted to clarify what photographers and parents of children(aged 1–5) in preschool think of photography business in the current situationprovides retouching children’s school photographs and what they considers tobe acceptable. The result shows that companies do not offer photo retouchingfrequent, but performs this service at the direct request of the customer. Themajority of parents agreed that dirt and food was accepted to be removed fromthe photograph, and that this does not affect the child's self image. The photographersbelieve that one should be very careful when it comes to children andretouching, and that the debate is important.

Movies, Mind and Meaning : Studying Audience and Favourite Films

Construction of identity and meaning is becoming increasingly important in both media studies and religion scholarship. (Lövheim, 2004) Meaning construction outside traditional religion has become more interesting for religious studies and what individuals in the audience do with all messages circulated through media in everyday life has attended increasing interest within media studies (Stout and Buddenbaum, 2001). Motion pictures, soap operas and advertising are all examples of media contents which generate ideas among its audience which to a various degree are used as resources within the construction of identity (Jansson, 2001). The investigation of what modern humankind’s world views look like and what components they are composed of, in this context seems to be an important topic of investigation (Holm and Björkqvist, 1996). The ways in which the development of media has effected the daily lives of individuals is interest as is the nature of the self and the ways in which the process of self-formation is affected by the profusion of mediated materials (Thompson, 1995). Film and religion are my interest within this larger frame. The topic is not exactly new but the combination of film and religion has during the last ten years resulted in a rapidly growing number of books by scholars interested in this field (Lyden, 2003). One growing focus is on the role that films can and do play within the emerging and developing valuesystem of people in the West today (Marsh, 2004). The British theologian Clive Marsh’s point of departure is very similar to my own. Viewers bring to a film life-experience, immediate concerns and worldviews and the exploration of this interplay between movies and the interpreting process of meaning making is the very focus in this paper. Theoretically, the semeiological model of Alf Linderman is combined with cultural cognitive approaches used by a number of Scandinavian media scholars developing perspectives in audience theory (Linderman, 1996, Höijer and Werner, 1998). 13 individuals, their favourite movie and what it means to them in their life My aim is to examine how individuals comprehend film and what the meaning process look like. In this paper I present the outcome of 13 interviews with young people about their favourite film. I suggest how it is possible to interpret how they interrelate film comprehension with their personal beliefs and their culturally constructed worldview from a sociocognitive point of view. Examples of films chosen range from Disneys Lion King (1994), sciencefiction and fantasy successes like The Matrix (1999) and Lord of the Rings (2001) or the next best movie ever according to www.IMdb.com The Shawshank Redemption (1994) as well as the Swedish blockbuster Så som i himmelen (2004), aka “As in Heaven”.

A multicentre randomized controlled trial of an empowerment-inspired intervention for adolescents starting continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion : a study protocol

Background. Continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion (CSII) treatment among children with type 1 diabetes is increasing in Sweden. However, studies evaluating glycaemic control in children using CSII show inconsistent results. Omitting bolus insulin doses using CSII may cause reduced glycaemic control among adolescents. The distribution of responsibility for diabetes self-management between children and parents is often unclear and needs clarification. There is much published support for continued parental involvement and shared diabetes management during adolescence. Guided Self-Determination (GSD) is an empowerment-based, person-centred, reflection and problem solving method intended to guide the patient to become self-sufficient and develop life skills for managing difficulties in diabetes self-management. This method has been adapted for adolescents and parents as Guided Self-Determination-Young (GSD-Y). This study aims to evaluate the effect of an intervention with GSD-Y in groups of adolescents starting on insulin pumps and their parents on diabetes-related family conflicts, perceived health and quality of life (QoL), and metabolic control. Here, we describe the protocol and plans for study enrolment. Methods. This study is designed as a randomized, controlled, prospective, multicentre study. Eighty patients between 12-18 years of age who are planning to start CSII will be included. All adolescents and their parents will receive standard insulin pump training. The education intervention will be conducted when CSII is to be started and at four appointments in the first 4 months after starting CSII. The primary outcome is haemoglobin A1c levels. Secondary outcomes are perceived health and QoL, frequency of blood glucose self-monitoring and bolus doses, and usage of carbohydrate counting. The following instruments will be used to evaluate perceived health and QoL: Disabkids, 'Check your health', the Diabetes Family Conflict Scale and the Swedish Diabetes Empowerment Scale. Outcomes will be evaluated within and between groups by comparing data at baseline, and at 6 and 12 months after starting treatment. Results and discussion. In this study, we will assess the effect of starting an insulin pump together with the model of Guided Self-Determination to determine whether this approach leads to retention of improved glycaemic control, QoL, responsibility distribution and reduced diabetes-related conflicts in the family. Trial registration: Current controlled trials: ISRCTN22444034

En analys av testprocesser med TMap som testmetod

Today there are many system development projects that break both budget and time plan. Often this depends on defects in the information systems that could have been prevented. The cost of test can in some cases be as high as 50 % of the projects total cost and it's at the same time an important part of development. Test as such has moved its focus from the software it self and its faults to a wider perspective on whole infrastructures of information systems where assure a good quality is important. Sogeti in the Netherlands have developed a test method called TMap (Test Management approach) that can be used for structured testing of information systems. TMap haven't been used as much as desired in the office in Borlänge. Because Microsoft is releasing a new version of their platform Visual Studio Team System (VSTS 2010) some colleges at Sogeti in the Netherlands are about to develop a template that can support the use of TMap in VSTS 2010. When we write this the template is still in development. The goal for Sogeti was to find out the differences between the test functionality in VSTS 2008 and 2010. By using the purpose with this essay, which was to analyze the test process in VSTS 2008 with TMap against the test process in VSTS 2010 together with the template we got much help to achieve the goal. The analysis was done with four different aspects: The TPI and TMMi models, problem and strength analyses and a few question formulations. The TPI and TMMi models where used to analyses and evaluate the test process. The analysis showed that there were differences between the both test processes. VSTS 2010 together with the template gave a better support to use TMap and perform test. In VSTS 2010 the test tool Camano is connected to TFS and the tool is also to make the execution and logging of tests easier. This leads to a test process that is easier to handle and has a better support for TMap.

Barn och föräldrars val av bilderbok med fokus på illustrationer : En intervju- och observationsundersökning

Syftet med denna studie var att dels jämföra barn, 3–6 år, och föräldrars preferenser av barnboksillustrationer, dels att undersöka hur föräldrar resonerar kring val av bilderbok och illustrationens roll i samband med detta. Genom enskilda semistrukturerade intervjuer och tillhörande observationer med 22 barn (3–6 år) och 10 föräldrar undersöktes vilken av fem typer av bokillustrationer som föredrogs. Föräldrarna fick därefter även välja vilken av fem bilderböcker, från vilka illustrationerna var hämtade, som de skulle vilja läsa för sina barn och motivera sitt val. Resultatet från undersökningen tyder på att illustrationerna är en aspekt för både barn och föräldrar vid val av bilderbok samt att det finns faktorer som föredras i illustrationerna. Barnen i undersökningen verkade föredra naivistiska illustrationer med stort antal fokuspunkter. Föräldrar föredrog realistiska illustrationer med inslag de kan koppla till verkliga livet. Föräldrarna ansåg att illustrationer, handling, moral och lärdom var viktiga aspekter vid valet av bilderbok till deras barn. Flertalet föräldrar ville ha möjlighet att berätta egna historier kring illustrationerna i bilderboken.

Vad kommunikation vill säga : En iscensättande studie om specialpedagogers yrkesroll och kunskapande samtal

This thesis is about the role of special educators in (pre)school and about developing democratic communication. It is based on the theory of argumentation developed by Jürgen Habermas. The aim of the study was to describe the conditions that create possibilities for deliberative communication between special educators, parents, students and colleagues in (pre)school. My overarching aim was to contribute to a more distinct description of special educators´ field of knowledge. I have used a social constructionist approach. The project has been based in the field of action research. A precondition for deliberative dialogues in (pre)schools is to start out from a communicative perspective. That means that (1) some theoretical conditions have been made apparent, (2) knowledge about these conditions have been shown to be crucial for using an aware communicative perspective in a speech act, (3) an aware communicative perspective is revealed through procedures of knowledge. These procedures were understood by and made evident to me as a result of network meeting discussions. A communicative perspective, a special educator as facilitator and procedures of knowledge are found to be crucial for collaboration using a deliberative attitude in (pre)schools. Today there is often a lack of pedagogical professionals in (pre)schools who can act as a link between authorities, organisations, professionals and parents, and who have the authority to pose challenging pedagogical questions. This can be changed if the role of special educators is, instead of teacher, defined as communicative special educators working with dialogues on different levels.

Den virtuella kroppen : Presentationer av jaget i svenska dagboksbloggar

The virtual body: the self and the body in Swedish diary blogs There are no bodies on the internet and yet, there are bodies on the internet. This article deals with representations of the ‘virtually physical’ in personal weblogs. To examine the data drawn from 14 weblogs, a qualitative content analysis is made. The results show that the virtual body is widely present in these particular internet settings and that it is most commonly described as female. Moreover, the virtual body is to a large extent a fragmented body that one either takes control over or is controlled by.

Vernacular meaning making : Examples of narrative impact in fiction film questioning the 'banal' notion in mediatization of religion theory

The outcome of an audience study supports theories stating that stories are a primary means by which we make sense of our experiences over time. Empirical examples of narrative impact are presented in which specific fiction film scenes condense spectators' lives, identities and beliefs. One conclusion is that spectators test the emotional realism of the narative for greater significance, connecting diegetic fiction experiences with their extra-diegetic world in their quest for meaning, self and identity. The 'banal' notion of the mediatization of religion theory is questioned as unsatisfactory in the theoretical context of individualized meaning-making processes. As a semantically negatively charged concept, it is problematic when analyzing empirical examples of spectators' use of fictional narratives, especially when trying to characterize the idiosyncratic and complex interplay between spectators' fiction emotions and their testing of mediated narratives in an exercise to find moral significance in extra-filmic life. Instead vernacular meaning-making is proposed.

Ellipsis as a marker of interaction in spoken discourse

In this article, we discuss strategies for interaction in spoken discourse, focusing on ellipsis phenomena in English. The data comes from the VOICE corpus of English as a Lingua Franca, and we analyse education data in the form of seminar and workshop discussions, working group meetings, interviews and conversations. The functions ellipsis carries in the data are Intersubjectivity, where participants develop and maintain an understanding in discourse; Continuers, which are examples of back channel support; Correction, both self- and other-initiated; Repetition; and Comments, which are similar to Continuers but do not have a back channel support function. We see that the first of these, Intersubjectivity, is by far the most popular, followed by Repetitions and Comments. These results are explained as consequences of the nature of the texts themselves, as some are discussions of presentations and so can be expected to contain many Repetitions, for example. The speech event is also an important factor, as events with asymmetrical power relations like interviews do not contain so many Continuers. Our clear conclusion is that the use of ellipsis is a strong marker of interaction in spoken discourse.