”Kyllähän nyt pitäs olla jo semmonen aika, että pääsis niin kö keskustelemhan näistä asioista.” Tutkimus lappilaisten sotavankien, partisaanien uhrien ja huutolaisten elämänkulusta, voimavaroista, terveydestä ja sairauksista

Research into the course of life, mental stamina and health status of wartime prisoners, victims of Soviet partisan attacks, and paupers in Finnish Lapland The basis of this research comprised the issues raised during the interviews conducted in my work as a general practitioner in Lapland, regarding factors that have possibly affected the life stories and health conditions of Lappish people who had lived through the war as war prisoners, victims of partisan attacks, or paupers. The purpose of the study was to describe how the different life phases and experiences emerged from the interviewees’ stories and to identify their mental stamina. Another goal was to make observations on their health status, in which the main emphasis became to address mental symptoms. The cohort consisted of elderly Finns who lived in Lapland during the war and experienced war imprisonment, pauperism, or became victims of partisan attacks. All three groups consisted of 12 interviewees. The interview transcripts were read several times and then investigated using the content analysis methods applicable to the material. The research methodology was based on building awareness and understanding. Thematic tagging and data coding were used as structured analysis tools. In all three groups most of the interviewees clearly identified their mental stamina, the most fundamental of which were home, family and work. The war prisoners’ injuries and nervous sensibility symptoms had been shown in earlier studies on war prisoners, and on this basis they had been granted disability pensions. However, many of them had suppressed their traumatic experiences and mental difficulties, and they could not talk about these issues until at the time of these interviews held at old age. Four of them still suffered from a post-traumatic stress disorder. The victims of Soviet partisans had had to carry their mental load alone for decades before the cruel ravages on civilians in remote areas of Lapland became publicly known. Most of them still had disturbing nervous sensibility symptoms. Four interviewees had a post-traumatic stress disorder, and in addition to these, the mental symptoms of one had developed into a post-traumatic stress disorder during old age. Many of the interviewees who had been left paupers remembered their childhood as filled with grief and feelings of inferiority, and had nightmares relating to their wartime experiences. Yet none of them suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder. The results showed that the exceptional suffering caused by the war, the wartime imprisonment and the devastating attacks by Soviet partisans had led especially to mental difficulties. These were left almost completely unnoticed in the post-war conditions, and the war victims were unable to seek help on their own. Based on the results, our health care for the elderly should focus on familiarization with the individual experiences and life stories of each elderly person. This can facilitate geriatric diagnostics and individual therapy planning. Empathic familiarization with the life experiences of the elderly may strengthen their mental stamina and improve the quality of successful aging.

Ikääntyvät työelämässä. Päihittääkö nuoruus ja koulutus aikuisuuden ja kokemuksen?

The Ageing in Working Life. Do Adolescence and Schooling Beat Adulthood and Experience? This study examines the changes in the work and the work organisations of employees in the fields of health care and retail trade who have turned 45 and their experience of change. In addition, the question of how ageing employees experience their status in post-modern working life is explored. Attention is also focused on the choices and decisions connected with staying at work and retiring. These views are examined in relation to professions and professional cultures. Thematic interviews (N=98) were used to gather the material. The effects of the market liberalistic turn in welfare policy are clearly seen in the everyday work of the health care professions. These changes were examined from the point of view of managing by outcomes and quality assurance, multi-professional cooperation, flexibility in the division of labour, and the spread of market-like procedures. The discourse of those in involved retail trade was dominated by extremely tight global market competition and control of outcomes, and by the structural changes taking place in the retail trade sector. This change discourse was to a large extent a reaction to those changes in the functional environment which were experienced as negative and to the conflict between their own professional identity and professional ethics on the one hand, and their functional environment on the other. There were also obstacles connected with professional culture: defending one's own station and power, guarding the 'frontier', showed up in attitudes towards new management and organisation models or towards structural and functional reforms. The deep structures of professional culture and the mindset of the actors change much more slowly than the functional practices of organisations. For those in a supervisory position, the loss of power due to becoming part of a chain or because of the introduction of a team organisation model was not an easy thing to accept. The nurses and others in related fields felt that they were forced to do work that was below their level of training and professional skill. For sales personnel and those who did assisting work in health care, power and the possibility of having an influence were not so important, as long as they were able to do their work in their own way and were trusted. This view is often completely forgotten, for example, in various organisation models in which power and the possibility of having an influence entwined with power are taken for granted as being clearly positive and desired aspects of job satisfaction. Up to date professional skills were experienced as being important from the point of view of professional identity and self-worth. Thus, training can be understood as a moral obligation, which in turn is intertwined with professional ideology. In the rhetoric of adult education, an adult is expected to be an active player who will seek training again and again if working life so requires. The dark side of this ideology, which leads to feelings of guilt, was apparent in the thoughts of the respondents. Am I never good enough at my job; why must I continually strive for better, additional qualifications? The majority of the respondents evaluated their expertise as being at quite a high level. This self-confidence did not extend to applying for a job. Job recruitment was seen as a situation in which age discrimination reached its peak. The interviewees were unanimous about the idea that society favours the young. Especially among those in the retail trade sector, there was a feeling that it would be difficult, if not impossible, to find a new job of the same level or a permanent post if they were made redundant. Age discrimination was also apparent in the retail trade field in the form of older employees being retired against their will or transferred to other tasks. It was felt that ruthless forced retirement of older workers was part of the personnel policy of some organisations. The importance of one's outward appearance was connected with the theme of discrimination. This phenomenon is described using the concept of the double standard of ageing in feminist research. An ageing woman is relegated to an inferior position due to both her age and her sex. A culture that would both make possible and allow various types of choices regardless of age, which is described as being characteristic of the post-modern era, does not seem to be very topical in the practice of working life. It is important for employees that the management and the personnel policy that is being implemented makes them feel like both their contribution and they as individuals are appreciated, that their opinions are listened to and that they are noticed as persons. The interviewees hoped for gratitude and a concern for the well-being of employees that shows in everyday life. They valued training and activities aimed at maintaining their work ability, but thought that better coping at work and a pleasant working environment cannot be achieved through such measures as along as the foundation is 'in a mess'. Development of the quality of working life is the only thing that can improve job satisfaction and get people to remain in the work force longer than at present. There should be a sufficient number of properly trained employees at the work place. It was important to the respondents that they be able to stay on their job to the end with honour, since compromising with their own quality standards or acting contrary to their ideal self-image in terms of professional ethics would strike a blow to their professional self-esteem. They called for the development of various types of workplace flexibility, and felt that they have the right to a lightened workload and to early retirement. Early retirement was even seen as an altruistic deed: it would free up a place for younger workers. Thoughts of retirements were explained by familiar factors such as health and finances, life situation, the enticement of free-time, as well as by various factors related to work. It is very important to ageing employees that their work has meaningful content. The values related to self-fulfilment are felt to be of great importance, and if they cannot be realised at work, the respondents wanted more free time, either through retirement or in the form of flexibility in working life.

Vapaa, alamainen vai orja? : Skinner Hobbesin ja republikaanisen vapauskäsityksen suhteesta

Kirjallisuusarvostelu

Yliopistorehtorin työ on vetämistä ja kiskomista, pokkaamista ja päättämistä

Kirjallisuusarvostelu

Paarmuskoista koulutettuihin kätilöihin. Kunnankätilön työ sekä raskauden seurannan ja synnytyksen medikalisoituminen Pohjois-Suomessa vuosina 1900–1960

Pro gradu –tutkielmani aiheena ovat kunnankätilöt ja heidän työnsä Pohjois-Suomessa 1900-luvun alusta 1960-luvun alkuun. Naiset synnyttivät varsinkin maaseudulla yleensä kotona lähes 1900-luvun puoliväliin asti. Vuosisadan alusta lähtien kuntiin alettiin palkata koulutettuja kätilöitä, mutta Pohjois-Suomen kunnissa itseoppineet kätilöt hoitivat synnytyksiä koulutettujen kätilöiden rinnalla vielä usean vuosikymmenen ajan. Minua kiinnosti, miten siirtymävaihe paarmuskoiden hoitamista kotisynnytyksistä kätilöiden hoitamiin yleensä sujui. Lisäksi keskityn kätilöiden työskentelyolosuhteisiin, jotka olivat usein vaikeat huonojen kulkuyhteyksien sekä kotien köyhyyden takia. Kotisynnytysten ohella kätilöiden työhön kuului äitiys- ja ehkäisyneuvonta, joka useilla paikkakunnilla alkoi 1900-luvun ensimmäisinä vuosikymmeninä. Tutkielmani toinen teema on raskauden ja synnytyksen medikalisoituminen. Oppi hygieniasta ja muu siisteysvalistus olivat keskeisiä synnytyksen medikalisoitumisessa; perinteinen synnytyksen jälkeinen puhdistautumisperinne, kirkottaminen, alkoi hiipua samoihin aikoihin, kun kätilöt alkoivat huolehtia äidin puhdistamisesta synnytyksen jälkeen. Lääketieteellistyminen näkyi myös käytettävien lääkkeiden ja välineiden määrän lisääntymisessä. Kouluttamattomilla synnytysavustajilla ei yleensä ollut käytettävissään lääkkeitä eikä saksia parempia instrumentteja, kun taas kätilöt pystyivät seuraamaan äidin vointia esimerkiksi virtsanäyttein. Myös synnytyksen kulkuun voitiin vaikuttaa käyttämällä esimerkiksi pihtejä tai kohdun supistuksiin vaikuttavia lääkkeitä. Kotisynnytyksiä hoitavien kätilöiden työolosuhteet olivat kuitenkin huomattavasti alkeellisemmat kuin samaan aikaan heidän sairaaloissa työskentelevillä kollegoillaan. Kätilöt eivät useinkaan olleet vain kodeissa synnytyksiä hoitavia henkilöitä, vaan tarvittaessa he olivat myös perheistä huolehtivia sosiaalityöntekijöitä, talonmiehiä ja jopa eläinlääkäreitä. Aineistona olen käyttänyt Museoviraston vuonna 1978 järjestämän ”Lääkintää ja potilaita” -kirjoituskeruun vastauksia. Näiden lisäksi kätilöiden kirjoittamat muistelmat ja Kätilölehden artikkelit ovat olleet tärkeitä. Vastaukset ovat Pohjois-Suomesta, joka tässä työssä tarkoittaa Kainuun, Pohjois-Pohjanmaan ja Lapin maakuntia.

Vapaa sivistystyö : tarve, tehtävä ja hyöty

Vuonna 2009 tehdyssä Koulutuksen arviointineuvoston arvioinnissa kartoitettiin kyselyllä vapaan sivistystyön ylläpitäjien ja oppilaitosten opetushenkilöstön käsityksiä sivistystehtävästä ja sen toteuttamisesta.

Halun aika ja tiedontahto

Kirjoitus perustuu lectio praecursoriaan 5.12.1997.