Kuukautiskokemuksen kulttuurinen rakentuminen suomalaisten, vuosina 1959-1977 syntyneiden naisten kuukautiselämäkerroissa

Tutkimuksen kohteena on kuukautiskokemuksen kulttuurinen rakentuminen suomalaisten, vuosina 1959-1977 syntyneiden naisten kuukautiselämäkerroissa. Tutkin millaisia kuukautiskokemuksia naisilla on sekä miten ja suhteessa keneen tai mihin nämä kokemukset muotoutuvat. Tarkastelen myös millaisia kulttuurisia käsityksiä kuukautisista naisten kokemukset ilmentävät. Ymmärrän kuukautiskokemuksen tutkimuksessani elämänkulkuun liittyvänä historiallisena prosessina, jonka kautta ihmisestä tulee subjekti, joka sosiaalisena yksilönä kiinnittyy häntä ympäröivään kulttuuriin, kieleen ja maailmaan. Tarkastelen mikrohistorian näkökulmasta yksilön tapaa hahmottaa henkilökohtaista kuukautiskokemusta suhteessa omaan kokemushistoriaansa ja sen sosiokulttuurisen ympäristön historiaan, jossa hän elää. Haastattelemani naiset ymmärtävät kuukautiset sekä fysiologisena ruumiin toimintona että kokemuksellisena tapahtumana. Vaikka lääketieteellinen tietämys kuukautisista on lisääntynyt 1900-luvun aikana nopeasti, ei kuukautisten fysiologinen tunteminen ole edelleenkään kaikille naisille kovin merkityksellinen asia. Fysiologisesti kuukautiset ovat naisille merkki ruumiin normaalista toiminnasta ja hedelmällisessä iästä olemisesta. Naisten kuukautiskokemus ei ole yksi, vaan se muuttuu niin kutsuttujen avainkokemusten kohdalla samanaikaisesti kun yksilölle muotoutuu uusi sosiaalinen rooli, jonka myötä häneen kohdistuvat sosiaaliset odotukset muuttuvat. Avoimissa teemahaastatteluissa tuotetuissa kuukautiselämäkerroissa haastateltavat nimesivät kuukautiselämän avainkokemuksiksi ensimmäiset kuukautiset, kuukautisten kanssa sinuiksi tulon, raskaudet ja imetyksen, lapset tehty mitäs nyt -vaiheen sekä vaihdevuosien tulon tiedostamisen. Naiselle on tärkeää pystyä läpi kuukautiselämän säilyttämään itsenäisen, aktiivisen toimijan rooli, ja tähän hän tarvitsee tietoa ja toimintaohjeita jokaisen uuden avainkokemuksen kohdalla. Naisen kuukautiskokemuksen muotoutumiseen vaikuttavat useat merkittävät sekä yksityisen että julkisen alueen toiset. Nainen vertaa kuukautiskokemustaan näihin toisiin, saa heiltä tietoa kuukautisista ja elää kuukautisarkea heidän tai niiden kanssa. Kuukautiselämäkerroissa häpeän tunne läpäisee koko elämänkaaren. Kulttuurisesti kuukautisten tulee olla näkymättömät, huomaamattomiksi kätketyt. Vaikka kuukautisiin liittyvä nolouden ja häpeän tunne on syvällä kulttuurisessa kokemusmaailmassa ja naisen kuukautiskokemukseen vaikuttavat kulttuuriset tekijät ovat historiallisesti hyvin hitaasti muuttuvia, on kulttuurisessa ilmapiirissä havaittavissa jonkin asteista muutosta avoimempaan suuntaan.

Menestyksekkäät yliopistopelin pelaajat? Tutkimus nopeasti ja nuorena valmistumisesta

Succestul players of the university game? A study about the short duration of master’s degree studies and graduating at a young age The duration of studies has long been a topic of conversation. It was first mentioned in 1883, but the discussion has been quite active and topical for the last fifty years. During that time, there have been numerous committees, working groups for the Ministry of Education, and revisions to the structure of the master’s degree program. All of these have focused on lowering the duration of studies as well as the age at which students graduate. These two factors have been regarded as indicators of efficiency. Achieving these goals is seen to promote the successful transition from studies to work. In addition, the greater time that people spend working is thought to help with the fiscal burden of an aging population. The reasons for prolonged study seem to be: students working during the course of their studies; the actual workload of the studies, which sometimes does not correlate with the calculated workload; problems with the students’ course selections and with their financial support from the government; issues in teaching; and problems with university funding. This study focuses on students’ study experiences, their progress, and the university itself. Of particular interest was the students’ use of different resources—cultural, social, and economical capital. Participants in the study had graduated from the University of Turku between the years of 1999 and 2001 and were divided into two groups: prompt graduates, those who graduated among the fastest 18th percent in their faculty; and those who graduated at a slower pace. A survey (N=499) and interviews (N=69) were among the methods used, along with a compilation of statistics on the students’ duration of studies, the number of modules studied, and marks obtained. Bourdieu’s theory about fields and the games people play in those fields formed the theoretical background of this study. The university was seen to form a playing field with historically and politically changeable rules. The students playing in this field were considered to possess different economical, social, and cultural resources, which they use more or less successfully. Some of the strategies used by students result in gra¬duating at a young age and/or a short duration of study; some do not. This study divided the age of graduation and the duration of study into separate games. This allowed the study to determine the relationship between these two factors and to examine their similarities and differences. The study also focused on the idea of success. Short duration of studies and a young graduation age can be considered, be some, an indication of success in navigating the university field. This study aimed to see if this concept held true or whether these seeming indicators of success have negative side effects. The main result of this study is that, even though the games of duration and age have similarities, they are sufficiently diverse to be considered separate games, which need different resources. To graduate with a short duration of studies, it is important for a student to successfully view and navigate the university field, tailoring one’s studies and extracurricular activities to suit the individual. In the game of youth, the background of the student seemed to be of greater importance. The youngest graduates had spent more time with their parents, who also had higher educational qualifications. They also had higher achievement in their previous studies. This seems to indicate that their background allowed them to assimilate a better understanding of the school and university fields and that playing the university game was natural for them. As for the aspect of success, it seems that there are many ways to define the term. Youth on graduation and short duration of studies can be seen as two indicators of success. Both revealed negative and positive outcomes, even though short duration of studies seemed more often to be connected with positive outcomes. However, it seems that the best indicator for success is the way in which students organize study into their lives to support and suit their needs and abilities to realize a meaningful life and a successful entry into the field of work.

Workplace Social Capital and Employee Health

Työyhteisön sosiaalinen pääoma ja työntekijöiden terveys Monien tutkimusten mukaan sosiaalinen pääoma vaikuttaa terveyteen. Vaikka työssä käyvä väestönosa on merkittävän osan valveillaoloajastaan työyhteisössä, siellä kertyvää sosiaalista pääomaa on toistaiseksi tutkittu vähän. Tässä tutkimuksessa selvitettiin työyhteisön sosiaalisen pääoman ja kuntatyöntekijöiden terveyden välistä yhteyttä pitkittäisasetelmassa hyödyntäen Kuntasektorin henkilöstön seurantatutkimuksen aineistoa vuosilta 2000–2005. Yhteensä 48592 kuntatyöntekijää vastasi kyselyyn vuosina 2000–02 (vastausprosentti 68 %). Heistä 35914 (77 %) osallistui myös seurantatutkimukseen vuosina 2004–05. Tutkimuksessa kehitettiin kyselyyn perustuva työyhteisön sosiaalisen pääoman mittausmenetelmä. Työntekijän omaan arvioon perustuvan sosiaalisen pääoman lisäksi mitattiin työyhteisön sosiaalista pääomaa käyttämällä samassa työyhteisössä työskentelevien muiden työntekijöiden keskimääräistä arviota sosiaalisesta pääomasta. Terveyttä mitattiin kysymyksellä koetusta terveydestä. Masennusta arvioitiin sekä kysymällä lääkärin toteamasta masennuksesta että masennuslääkeostoilla Kelan lääkerekistereistä. Analyyseihin otettiin mukaan vain ne kuntatyöntekijät, jotka olivat lähtötilanteissa terveitä eli kokivat terveytensä hyväksi tai heillä ei ollut aiempaa diagnosoitua tai lääkehoitoa vaatinutta masennusta. Tulosten analysointiin käytettiin monitasomallinnusta. Tulokset vakioitiin sosiodemografisten tekijöiden ja terveyskäyttäytymisen suhteen. Neljän vuoden seurannassa sekä jatkuvasti vähäinen että vähenevä yksilön sosiaalinen pääoma työssä lisäsi riskiä koetun terveyden heikkenemiseen niillä kuntatyöntekijöillä, jotka eivät vaihtaneet työpaikkaa seurannan aikana ja jotka seurannan alussa kokivat terveytensä hyväksi. Tulos ei selittynyt sosiodemografisilla tekijöillä tai terveyskäyttäytymisen eroilla. Tuloksen merkittävyyttä tuki havainto, että myös työtoverien arvioon perustuva sosiaalinen pääoma ennusti oman terveyden huononemista seuranta-aikana. Niillä työntekijöillä, jotka työskentelivät sellaisissa työyhteisöissä, joissa koko seurannan ajan oli vähiten sosiaalista pääomaa, oli lähes 1.3 -kertainen riski terveyden heikentymiseen. Vähäinen omaan arvioon perustuva sosiaalinen pääoma työssä ennusti myös masennuksen ilmaantuvuutta lähtötilanteessa ei-masentuneilla lähes neljän vuoden seurannassa. Matalaan sosiaaliseen pääomaan liittyi 20–50 % suurempi todennäköisyys sairastua masennukseen seurannan aikana niin itseraportoidun lääkärin totea-man masennuksen kuin masennuslääkeostojen perusteella. Tätä tulosta ei kuitenkaan pystytty toistamaan käyttämällä oman arvion sijasta työtoverien arviota työyhteisön sosiaalisesta pääomasta. Tutkimusta sosiaalisen pääoman vaikutusta masennuksen ilmaantumiseen jatkettiin selvittämällä miten sosiaalisen pääoman eri ulottuvuudet vaikuttivat masennuksen ilmaantumiseen. Tulosten mukaan sosiaalisen pääoman vertikaalinen komponentti (työntekijöiden ja esimiesten välinen luottamus, vastavuoroisuus ja jaetut arvot ja normit, jotka edesauttavat yhteistyötä) sekä horisontaalinen komponentti (työntekijöiden välisissä suhteissa yhteistyöstä, luottamuksesta ja vastavuoroisuudesta syntyvä sosiaalinen pääoma) vaikuttivat itsenäisesti masennusriskiin. Tutkimuksen perusteella korkea työyhteisön sosiaalinen pääoma saattaa vaikuttaa edullisesti työntekijöiden terveyteen. Jos näin on, olisi tärkeää edistää työyhteisöjen sosiaalista pääomaa ja kannustaa sellaiseen toimintaan, joka lisää suvaitsevaisuutta, luottamusta ja vastavuoroisuutta sekä työntekijöiden kesken että työntekijöiden ja esimiesten välillä.

Designing features for supporting social interactions in online communities

This Master's thesis studies the development of interaction and socialization in online communities. A large number of online communities fade away even before they really get started. In many occasions the reason is that the community does not give anything new, or even if they do, the delivery does not satisfy the users. In this thesis guidelines were developed to help to see important things, which might be forgotten when developing an online community. The thesis goes through the characteristic of an online community and human behaviour related to them and also compares behaviour in the Internet and real life. In addition, usability is an important part of the online communities and thus it is also covered in this thesis. As a result of this thesis an 8-step guideline was developed to ease the design of an online community. Guidelines were also applied to two real life cases which are described as one part of this work.

Saako historiasta selvää? Monikulttuuriset yläkoululaiset historian lähteillä historian taidot motiivien, seurauksien, historian tulkintojen ja lähteiden luotettavuuden arvioinneissa

The research assesses the skills of upper comprehensive school pupils in history. The focus is on locating personal motives, assessing wider reasons hidden in historical sources and evaluating source reliability. The research also questions how a wide use of multiple sources affects pupils’ holistic understanding of historical phenomena. The participants were a multicultural group of pupils. The origins of their cultures can be traced to the Balkan, the Middle East, Asia and Europe. The number of native Finnish speakers and pupils speaking Finnish as their second language was almost equal. The multicultural composition provides opportunities to assess how culturally responsive learning history from sources is. The intercultural approach to learning in a multicultural setting emphasizes equality as a precondition for learning. In order to set assignments at least to some extent match with all participants only those answers were taken into account which were produced by pupils who had studied history for a similar period of time in the Finnish comprehensive school system. Due to the small number of participants (41), the study avoids wide generalizations. Nevertheless, possible cultural blueprints in pupils’ way of thinking are noted. The first test examined the skills of pupils to find motives for emigration. The results showed that for 7th graders finding reasons is not a problematic task. However, the number of reasons noticed and justifications varied. In addition, the way the pupils explained their choices was a distinguishing factor. Some pupils interpreted source material making use of previous knowledge on the issue, while other pupils based their analysis solely on the text handed and did not try to add their own knowledge. Answers were divided into three categories: historical, explanatory and stating. Historical answers combined smoothly previously learned historical knowledge to one’s own source analysis; explanatory answers often ignored a wider frame, although they were effective when explaining e.g. historical concepts. The stating answers only noticed motives from the sources and made no attempts to explain them historically. Was the first test culturally responsive? All pupils representing different cultures tackled the first source exam successfully, but there were some signs of how historical concepts are understood in a slightly different way if the pupil’s personal history has no linkage to the concepts under scrutiny. The second test focused on the history of Native Americans. The test first required pupils to recognize whether short source extracts (5) were written by Indians or Caucasians. Based on what they had already learned from North American history, the pupils did not find it hard to distinguish between the sources. The analysis of multiphase causes and consequences of the disputes between Native Americans and white Americans caused dispersion among pupils. Using two historical sources and combining historical knowledge from both of them simultaneously was cumbersome for many. The explanations of consequences can be divided into two groups: the ones emphasizing short term consequences and those placing emphasis on long term consequences. The short term approach was mainly followed by boys in every group. The girls mainly paid attention to long term consequences. The result suggests that historical knowledge in sources is at least to some extent read through role and gender lenses. The third test required pupils to explain in their own words how the three sources given differed in their account of living conditions in Nazi Germany, which turned out to be demanding for many pupils. The pupils’ stronghold was rather the assessment of source reliability and accounts why the sources approached the same events differently. All participants wrote critical and justified comments on reliability and aspects that might have affected the content of the sources. The pupils felt that the main reasons that affected source reliability were the authors’ ethnic background, nationality and profession. The assessment showed that pupils were well aware that position in a historical situation has an impact on historical accounts, but in certain cases the victim’s account was seen as a historical truth. The account of events by a historian was chosen most often as the most reliable source, but it was often justified leniently with an indication to professionalism rather than with clear ideas of how historians conduct accounts based on sources. In brief, the last source test demonstrates that pupils have a strong idea that the ethnicity or nationalism determines how people explained events of the past. It is also an implication that pupils understand how historical knowledge is interpretative. The results also imply that history can be analyzed from a neutral perspective. One’s own membership in an ethnical or religious group does not automatically mean that a person’s cultural identity excludes historical explanations if something in them contradicts with his or her identity. The second method of extracting knowledge of pupils’ historical thinking was an essay analysis. The analysis shows that an analytical account of complicated political issues, which often include a great number of complicated political concepts, leads more likely to an inconsistent structure in the written work of pupils. The material also demonstrates that pupils have a strong tendency to take a critical stance when assessing history. Historical empathy in particular is shown if history somehow has a linkage to young people, children or minorities. Some topics can also awake strong feelings, especially among pupils with emigrant background, if there is a linkage between one’s own personal history and that of the school; and occasionally a student’s historical experience or thoughts replaced school history. Using sources during history lessons at school seems to have many advantages. It enhances the reasoning skills of pupils and their skills to assess the nature of historical knowledge. Thus one of the main aims and a great benefit of source work is to encourage pupils to express their own ideas and opinions. To conclude, when assessing the skills of adolescents in history - their work with sources, comments on history, historical knowledge and finally their historical thinking - one should be cautious and avoid cut off score evaluations. One purpose of pursuing history with sources is to encourage pupils to think independently, which is a useful tool for further identity construction. The idea that pupils have the right to conduct their own interpretations of history can be partially understood as part of a wider learning process, justification to study history comes from extrinsic reasons. The intrinsic reason is history itself; in order to understand history one should have a basic understanding of history as a specific domain of knowledge. Using sources does not mean that knowing history is of secondary importance. Only a balance between knowing the contextual history, understanding basic key concepts and working with sources is a solid base to improve pupils’ historical understanding.

Evaluating Firm-Hosted Online Communities

This thesis centers to three firm-hosted online communities which operate in the field of software development. The communities were analyzed by using a particular design framework. This thesis investigates how companies can benefit from firm-hosted online communities and how well the design principles are present in analyzed communities. The framework also gives perspective and indicators which enables the possibility to analyze and compare communities with each other. This thesis also discuss how well a design framework designed for measuring social software fits to measuring online communities of software development.

Osallistava markkinointiviestintä sosiaalisessa mediassa

Sosiaalinen media on viime aikoina ollut paljon esillä eri medioissa. Tämä johtuu lähinnä siitä, että erilaiset sosiaaliset yhteisöpalvelut ovat kasvattaneet huimasti suosiotaan. Suuresta suosiosta kertoo esimerkiksi yhteisöpalvelu Facebookin käyttäjämäärän nopea kasvu. Vasta vuonna 2004 perustetulla yhteisöpalvelulla on jo yli 350 miljoonaa aktiivista käyttäjää ympäri maailmaa. Huolimatta eri palveluiden käyttäjämäärien kasvusta, suurin osa yrityksistä, varsinkaan suomalaisista, ei ole vielä löytänyt tietään kyseisiin palveluihin. Yritykset eivät siis ole vielä täysin ymmärtäneet sosiaalisen median potentiaalia viestintäkanavana, vaikka sosiaalisten palveluiden käyttäjämäärien kasvu, ja toisaalta sosiaalisen median vaikutus viestintään on jo ehditty tunnistaa. Tämä kandidaatintutkielma yrittää selvittää, kuinka yritykset voisivat hyödyntää sosiaalista mediaa markkinointiviestintäkanavana. Tutkielmassa keskitytään esittelemään osallistavaa markkinointiviestintää eli uudenlaista tapaa tehdä markkinointiviestintää kuluttajille, sekä sosiaalista mediaa, uudenlaista viestintäkanavaa, jossa kuluttajat ovat läsnä. Näitä kahta uutta viestintään liittyvää käsitettä lähdetään avaamaa esimerkiksi vastaten kysymyksiin: mitä niillä tarkoitetaan, mitä ne sisältävät ja miten ne vaikuttavat yrityksien ja kuluttajien väliseen vuorovaikutukseen?

Conversioni al cattolicesimo a Roma tra Sei e Settecento. La presenza degli scandinavi nell’Ospizio dei Convertendi.

In my PhD dissertation, I have examined a group of people of Scandinavian origin received by Ospizio dei Convertendi. This group has been hitherto largely unknown to historical research. The Ospizio was an institute founded by the Oratorian Congregation in Rome in 1673 to provide religious instruction and material aid to both recent and aspirant converts to Roman Catholicism. My research traces the profile of converts and a typology of motives, examining different factors which influenced the conversion process. I show that the key factors were often of a social rather than a religious nature. Moreover, I have analyzed the hospice in the context of Counter-Reformation charity as well. In terms of numbers, the Scandinavians formed a somewhat marginal yet not insignificant group within the Roman hospice. Out of a total of 2203 guests received between 1673 and 1706, 4.6 % were Scandinavians: 74 Swedes (including Finland and Livonia) and 27 Danes (including Norway). They came from a rigorously Protestant region which reacted to Catholicism with severe legislative measures. Converts to Catholicism risked confiscation of their goods, expulsion or even capital punishment. Since both Sweden and Denmark were practically impenetrable to Catholicism at the time and clandestine missionary attempts often failed before they had even properly started, the Roman Catholic Church shifted its interest towards Northerners arriving in Rome, a preferred destination for young noblemen, artists and migrant craftsmen. The material related to Ospizio dei Convertendi, conserved in the Vatican archives, is a scarcely known yet unusually rich source, not only for the religious history of our continent, but also for social history and the study of migration in early modern Europe. It contains a wealth of information about members of the subordinate classes, of their travels and lives in Europe. The profile delineated in these documents is of individuals who had a wide range of different professions and different aspirations. These documents encompass a vast social spectrum that was highly mobile on a continent which by that time had become pluriconfessional. Therefore, these migrants faced the complex religious reality in their everyday life. The principal corpus of my research consists of two types of manuscript sources created for administrative and in a way also for apologetic purposes of the Roman Catholic Church. My starting point is the Primo registro generale of Ospizio dei Convertendi. This is a volume in which the following information about each guest was registered: name, nationality, city of origin, age, sex, profession, confession professed before converting, date of arrival, departure, abjuration and baptism. Typically, the convert was male, originating from Stockholm or Copenhagen, from 21 to 30 years of age. The biggest occupational groups in descending order were soldiers, noblemen, craftsmen and sailors. Thus the data reflects a multiform reality of interurban and long distance migration, ideals regarding the education of young noblemen and gentry as well as the need of European armies to hire foreign mercenaries in their various campaigns. Against this background the almost total absence of women is hardly surprising: there is only one woman in the material I have studied. The second main source, Nota degl’ospiti ricevuti e spese fatte per essi, sheds more light on the choices of the converts, their motivations and their lives outside Scandinavia before reaching Rome. This narrative material permits an analysis which completes but also goes far beyond the columns of the Institute’s general register. This material consists of reports written by Catholic priests based on an interview conducted upon each guest’s arrival. The material frequently includes information on what the converts would do following their departure from the Institute as well. These sources have a specific narrative form and contain short biographies, list reasons for converting and information about the journey from the North to the Mediterranean - a journey which in many cases took several years. Moreover, they show that certain unorthodox practices such as calling on the saints and pleading for help from them were not uncommon in the Protestant popular religion. The recording of information on conversions from Protestantism to Catholicism reflects both religious and social interest on the part of the receiving institute. The information obtained was used for the purposes of religious teaching, for finding adequate ways of inserting the convert into Italian society so that he could earn a living, and to find effective methods to convert others with a similar cultural and geographical background. The stories recorded were based on interviews with the newly-arrived, information obtained from a travel companion or fellow countrymen, or from written documents the aspirant converts carried with them. These sources illustrate, although sometimes in rather simplified ways, the circumstances and motivations which were relevant to the choice of changing one’s confession. In addition, I have examined petitions addressed to the hospice and other Roman authorities in order to get financial aid. These petitions were written by Italian scrittori, and they contain certain conventions and topoi of presenting the conversion with the purpose of improving the chances of obtaining financial aid. It is through these filters, which may seem initially almost invisible, that the remote voice of the converts reaches us. The results of the analysis are particularly interesting because they disagree with some of the principal conclusions of previous work on the subject. First, earlier research has focused almost exclusively on the conversions of noblemen, and has argued, second, that the Queen Christina of Sweden was the driving force behind their change of confession. The sources examined for this dissertation present a profile of long-distance migrants, many of them members of the subordinate classes, who were looking for ways to make their living in Europe. These people had in many cases left their country of origin several years earlier and not for religious reasons, so, crucially, we are not dealing with confessional migration in these cases. Rather, conversion was a complex process, intricately tied up with strategies of survival, integration and upward social mobility. At the same time, while these components are significant on their own right, they do not necessarily point to the absence of motivations of a more clearly religious nature.

Verenpaineen mittaamisen opettaminen sairaanhoitaja- ja terveydenhoitajaopiskelijoille

Teaching the measurement of blood pressure for both nursing and public health nursing students The purpose of this two-phase study was to develop the teaching of blood pressure measurement within the nursing degree programmes of the Universities of Applied Sciences. The first survey phase described what and how blood pressure measurement was taught within nursing degree programmes. The second intervention phase (2004-2005) evaluated first academic year nursing and public health nursing students’ knowledge and skills results for blood pressure measurement. Additionally, the effect on the Taitoviikko experimental group students’ blood pressure measurement knowledge and skills level. A further objective was to construct models for an instrument (RRmittTest) to evaluate nursing students measurement of blood pressure (2003-2009). The research data for the survey phase were collected from teachers (total sampling, N=107, response rate 77%) using a specially developed RRmittopetus-questionnaire. Quasi-experimental study data on the RRmittTest-instrument was collected from students (purposive sampling, experimental group, n=29, control group, n=44). The RRmittTest consisted of a test of knowledge (Tietotesti) and simulation-based test (TaitoSimkäsi and Taitovideo) of skills. Measurements were made immediately after the teaching and in clinical practice. Statistical methods were used to analyse the results and responses to open-ended questions were organised and classified. Due to the small amount of materials involved and the results of distribution tests of the variables, non-parametric analytic methods were mainly used. Experimental group and control group similar knowledge and skills teaching was based on the results of the national survey phase (RRmittopetus) questionnaire results. Experimental group teaching includes the supervised Taitoviikko teaching method. During Taitoviikko students studied blood pressure measurement at the municipal hospital in a real nursing environment, guided by a teacher and a clinical nursing professional. In order to evaluate both learning and teaching the processes and components of blood pressure measurement were clearly defined as follows: the reliability of measurement instruments, activities preceding blood pressure measurement, technical execution of the measurement, recording, lifestyle guidance and measurement at home (self-monitoring). According to the survey study, blood pressure measurement is most often taught at Universities of Applied Sciences, separately, as knowledge (teaching of theory, 2 hours) and skills (classroom practice, 4 hours). The teaching was implemented largely in a classroom and was based mainly on a textbook. In the intervention phase the students had good knowledge of blood pressure measurement. However, their blood pressure measurement skills were deficient and the control group students, in particular, were highly deficient. Following in clinical practice the experimental group and control group students’ blood pressure measurement recording knowledge improve and experimental groups declined lifestyle guidance. Skills did not improve within any of the components analysed. The control groups` skills on the whole, declined statistically.There was a significant decline amongst the experimental group although only in one component measured. The results describe the learning results for first academic year students and no parallel conclusions should be drawn when considering any learning results for graduating students. The results support the use and further development of the Taitoviiko teaching method. The RRmittTest developed for the study should be assessed and the results seen from a negative perspective. This evaluation tool needs to be developed and retested.