BIH, The Baltic International School of Public Health

Abstract

In several county councils in Sweden, the district nurses have the responsibility for the primary child health care. The district nurses reach almost all families and meet them several times from the child's birth until age of six. A great deal of their work is to counsel how to promote, and maintain health or how to change into a more healthy living. This demands professional health counsellors with knowledge, skills, and methods for health counselling. The research is divided in two parts. Part 1. Descriptive studies of the health counselling process by three perspectives, goals and policies, actors (the district nurses), and an educational perspective. Data was collected with document studies, a survey and focus groups. Health counselling should be a process that strengthens parenthood, increases empowerment and awareness of health and society, but this is difficult to reach on account of several frame factors, e.g. organisation, competence, time, which influence on the practical health counselling work. The health counselling does not appear as an educational process, but in the educational perspective this is obvious. The health counselling in the dialogue with the parents could not be seen as separate acts, they are parts in a process and in a context, where many factors interact. Part 2. Participatory action research with the purpose to develop health counselling for parents and children in primary child health care. The intervention project is planned to go on for two years in a primary health care area with district nurses as participants. Working in a research process and in the stages of the health promotion process, the district nurses develop skills and methods for health counselling and organisational applicable health counselling models. The researcher's function in this participatory research will be both the counsellor's and supervisor's, and the researcher's, following and scientifically describing the process, and to analyse models and generate theories from increased experiences and knowledge in health counselling.

Keywords

Health promotion, Health education, Counselling, Child health care,
District nurses, Participatory action research

Institution

BIH, The Baltic International School of Public Health

Postaddress

BIH

Postcode

SE-371 85

City

Karlskrona

Country

Sweden

Contact

Ewy Olander

E-mail

ewy.olander@ltblekinge.se

Phone

+ 46 455 89410

Fax

+ 46 455 89211