<p><strong>Bakgrund: </strong>Den största delen av den vuxna befolkningen befinner sig i arbetslivet och därför är arbetsplatsen en viktig arena i arbetet med att förbättra folkets hälsa. I verksamheters systematiska arbetsmiljöarbete finns verktyget medarbetarsamtal som syftar till att öka förståelsen för organisationens uppgift samt att ge medarbetaren ett större handlingsutrymme. <strong>Syfte: </strong>Att studera chefers och medarbetares upplevelser av hur arbetsmiljö och livsstilsfrågor diskuteras och behandlas i medarbetarsamtalet. <strong>Metod: </strong>Fyra fokusgrupper genomfördes med chefer och medarbetare från proAros olika verksamheter. <strong>Resultat: </strong>Mål, strategier, utveckling samt en enad riktning av verksamheten diskuterades som viktiga delar i medarbetarsamtalet. Tydligt ledarskap, stöd och uppmuntran, delaktighet, det egna ansvaret samt hur mål och krav är anpassade för den rådande situationen var faktorer som upplevdes påverka medarbetarsamtalet. Gällande arbetsmiljö diskuterades främst hur trivseln i arbetslaget var och hur samarbetet fungerade. Gällande livsstilsfrågor diskuterades friskvård, det egna ansvaret för sin hälsa samt balansen mellan arbetsliv och privatliv. <strong>Slutsats: </strong>Den fysiska arbetsmiljön är fortfarande av betydelse för de anställdas hälsa då proAros verksamheter till större delen består av människobehandlande yrken med påfrestande arbetsbelastningar. Frågan om att hitta balans är viktig för den arbetsrelaterade hälsan och bör därför göras mer medveten. Det promotiva hälsoarbetet bör därför integreras även i medarbetarsamtal.</p> / <p><strong>Background: </strong>The majority of the adult population is present in working life and the workplace is therefore an important setting in the efforts to improve public health. In the organizations’ day-to-day work to improve the work environment it is possible to use performance appraisal that aims to increase the understanding for the organization’s commissions and to increase the employees’ participation. <strong>Aim: </strong>To study directors and coworkers experiences about how work environment and lifestyle are discussed and managed during performance appraisal. <strong>Method: </strong>Four focus groups where performed with directors and co-workers from different units at proAros. <strong>Result: </strong>Objectives, strategies, development, and a united direction in the organization were discussed as important for performance appraisals. Leadership, support and encouragement, participation, the own responsibility and how objectives, demands are adjusted to the existing situation were factors that were experienced to influence performance appraisal. Concerning the work environment was the comfort in the team and how the cooperation worked the foremost subjects that were discussed. Concerning lifestyle were the organisation’s health work, the responsibility for your own health and the balance between working life and leisure time discussed. <strong>Conclusion: </strong>The physical work environment is still important for the employees’ health as the units of proAros to a great extent consist of human services with a high workload. The question of how to find a balance is important for the work related health and therefore should the awareness of it be enlarged. The health promoting work should therefore also be integrated in performance appraisals.</p>

Bakgrund: Den största delen av den vuxna befolkningen befinner sig i arbetslivet och därför är arbetsplatsen en viktig arena i arbetet med att förbättra folkets hälsa. I verksamheters systematiska arbetsmiljöarbete finns verktyget medarbetarsamtal som syftar till att öka förståelsen för organisationens uppgift samt att ge medarbetaren ett större handlingsutrymme. Syfte: Att studera chefers och medarbetares upplevelser av hur arbetsmiljö och livsstilsfrågor diskuteras och behandlas i medarbetarsamtalet. Metod: Fyra fokusgrupper genomfördes med chefer och medarbetare från proAros olika verksamheter. Resultat: Mål, strategier, utveckling samt en enad riktning av verksamheten diskuterades som viktiga delar i medarbetarsamtalet. Tydligt ledarskap, stöd och uppmuntran, delaktighet, det egna ansvaret samt hur mål och krav är anpassade för den rådande situationen var faktorer som upplevdes påverka medarbetarsamtalet. Gällande arbetsmiljö diskuterades främst hur trivseln i arbetslaget var och hur samarbetet fungerade. Gällande livsstilsfrågor diskuterades friskvård, det egna ansvaret för sin hälsa samt balansen mellan arbetsliv och privatliv. Slutsats: Den fysiska arbetsmiljön är fortfarande av betydelse för de anställdas hälsa då proAros verksamheter till större delen består av människobehandlande yrken med påfrestande arbetsbelastningar. Frågan om att hitta balans är viktig för den arbetsrelaterade hälsan och bör därför göras mer medveten. Det promotiva hälsoarbetet bör därför integreras även i medarbetarsamtal. / Background: The majority of the adult population is present in working life and the workplace is therefore an important setting in the efforts to improve public health. In the organizations’ day-to-day work to improve the work environment it is possible to use performance appraisal that aims to increase the understanding for the organization’s commissions and to increase the employees’ participation. Aim: To study directors and coworkers experiences about how work environment and lifestyle are discussed and managed during performance appraisal. Method: Four focus groups where performed with directors and co-workers from different units at proAros. Result: Objectives, strategies, development, and a united direction in the organization were discussed as important for performance appraisals. Leadership, support and encouragement, participation, the own responsibility and how objectives, demands are adjusted to the existing situation were factors that were experienced to influence performance appraisal. Concerning the work environment was the comfort in the team and how the cooperation worked the foremost subjects that were discussed. Concerning lifestyle were the organisation’s health work, the responsibility for your own health and the balance between working life and leisure time discussed. Conclusion: The physical work environment is still important for the employees’ health as the units of proAros to a great extent consist of human services with a high workload. The question of how to find a balance is important for the work related health and therefore should the awareness of it be enlarged. The health promoting work should therefore also be integrated in performance appraisals.

Med genteknik är det möjligt att ändra gensammansättningen i våra livsmedel och applikationen har väckt stort intresse, inte minst bland allmänheten. Genmodifierade (GM) livsmedel har varit föremål för diskussion sedan 1970-talet. Syftet med denna uppsats är att studera olika uppfattningar och representationer om genmodifierade livsmedel. Enligt teorin om sociala representationer har representationer dubbla funktioner. Den ena är att konventionalisera objekt och den andra innebär att representationerna intar en förutbestämd form. För att analysera uppfattningar och representationer har jag använt mig av en tematisk innehållsanalys samt en analys av kommunikativa strategier av samtal i fyra fokusgrupper. Analysen av fokusgruppsdatan visar att diskussionerna cirkulerar kring tre teman: risker, möjligheter och mervärden med genmodifierade livsmedel. De risker som associeras med GM livsmedel diskuteras främst utifrån begreppsparet naturligt/antropogent och utgår ofta från ett grundläggande antagande om att naturen har ett positivt värde. De möjligheter som associeras med GM livsmedel diskuteras utifrån begreppsparet Nord/Syd och utgår ofta från antagandet att GM livsmedel först och främst gör nytta i utvecklingsländer. Antagandet om naturens positiva värde samt uppfattningen om GM livsmedlens frånvaro av fördelar för konsumenter i industrialiserade länder resulterar i att deltagarna inte ser några eller få konsumentfördelar med GM livsmedel. Representationerna kring GM livsmedel kan genom ett gemensamt meningsskapande ses både ha en konventionaliserande funktion där GM livsmedel förankras och förstås samt en preskriptiv funktion där representationerna leder till ett visst sätt att tänka.

The purpose of this study is to examine how young people with experience of running away and/or getting thrown out look upon and understand the phenomenon. Another purpose of thestudy is to examine how the youth evaluate the help and support they did or did not receive at the time of their experience, as well as to examine what the ultimate help and support would be according to them. The study was done in a qualitative approach with the use of focus groups and individual interviews. The results were analyzed through the perspective of the ‘sociology of childhood’. Results show, in accordance with earlier studies on the subject, that the youth run away or are thrown out from homes where constant conflicts as well as psychological, physical and sexual abuse are recurring factors. The youth expressed that social services do not listen to them and that their reports of abuse and neglect are not taken seriously. Results further show that the youth consider help finding a new home as well as emotional and economical support to be appropriate kinds of help in this situation. They stress that help and support efforts have to be individually adjusted.

Background Sweden has experienced a unique epidemic of celiac disease (CD) in children younger than 2 years of age. The epidemic was partly explained by changes over time in infant feeding and indicated a multifactorial aetiology. In CD, a strict lifelong gluten-free diet (GFD) is crucial for health but noncompliance is often reported among adolescents. Knowledge is limited regarding their own perspectives and experiences of managing the disease and adhering to GFD. Objectives To analyse the incidence of CD in epidemic and post epidemic birth cohorts, and explore and understand how adolescents with CD perceive and manage their everyday lives in relation to the GFD. Methods A population-based incidence register of CD in children covering the entire nation from 1998 to 2003, and part of the country back to 1973. ESPGHAN diagnostic criteria for CD and NUTS classification of regions were used. Incidence rates for each year of diagnosis, age group, gender and region, and cumulative incidence by age for each birth cohort were calculated. Ten focus groups were conducted with 47 CD adolescents aged 15-18 years. Transcribed interviews were analysed to illustrate and explain adolescents’ own perspectives concerning life with a GFD, and to search for recurrent stigma-related themes across the groups. Results A considerable gap in the cumulative incidence of CD at comparable ages was demonstrated between birth cohorts of the epidemic and post-epidemic periods. The gap persisted during pre-school years, although it decreased somewhat with age. During the final years of follow-up there was again a gradual increase in incidence rate among children younger than 2 years of age. The childhood populations in ‘West Sweden’ and ‘Småland and the islands’ had a significantly higher incidence rate compared to ‘North Middle Sweden’ and ‘Stockholm’. CD adolescents described an awareness of being different from others produced by meal appearance and the poor availability of gluten-free (GF) food. Eating in public had the effect of making an invisible condition visible and thereby creating a context for felt or enacted stigma. Maintaining invisibility avoided the negative consequences of stigma. The probability of compliance with the GFD was compromised by insufficient knowledge of significant others, problems with the availability and sensory acceptance of GF food, insufficient social support and their perceived dietary deviance. Three different approaches to the GFD emerged: compliers, occasional non-compliers, and non-compliers. Conclusions The difference in CD risk between birth cohorts at comparable ages may suggest an opportunity for primary prevention. Based on post-epidemic incidence trends, the Swedish epidemic might not have been as unique as previously thought, even though its magnitude was striking. The regional variation in CD risk supports multifactorial aetiology. Continued efforts are warranted to define factors besides gluten exposure that modulate CD risk. CD adolescents experience various dilemmas related to the GFD. It can produce stigma experiences in adolescence, and dietary compliance (or lack of) can be understood in terms of dealing with GFD concealment and disclosure. The increase in CD prevalence over time and unmet needs in young celiacs require resources to attain adequate levels of dietetic provision, regulated subsidies for covering additional costs for GF food, evidence-based practice, and increased general CD awareness for optimum clinical outcomes.

This thesis is about special needs educational competence of educators working in collaborating teams within child and youth habilitation centres. The pedagogy of the moment stands for the decisions made by educators, based on their observations made when meeting the child in its different environments. These decisions build on educational theoretical and practical knowledge and experience developed through collaboration within interprofessional teams. The study was carried out through the use of focus groups consisting of professionals within different child and youth habilitation centres. The data consists of taped and transcribed focus groups discussions. Participants provided additional information concerning, estimations of the focus group session, their education and use of special needs educational assignments through additional questionnaires. The analysis focuses on how the educators conceptualise their competence and the dialogue in the group conversation. To facilitate the interactional analysis, a constructional key for the conversation was developed. The educators within child and youth habilitation centers have not developed specific professional strategies, but instead, appear to have adapted a mission through structural means. Their competence appears contextually adapted and devel-oped within three spheres of activities. Their basic education is in the area of pre-school with theoretical focus on children’s normal development, pedagogical experience of working with groups of children, play and learning. On the basis of this background, together with experiences with toy library activities for children with disabilities, they have become one of the corner stone of child and youth habilitation centres of the 1980’s. In these centers, by tradition a mainly medical sphere of activity, they work in teams with family orientated habilitation, and have developed compe-tence for special needs educational intervention for children with disabilities. Special needs education is a supplementary field, which includes educators who are being trained for municipal operation. The educators use professional speech genres with colloquial language terminology, which is adjusted to its communicative context. The educators and their colleagues in the teams emphasize the importance of the educator bridging the medical, treatment and pedagogical contexts, together with a focus on child, parents and staff, at home and in preschool/school. A communicational genre has developed within the occupational group, where the educators reinforce rather than question each other when taking turns during interprofessional conversations. The competence of the educator is based on knowledge and experience when it comes to children, their development, play and learning. The thesis demonstrates that the main focus of the supplementary education increasingly lies on the pedagogical meeting with adults, mostly parents, around specific child. The practical pedagogical work for the child, playing as intervention as well as the specific special needs educational intervention is less conceptualised by the educators. They are requesting relevant research and theories to support their field of knowledge.

Protected heritage area management is challenged by conflicting priorities perpetuated by the real and perceived dichotomy between cultural and natural resource management, their practitioners, their disciplines, and their values. Current guidelines promote integrating cultural and natural resource management to ensure holistic management of all values within a protected heritage area. This paper uses the management of the Cave and Basin National Historic Site to illustrate challenges in protecting both historic and natural resources. A qualitative inductive study included analysis of interview and focus group data for the site and similar protected heritage areas. The gap between integrative policies and the tendency for uni-disciplinary approaches to the practice of managing protected heritage areas is investigated. Five barriers to integration, such as lack of awareness, and five methods for progress, including facilitated inclusion, are examined. The author proposes collaborative, sustainable, values-based practices for the successful integration of cultural and natural resource management.

There is abundant evidence verifying that patients benefit when nurses communicate better; therefore improving team dynamics will positively impact patient care and improve nurse engagement resulting in many positive outcomes for teams. This applied action research study assessed the research question: “What is the experience of team work and team dynamics among members of a multidisciplinary nursing team from a Licensed Practical Nurse perspective?” The experiences of licensed practical nurses (LPNs) and key external leaders (KELs) are explored and analyzed drawing from current literature in the field of teams in health, organizational culture in health, and transformative learning in health. Historical and leading communication, organizational culture, and leadership theories guide this study. During focus groups and interviews, the researcher and participants were influenced to generate new knowledge and insight on team dynamics, through appreciative inquiry. Manifest and latent content analysis identified key themes within each of the subtopic themes, generating a number of recommendations for future action. Through the identification of similar and unique perspectives between the literature and participants in this study, the action research goals of empowerment and emancipation of team members was dynamically met for research participants. Keywords: nursing; team dynamics; communication; collaboration; culture; leadership

This qualitative study includes a comparison of the perceptions of students with and without intellectual disabilities regarding the opportunities they have to make decisions during the school day and school year. The data from the student groups were shared with adults in the school who then explored their perspectives regarding reasons for any similarities or differences in the perceptions of the student groups. Within-case and cross-case analysis of the data obtained from the three student focus groups, one teacher focus group, one educational assistant focus group and an interview with an administrator resulted in the identification of three major themes: structure of the system, role of adults and safety. Various ways that each of these can facilitate or limit opportunities for students with and without intellectual disabilities to make decisions during the school day and school year are discussed

Poststructuralist and other critical analyses of sexuality, gender and identity are used to examine how New Zealand and Danish young adults drew on and challenged available discourses as they responded to representations of sexual interactions in the film Chasing Amy. The conversations about sexual practices in mixed gender, women only and men only focus groups illustrate the complex ways in which people construct their identities using subject positions available to them in different contexts as they responded to the movie, the talk of others and the researcher. The strengths and limitations of this approach to facilitating talk are examined as well as the conversations that occurred. The ways in which researchers in New Zealand and Denmark are themselves discursively positioned as theorists and investigators of gender and sexuality is also examined. The thesis illustrates how multiple connections and differences emerge across national and local environments. Talk about sexual negotiations among young adults recruited through university student networks suggests that assumptions about agency, sexual autonomy, reciprocity and women’s and men’s equal right to enjoy sex are still gendered while also challenging traditional understandings about men, women and sexual pleasure. This was, for example, highlighted in talk about receiving and giving oral sex in long-term heterosexual relationships and the ‘need’ for women to explore their bodies and become ‘capable (s)experts’ through masturbation. The thesis finally explores how gendered collective and individual identities sometimes intersect with social identities associated with ethnicity, religion, nationality and sexual identification. These intersections disrupt attempts in cross-national projects – including this thesis research – to form conclusions about national differences and other social identities.