<p>”Intensive family therapy”</p><p>Journal study</p><p>Abstract</p><p>The Family board in Falun gives since a couple of years priority to intense familytheraphy work with families in need of help/support. Intensive family therapy (IFT) was developed during the 1970s with the purpose of helping families. The theoretical mainlines upon which the IFT – model is based is the, structural-, strategic- and systemic perspective. The purpose with this study is to examine if the IFT – models theoretical starting points are being used in the practical work with the families, in the chosen activity, and the result of the treatment. 14 interactive journals from families, which have finished their treatment, were analysed in our study.</p><p>From the journals of the family board, the summary made by the family therapist, literature, and scientific articles about family therapy we made a number of hypotheses, to which we with help from our line of questions elected the answers. We have analysed the results from mainly a qualitative approach, but we have also used a quantitative approach depending at the fact that we want to examine if the family board uses the IFT – model. How the families themselves consider how they have been helped and the unanimity considering the outcome of the results, was analysed out of this approach. In our point of view the quantitative part becomes a complement to the qualitative results. Our conclusions of the results compared to the purpose of the study reveals that the family board works according to some of the criterias of the “IFT” model, which is shown in the journals and clearly marked, and unanimity exists according to the view of a positive outcome between the families and the therapists.</p><p>Finally we would like to request further research and investigation within this subject, and hope that this study has awakened some interest for the model.</p> / <p>Sammanfattning</p><p>Familjeenheten i Falun bedriver en verksamhet med inriktning mot ett intensivt familjeterapeutiskt arbete med familjer som är i behov av stöd/hjälpinsatser. "Intensiv Familjeterapi" (IFT) utvecklades som behandlingsmodell under 1970- talet med syfte att hjälpa familjer. De teoretiska huvudinriktningar som "IFT" - modellen bygger på är: den strukturella, den strategiska och den systemiska riktningen. Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka om "IFT" modellens teoretiska utgångspunkter används i det praktiska arbetet med familjer, samt hur utfallet av behandlingen upplevs av inblandade aktörer. I studien har vi analyserat 14 stycken journaler från familjer som avslutat ett intensivt familjeterapeutiskt arbete. Utifrån familjeenhetens journaler, familjeterapeutens terapisammanfattning samt litteratur och vetenskapliga artiklar om familjeterapi skapades ett antal antaganden, som vi med hjälp av uppställd frågeställning valde att söka svar på. Resultatet har analyserats främst utifrån en kvalitativ, men även kvantitativ ansats då vi dels ville undersöka om akut- och familjeenheten använt "IFT", men även undersöka om familjer anser sig fått hjälp och hur samstämmighet kring utfallet i så fall såg ut. Vi menar att den kvantitativa delen blev ett komplement till det kvalitativa resultatet. Vår bedömning utifrån studiens syfte är att familjeenheten arbetar utifrån "IFT" modellens intentioner. I journalerna synliggörs dels vissa kriterier som; problembeskrivning, hierarkisk organisation, praktiska arbetsverktyg och samtal, hur man arbetar utifrån "IFT" modellen och att det råder samstämmighet, mellan familjen och familjebehandlaren, kring ett positivt utfall. Kriteriet reflekterande processer återfanns inte i journalerna. Vår förhoppning är att studien kan komma att ligga som grund för fortsätta utvärderingar eller nya undersökningar.</p>

”Intensive family therapy” Journal study Abstract The Family board in Falun gives since a couple of years priority to intense familytheraphy work with families in need of help/support. Intensive family therapy (IFT) was developed during the 1970s with the purpose of helping families. The theoretical mainlines upon which the IFT – model is based is the, structural-, strategic- and systemic perspective. The purpose with this study is to examine if the IFT – models theoretical starting points are being used in the practical work with the families, in the chosen activity, and the result of the treatment. 14 interactive journals from families, which have finished their treatment, were analysed in our study. From the journals of the family board, the summary made by the family therapist, literature, and scientific articles about family therapy we made a number of hypotheses, to which we with help from our line of questions elected the answers. We have analysed the results from mainly a qualitative approach, but we have also used a quantitative approach depending at the fact that we want to examine if the family board uses the IFT – model. How the families themselves consider how they have been helped and the unanimity considering the outcome of the results, was analysed out of this approach. In our point of view the quantitative part becomes a complement to the qualitative results. Our conclusions of the results compared to the purpose of the study reveals that the family board works according to some of the criterias of the “IFT” model, which is shown in the journals and clearly marked, and unanimity exists according to the view of a positive outcome between the families and the therapists. Finally we would like to request further research and investigation within this subject, and hope that this study has awakened some interest for the model. / Sammanfattning Familjeenheten i Falun bedriver en verksamhet med inriktning mot ett intensivt familjeterapeutiskt arbete med familjer som är i behov av stöd/hjälpinsatser. "Intensiv Familjeterapi" (IFT) utvecklades som behandlingsmodell under 1970- talet med syfte att hjälpa familjer. De teoretiska huvudinriktningar som "IFT" - modellen bygger på är: den strukturella, den strategiska och den systemiska riktningen. Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka om "IFT" modellens teoretiska utgångspunkter används i det praktiska arbetet med familjer, samt hur utfallet av behandlingen upplevs av inblandade aktörer. I studien har vi analyserat 14 stycken journaler från familjer som avslutat ett intensivt familjeterapeutiskt arbete. Utifrån familjeenhetens journaler, familjeterapeutens terapisammanfattning samt litteratur och vetenskapliga artiklar om familjeterapi skapades ett antal antaganden, som vi med hjälp av uppställd frågeställning valde att söka svar på. Resultatet har analyserats främst utifrån en kvalitativ, men även kvantitativ ansats då vi dels ville undersöka om akut- och familjeenheten använt "IFT", men även undersöka om familjer anser sig fått hjälp och hur samstämmighet kring utfallet i så fall såg ut. Vi menar att den kvantitativa delen blev ett komplement till det kvalitativa resultatet. Vår bedömning utifrån studiens syfte är att familjeenheten arbetar utifrån "IFT" modellens intentioner. I journalerna synliggörs dels vissa kriterier som; problembeskrivning, hierarkisk organisation, praktiska arbetsverktyg och samtal, hur man arbetar utifrån "IFT" modellen och att det råder samstämmighet, mellan familjen och familjebehandlaren, kring ett positivt utfall. Kriteriet reflekterande processer återfanns inte i journalerna. Vår förhoppning är att studien kan komma att ligga som grund för fortsätta utvärderingar eller nya undersökningar.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / Reading and understanding science text is the principal means by which students at tertiary level access scientific information and attain scientific literacy. However, understanding and learning from science texts require cognitive processing abilities which students mayor may not have. If students fail to understand scientific text, their acquisition of subject knowledge and expertise will be impeded and they will fail to develop into thinking and independent learners, so crucial for academic progress and achievement. A major assumption in this study is thus that in order to increase access to science subjects there is a need to explicitly teach the thinking abilities involved in learning science from text. A review of the literature showed that while reading to learn from scientific text poses special challenges to students faced with this unfamiliar genre, little is known about reading (and thinking) for science learning. A synthesis of current research which describes the neglected interface between science learning, science reading and cognition is given in the literature review of this study. This synthesis highlights, in particular, the parallel developments in research into science learning and reading; the lack of integration of research in these areas; the absence of investigations on science reading located within the cognitive domain; and the absence of research into reading as it affects cognition and cognition as it affects reading in subject-specific areas such as physiology Possibilities for improving students' cognitive performance in reading to learn through intervention were considered from a cognitive perspective. From this perspective, students' observable intellectual performance can be attributed to their underlying knowledge, behaviour, and thought processes. Accordingly, the mental processes involved in comprehending scientific concepts from text and the cognitive processes which the students bring to the learning situation become highly relevant to efforts to improve cognitive skills for learning science Key questions which were identified to serve as a basis for intervention included: a) What cognitive abilities are needed for competent reading comprehension as demanded by physiology text?; b) How adequate is the cognitive repertoire of students in dealing with physiology text? With regard to these questions a catalogue of cognitive functions as formulated by Feuerstein et al (1980) was identified as optimally suited for establishing the cognitive match between reading tasks and students. Micro-analyses of the cognitive demands of students' textbook material and the cognitive make-up of second-year university students revealed a profound mismatch between students and their learning material. Students lacked both comprehension fostering and comprehension monitoring abilities appropriate to the demands of the learning task. The explication of the cognitive requirements which physiology text demands served as a basis for systematically designing instruction whereby appropriate intellectual performance for scientific comprehension from text may be attained Subsequent intervention was based on the explicit teaching of thinking abilities within the context of domain-specific (physiology) knowledge. An instructional framework was developed that integrated cognitive learning theories and instructional prescriptions to achieve an effective learning environment and improve students' cognitive abilities to employ and extend their knowledge. The objective was that the instructional model and resultant instructional methods would ensure that students learn not only the desired kinds of knowledge by conceptual change, but also the thought processes embedded and required by reading scientific material for appropriate conceptual change to take place. Micro-analysis of the cognitive processes intrinsic to understanding physiology text illuminated cognitive demands such as, for example, the ability to: transform linearly presented material into structural patterns which illuminate physiological relationships; analyse conceptually dense text rich in "paradoxical jargon"; activate and retrieve extensive amounts of topic-specific and subject-specific prior knowledge; to visualise events; and contextualise concepts by establishing an application for it. Within the above instructional setting, the study shows that the notion of explicitly teaching the cognitive processes intrinsic to physiology text is possible. By translating the cognitive processes into cognitive strategies such as assessing the situation, planning, processing, organisation, elaboration, monitoring and reflective responses, the heuristic approach effectively served to guide students through various phases of learning from text. Systematic and deliberate methods of thought that would enhance students problem-solving and thinking abilities were taught. One very successful strategy for learning from physiology text was the ability to reorganise the linearly presented information into a different text structure by means of the construction of graphic organisers. The latter allowed students to read systematically, establish relationships between concepts, identify important ideas, summarise passages, readily retrieve information from memory, go beyond the given textual information and very effectively monitor and evaluate their understanding In addition to teaching appropriate cognitive strategies as demanded by physiology text, this programme also facilitated an awareness of expository text conventions, the nature of physiological understanding, the value of active strategic involvement in constructing knowledge and the value of metacognitive awareness. Also, since the intervention was executed within the context of physiology content, the acquisition of content-specific information took place quite readily. This overcame the problem of transfer, so often experienced with "content-free" programmes. In conclusion, this study makes specific recommendations to improve science education. Inparticular, the notion of teaching the appropriate cognitive behaviour and thought processes as demanded by academic tasks such as reading to learn physiology seems to be a particularly fruitful area into which science educational research should develop and be encouraged.

This licentiate thesis aims to understand how infection preventionists (IPs) continuously find problems and implement solutions related to health care-associated infections (HAIs) in hospital settings. HAIs are infections acquired by patients during the process of care and are among the main causes of deaths worldwide. Recently, practices for HAIs prevention and control have challenged IPs due to pandemics (e.g. COVID-19), antimicrobial resistance, population aging and limited resources in health care facilities. Such challenges demand actions to find, solve problems and implement solutions. However, IPs often fail to address these problems. The reasons stem from their inability to timely identify valuable problems and implement new solutions. Although the literature on infection prevention and control is well developed, previous studies have largely investigated how IPs implement preconceived practices to solve given problems as a single event, rather than on how to continuously find problems and implement solutions.  This licentiate thesis comprises two empirical papers. Paper I investigates how infection prevention and control teams find problems with HAIs, and is based on a multiple case study of three infection prevention and control teams from one Swedish and two Brazilian hospitals. Paper II investigates how IPs continuously implement changes in infection prevention and control practices during pandemics, and is based on a qualitative descriptive study. The data in both papers were collected from 44 semi-structured interviews with health care professionals enrolled as IPs in Brazilian and Swedish hospitals. The key theories and literatures covered include Problem-Finding and Problem-Solving Perspective and Implementation research. This licentiate thesis contains three main contributions. First, it advances the Problem-Finding and Problem-Solving Perspective literature by providing empirical evidence on how to create valuable knowledge from ill-structured and complex problems. Second, this licentiate thesis suggests a distinction between HAI prevention and HAI control based on two modes of decision-making for finding valuable problems with HAIs. Third, the licentiate thesis describes and categorizes sets of practices that allow to continuously implement changes of infection prevention and control practices during pandemics.