Child health nurses' experiences of using the Safe Environment for Every Kid (SEEK) model or current standard practice in the Swedish child health services to address psychosocial risk factors in families with young children – A mixed-methods study

• Background: Child maltreatment (CM) is often hidden, and the youngest children are often thosemost exposed. CM can be prevented through programs that address risk factors, but few primaryprevention strategies have been evaluated.Objective: To examine the experiences of nurses using the Safe Environment for Every Kid (SEEK)model compared to nurses using current standard practice in the Swedish child health services(CHS) to address psychosocial risk factors in the family environment.Participants and setting: Nurses at 27 child health centers in the CHS in the county of Dalarna,Sweden participated in the study. A survey was answered by 55 nurses and 18 nurses participatedin focus-group interviews.Methods: A convergent mixed methods research design with focus-group interviews and surveydata was used. Qualitative Content Analysis was used to analyze the interview data and MannWhitney U test was used to analyze the survey data.Results: The qualitative analysis identified four categories – “Framing the prerequisites for suc-cessful practice”; “Managing the mission of the CHS”; “Meeting the family as a professional”; and“Working with psychosocial risk factors can be emotional” – under the overarching theme“Universal application of a structured method adds value to experience-based knowledge whenaddressing psychosocial risk factors”. Survey data showed that SEEK nurses rated to a greaterdegree that they possessed adequate knowledge, competence and sense of security to addresspsychosocial risk factors in their work.Conclusions: This study indicates that using SEEK can strengthen the nurses in identifying andresponding to families in need of psychosocial support.

Ämnesord

MEDICIN OCH HÄLSOVETENSKAP  -- Hälsovetenskap (hsv//swe)

MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES  -- Health Sciences (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Child health care Child maltreatment

Health promotion

Prevention

Psychosocial risk factors

Nursing

Social Work

Socialt arbete

Publikations- och innehållstyp

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