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- Hertting, Anna, et al.
(författare)
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Assistant nurses in the Swedish healthcare sector during the 1990s: a hard-hit occupational group with a tough job.
- 2005
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Ingår i: Scandinavian journal of public health. - : SAGE Publications. - 1403-4948 .- 1651-1905. ; 33:2, s. 107-13
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- AIMS: The aim of the study was to explore hospital-based assistant nurses' experiences of psychosocial "stressors", following a period of substantial layoffs (43%) and ongoing healthcare reorganizations. METHODS: An interview study was carried out with 11 assistant nurses working in the same hospital. The interviews took place in 1997, in connection with the last round of redundancies, and were followed up in 1998 and then in 2001. Interviews were audiotaped and transcribed; the content was then analysed. RESULTS: Two main themes were identified from the women's perceived stressors: (a) a hard-hit occupational group experiencing "energy-consuming adjustments", and a "weak position" at the continuing workplace. Job insecurity meant fear of losing valued work tasks in nursing care (de-skilling). The common feature was the duality in the women's descriptions of feeling qualified in nursing care but being treated like a maid, or having intimate practical knowledge but no formal competence; (b) a tougher but underpaid job including "heavy workload" concurrent with "organizational shortcomings", and "frozen salary trends" with a simultaneous feeling of lacking the power to improve their situation. CONCLUSIONS: Our results underscore the importance of the employer's attention to the remaining workers in connection with downsizing, particularly when the reduction of the workforce has been as dramatic as in this case. It is also important to understand the ongoing dilemma (strain) for the assistant nurses, who are faced with increasing demands for further formal qualifications in hospital care, while maintaining a strong occupational desire to keep their highly valued job working close to the patient.
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| 2. |
- Hertting, Anna, 1947, et al.
(författare)
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Downsizing and reorganization: demands, challenges and ambiguity for registered nurses
- 2004
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Ingår i: Journal of Advanced Nursing. - 1365-2648. ; 45:2, s. 145-54
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- BACKGROUND: The 1990s were characterized by substantial financial cuts, and related staff redundancies and reorganizations in the Swedish health care sector. A large hospital in Sweden was selected for the study, in which downsizing had occurred between 1995 and 1997. The number of staff in the hospital was reduced by an average of 20%, and 10% were relocated to other departments. OBJECTIVE: The aims of this study were to explore registered nurses' experiences of psychosocial 'stressors' and 'motivators', and how they handled their work situations, following a period of personnel reductions and ongoing reorganization. METHOD: Interviews were undertaken with 14 nurses working in one Swedish hospital. Nurses were interviewed in 1997 about the recent and last round of redundancies, and were followed up 1 year later in 1998 and again in 2001. Interviews were audiotaped, transcribed and analysed for thematic content. RESULTS: Five themes emerged in relation to nurses' perceived stressors, motivators, and coping options: 'distrust towards the employer', 'concurrent demands and challenges', 'professional ambiguity, 'a wish for collaboration', and 'efforts to gain control'. A common feature was duality and ambiguity in nurses' descriptions of the phenomena studied, meaning that identified themes had underlying sub-themes with both negative and positive dimensions. CONCLUSIONS: The concurrence of 'ever-growing job demands' and 'work going unrewarded' contributed to a feeling of being taken advantage of by the employer. The 'waste of human resources' and 'competence drain' that followed redundancies provoked anger. Unfulfilled collaboration with doctors was a major stress producer, which related to both the downsized work organization, and the complex 'deference-dominance' doctor-nurse relationship. The well-being of nurses depends on being an equal/parallel health professional in a comprehensive team that shares knowledge and improves collaborative care of patients. A consciously formulated nursing philosophy emerged as a health-promoting resource. This study demonstrates the importance of analysing feelings relating to professional ambiguity and gaining influence in a gender-related, hierarchical environment, and the need to support professional assertiveness in relation to superiors and doctors. It is also important to stress considerations that relate to differences in the age, care philosophy, and psychosocial health conditions of nurses. PMID: 14705999 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
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| 3. |
- Hertting, Anna, 1947, et al.
(författare)
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Personnel reductions and structural changes in health care: work-life experiences of medical secretaries
- 2003
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Ingår i: Journal Psychosomatic Research. - : Elsevier BV. - 0022-3999. ; 54:2, s. 161-70
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- OBJECTIVE: To explore the experiential aspects of 'psychosocial stressors and motivators' for medical secretaries, following a period of personnel reductions and structural changes in Swedish health care. The focus was to understand and describe work-life experiences for this specific group of women and how they managed in what can be presumed to be a more demanding work situation. METHOD: A descriptive qualitative study with repeated in-depth interviews of six medical secretaries (mean age: 45 years) in a large hospital in Sweden. The first interview took place in the autumn of 1997 (in connection with the last round of the 20% staff redundancies), 1998 and 2000. Thematic content analysis from audiotaped and transcribed interviews was used to obtain understanding. RESULTS: The study provided three main themes from the women's perceived stressors, motivators and coping options. The descriptions of their stressors provided the metaphor, 'energy thieves' with three underlying subthemes: 'too much work,' 'lack of recognition' and 'the dilemma of health, family and finances.' Experienced motivators, labeled as 'energy givers' had two subthemes: 'professional pride' and 'the comprehensive whole.' The women's descriptions about managing increasing demands were thematized as altering between 'being submissive and taking actions' with three subthemes: 'unequal communication,' 'resigned and passive reactions' versus 'cautious and solution-oriented coping.' Expressions concerned mainly 'energy thieves,' inclusively worries about 'lacking energy' (intrinsic stressor), combined with passive and cautious coping behavior. However, the descriptions became somewhat more varied and balanced with enriching and solution oriented factors in the follow-up interviews. CONCLUSIONS: There is an evident contrast between a demanding reality of work, described by medical secretaries in this study, and their expressed desire to have a more reasonable work environment that allowed them to be able to complete their work. They also wanted to be heard regarding their requests about work options and decent salaries. This study demonstrates the importance of making feelings of inferiority and injustice visible as well as to support professional pride and more assertive coping behavior. This is also valid for the need to enhance equal/congruent communication between interdependent workers. The study has implications for managers and health workers supporting and empowering women, providing administrative service in a clinical health care context. The subthemes being identified within the metaphor 'energy thieves,' in relation to resigned/passive reactions and cautious coping styles, could be used in stress prevention, while the understanding of 'energy givers' and the support of active and solution-oriented coping conducts could be used in health promotion work. Copyright 2003 Elsevier Science Inc. PMID: 12573738 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
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| 4. |
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| 5. |
- Hertting, Anna
(författare)
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The health care sector : a challenging or draining work environment : psychosocial work experiences and health among hospital employees during the Swedish 1990s
- 2003
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Health care personnel in a large Swedish hospital were followed over a period characterised by downsizing and related restructuring. The access to a research field, and research database between 1994 and 2001 provided an unusual opportunity to study longitudinally the consequences of structural instability in the work environment, as well as personnel health. The findings from this research project indicate the significance of the combination of methods for assessment of major organisational changes in working life. The aim of the first study (on biological stress markers) was to assess whether there were physiological changes associated with the downsizing process. The participants, consisting of 31 women (medical secretaries, registered nurses and assistant nurses), had blood sampled in the morning and in the afternoon during a working day in 1997, in conjunction with the two-year layoff period, and were followed up one year later in 1998. This study indicated that protective and anabolic functions had suffered among the studied women. There was evidence of a flattening of the circadian cortisol rhythm, which could be a sign of physiological dysfunction coinciding with the enduring adaptation process. It could be speculated that this was a sign of increasing difficulty for the women to mobilise energy. The aim of the second study (with the same 31 participants) was to explore experiential aspects of psychosocial 'stressors', balanced by 'motivators', and how the women managed different phases in the restructuring process. Repeated interviews were performed in 1997 and 1998, with additional follow-up interviews in 2000, and in 2001. The women discussed downsizing as an 'energy consuming' experience, which included continuing distrust towards the employer. It seems to be important to implement a good 'change-focused pedagogy', where staff managers need to be aware of the dimension of 'psychological contracts', and the dynamics of crises. Job insecurity among the assistant nurses was expressed as fear of losing valued caring work tasks ('down-skilling'), while medical secretaries conveyed that expanded administrative functions, and their increased use of ICT might possibly mean future 'up- skilling'. At the same time as the registered nurses seemed to be assured of being able to strengthen their position in health care ('up-skilling'), they struggled with ambiguity and their complex deference-dominance relationship towards the physicians. The main stressor in the ongoing work was being behind in an insufficient organisation without power to change working routines. The main motivator was being a part of a comprehensive and learning team, associated with promotion and influence. The aim of the third study was to identify (on an ecological level) trends in working conditions and health outcomes, as well as their interdependence, among health care staff in the hospital as a whole. The results (1994-2001) showed that the hospital staff reported a downward trend in mental health and a corresponding upward trend in long- term sick leave during the latter part of the study period. It was also found that the negative trends in the work environment, such as having less time to plan work, and conflicting demands, were accompanied by deteriorating mental health. Decrease in time for planning work was the factor that showed the strongest association with the delayed increasing long-term sick leave. Four stable 'healthy' departments were identified for future research.
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| 7. |
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| 8. |
- Johansson, Mattias, 1972-, et al.
(författare)
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Affective responses to qigong exercise : a pilot study
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Annan publikation (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Physical exercise is frequently associated with positive affective responses – at least more intense exercise; the impact of low-intensity exercise is less researched. The exercise-affect relationship was therefore studied in a group performing low-intensity Qigong exercise through pre-, during, and post-assessments using a modified version of the short Swedish Core Affect Scale complemented with open-ended questions. The results show a shift during exercise toward increased pleasant activated and deactivated affect in the group of 46 women who regularly practice Qigong. Inter-individual responses display positive affective responses, which also increase as the bout proceeds for the majority of exercisers. The results suggest that low-intensity Qigong exercise also produces positive psychological effects of a magnitude similar to what is commonly associated with more intense forms of exercise. These findings have practical implications for the enhancement of positive affect and subjective well-being, not least in groups unable to perform more intense forms of exercise. 2
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| 9. |
- Johansson, Mattias, 1972-
(författare)
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Qigong : acute affective responses in a group of regular exercisers
- 2009
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Qigong is a Chinese mind-body therapy that aims to, through the use of movements, relaxed breathing and relaxation/meditation, create a healthy flow of life force, qi, in the body, and consequently improve health. A growing number of Qigong studies report beneficial effects on health and well-being. However, little attention has fo-cused on the acute affective responses that accompany single sessions of Qigong ex-ercise. The aim of the present thesis was therefore to study affective reactions to Qigong exercise. In Study I, the effects of Qigong exercise on mood and anxiety were compared to a control group. Results showed partial support for the superiority of Qigong exercise compared to controls. In Study II, different lengths of session time were compared, resulting in similar affective benefits for the 30 and 60-minute ses-sions. In Study III, affective responses were also assessed during the session, using mean scores and individual responses. Results showed an increase toward greater Activated and Deactivated Pleasantness during the session, with the greatest changes at the end of the bout. The majority of individuals reported increased Pleasantness during the Qigong session. Expectations of positive outcomes were significantly as-sociated with only few affective responses. Responses to open-ended questions of af-fective experiences displayed affective reactions mostly toward greater Deactivated Pleasantness. This thesis contributes to a greater understanding of the limited area of Qigong-related affective responses. For the exercisers, Qigong is associated with a greater momentary emotional state. However, due to the highly select group of regu-lar Qigong exercisers, generalizing the results outside the sample population is lim-ited. Theories on active mechanisms in the Qigong-affect relationship, and results from studies of affective responses to similar activities, suggest that other groups of people would also benefit affectively from Qigong exercise. Given the many benefits of positive affect, Qigong exercise may also pose great promises for the enhancement of other areas related to health and well-being. This calls for additional studies.
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| 10. |
- Kostenius, Catrine, et al.
(författare)
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Project: ArctiChildren InNet
- 2014
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Annan publikation (populärvet., debatt m.m.)abstract
- Sedan 2003 har jag varit delaktig i Arctic Children, ett forsknings- och utvecklingsprojekt med övergripande mål att förbättra barn och ungdomars psykosocialahälsa och välbefinnande. Ett givande samarbete som inkluderar norra delarna av Sverige, Finland, Norge och Ryssland som sedan 2012 gått in i projektets tredje fas för att ta sig an gemensamma utmaningarna kopplat till barn och ungdomars psykiska, psykologiska, emotionella, sociala och andliga hälsa med hjälp av empowerment och informations-och kommunikationsteknik (IKT).
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