Antoisa perusteos 1500-luvun kartoista

Kirja-arvostelu: Leena Miekkavaara, Suomi 1500-luvun kartoissa – Kuvauksia ja paikannimiä. AtlasArt 2008

Involvement in Mental Health and Substance Abuse Work: Conceptions of Service Users

Service user involvement (SUI) is a principal and a guideline in social and health care and also in mental health and substance abuse work. In practice, however, there are indicators of SUI remaining rhetoric rather than reality. The purpose of this study was to analyse and describe service users' conceptions of SUI in mental health and substance abuse work. The following study question was addressed: what are service users' conceptions of service user involvement in mental health and substance abuse work? In total, 27 users of services participated in the study, and the data was gathered by means of interviews. A phenomenographic approach was applied in order to explore the qualitative variations in participants' conceptions of SUI. As a result of the data analysis, four main categories of description representing service users' conceptions of service user involvement were formed: service users have the best expertise, opinions are not heard, systems make the rules, and courage and readiness to participate. In mental health and substance abuse work, SUI is still insufficiently achieved and there are obstacles to be taken into consideration. Nurses are in a key position to promote and encourage service user involvement

Barriers and facilitators to cervical screening among migrant women of African origin: a qualitative study in Finland.

Globally, cervical cancer constitutes a substantial public health concern. Evidence recommends regular cervical cancer screening (CCS) for early detection of "precancerous lesions." Understanding the factors influencing screening participation among various groups is imperative for improving screening protocols and coverage. This study aimed to explore barriers and facilitators to CCS participation in women of Nigerian, Ghanaian, Cameroonian, and Kenyan origin in Finland. We utilized a qualitative design and conducted eight focus group discussions (FGDs) in English, with women aged 27–45 years (n = 30). The FGDs were tape-recorded, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed utilizing the inductive content analysis approach. The main barriers to CCS participation included limited language proficiency, lack of screening awareness, misunderstanding of screening's purpose, and miscomprehension of the CCS results. Facilitators were free-of-charge screening, reproductive health services utilization, and women's understanding of CCS's importance for early detection of cervical cancer. In conclusion, among women, the main barriers to CCS participation were language difficulties and lack of screening information. Enhancing screening participation amongst these migrant populations would benefit from appropriate information about the CCS. Those women with limited language skills and not utilizing reproductive health services need more attention from healthcare authorities about screening importance. Culturally tailored screening intervention programs might also be helpful

The expanded prostate cancer index composite short form (EPIC‑26) for measuring health‑related quality of life : content analysis of patients’ spontaneous comments written in survey margins

Introduction This study investigates comments that prostate cancer patients spontaneously write in the margins of the Expanded Prostate Cancer Index Short Form (EPIC-26) questionnaire. We aim to show the possible barriers that patients face while answering the survey, and to consider how these barriers may affect the response data generated. We investigate the kind of information patients' comments on EPIC-26 contain, and patients' motivations to provide this information. We also study why some EPIC domains spark more comments than others. Method We analyzed 28 pages of transcribed comments and four pages of supplementary letters from our survey participants (n = 496). Using inductive content analysis, we generated 10 categories describing the content of participants' comments, and four themes demonstrating their motives for commenting. The comments regarding each EPIC domain were quantified to discover any differences between domains. Results The sexual domain of EPIC-26 provoked over half of all comments. Patients without recent sexual activity or desire had difficulties answering sexual function questions 8-10. The lack of instructions on whether to take erectile aid use into account when answering erectile function questions led to a diversity of answering strategies. Patients with urinary catheters could not find suitable answer options for questions 1-4. All domains sparked comments containing additional information about experienced symptoms. Conclusion Patients are mainly willing to report their symptoms, but a lack of suitable answer options causes missing data and differing answering strategies in the sexual and urinary domains of EPIC-26, weakening the quality of the response data received.Peer reviewe