Monitoring the newly qualified nurses in Sweden: the Longitudinal Analysis of Nursing Education (LANE) study

BACKGROUND: The Longitudinal Analysis of Nursing Education (LANE) study was initiated in 2002, with the aim of longitudinally examining a wide variety of individual and work-related variables related to psychological and physical health, as well as rates of employee and occupational turnover, and professional development among nursing students in the process of becoming registered nurses and entering working life. The aim of this paper is to present the LANE study, to estimate representativeness and analyse response rates over time, and also to describe common career pathways and life transitions during the first years of working life. METHODS: Three Swedish national cohorts of nursing students on university degree programmes were recruited to constitute the cohorts. Of 6138 students who were eligible for participation, a total of 4316 consented to participate and responded at baseline (response rate 70%). The cohorts will be followed prospectively for at least three years of their working life. RESULTS: Sociodemographic data in the cohorts were found to be close to population data, as point estimates only differed by 0-3% from population values. Response rates were found to decline somewhat across time, and this decrease was present in all analysed subgroups. During the first year after graduation, nearly all participants had qualified as nurses and had later also held nursing positions. The most common reason for not working was due to maternity leave. About 10% of the cohorts who graduated in 2002 and 2004 intended to leave the profession one year after graduating, and among those who graduated in 2006 the figure was almost twice as high. Intention to leave the profession was more common among young nurses. In the cohort who graduated in 2002, nearly every fifth registered nurse continued to further higher educational training within the health professions. Moreover, in this cohort, about 2% of the participants had left the nursing profession five years after graduating. CONCLUSION: Both high response rates and professional retention imply a potential for a thorough analysis of professional practice and occupational health

Cripping sex education: lessons learned from a programme aimed at young people with mobility impairments

This paper analyses sexuality and relationship education (SRE) in a Swedish college programme aimed at young people with mobility impairments. Interviews and focus groups were conducted to explore students’ experiences of the structure, content and usefulness of SRE, and college personnel’s SRE practices. Results show that, although many of the issues covered are pertinent for all youth, being disabled raises additional concerns: for example how to handle de-sexualising attitudes, possible sexual practices, and how reliance on assistance impacts upon privacy. Crip theory is used as an analytical framework to identify, challenge and politicise sexual norms and practices. Students’ experiences of living in a disablist, heteronormative society can be used as resources to develop cripistemologies, which challenge the private/public binary that often de-legitimises learners’ experiences and separates them from teachers’ ‘proper’ knowledge production. Crip SRE would likely hold bene ts for non-disabled pupils as well, through its use of more inclusive pedagogy and in work to expand sexual possibilities. Crip SRE has the potential to disrupt taken-for-granted​ dis/ability and sexuality divides as well as to politicise issues that many young people presently experience as ‘personal shortcomings’

Becoming a special educator – Finnish and Swedish students' views of their future profession

Peer reviewe

Effects of a parental program for preventing underage drinking - The NGO program strong and clear

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The present study is an evaluation of a 3-year parental program aiming to prevent underage drinking. The intervention was implemented by a non-governmental organization and targeted parents with children aged 13-16 years old and included recurrent activities during the entire period of secondary school. The program consisted of four different types of group and self-administered activities: parent meetings, family dialogues, friend meetings, and family meetings.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A quasi-experimental design was used following parents and children with questionnaires during the three years of secondary school. The analytic sample consisted of 509 dyads of parents and children. Measures of parental attitudes and behaviour concerning underage drinking and adolescents' lifetime alcohol consumption and drunkenness were used. Three socio-demographic factors were included: parental education, school, and gender of the child. A Latent Growth Modelling (LGM) approach was used to examine changes in parental behaviour regarding youth drinking and in young people's drinking behaviour. To test for the pre-post test differences in parental attitudes repeated measures ANOVA were used.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The results showed that parents in the program maintained their restrictive attitude toward underage drinking to a higher degree than non-participating parents. Adolescents of participants were on average one year older than adolescents with non-participating parents when they made their alcohol debut. They were also less likely to have ever been drunk in school year 9.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The results of the study suggested that Strong and Clear contributed to maintaining parents' restrictive attitude toward underage drinking during secondary school, postponing alcohol debut among the adolescents, and significantly reducing their drunkenness.</p

A modest start, but a steady rise in research use: a longitudinal study of nurses during the first five years in professional life

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Newly graduated nurses are faced with a challenging work environment that may impede their ability to provide evidence-based practice. However, little is known about the trajectory of registered nurses' use of research during the first years of professional life. Thus, the aim of the current study was to prospectively examine the extent of nurses' use of research during the first five years after undergraduate education and specifically assess changes over time.</p> <p>Method</p> <p>Survey data from a prospective cohort of 1,501 Swedish newly graduated nurses within the national LANE study (Longitudinal Analyses of Nursing Education and Entry in Worklife) were used to investigate perceived use of research over the first five years as a nurse. The dependent variables consisted of three single items assessing instrumental, conceptual, and persuasive research use, where the nurses rated their use on a five-point scale, from 'never' (1) to 'on almost every shift' (5). These data were collected annually and analyzed both descriptively and by longitudinal growth curve analysis.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Instrumental use of research was most frequently reported, closely followed by conceptual use, with persuasive use occurring to a considerably lower extent. The development over time showed a substantial general upward trend, which was most apparent for conceptual use, increasing from a mean of 2.6 at year one to 3.6 at year five (unstandardized slope +0.25). However, the descriptive findings indicated that the increase started only after the second year. Instrumental use had a year one mean of 2.8 and a year five mean of 3.5 (unstandardized slope +0.19), and persuasive use showed a year one mean of 1.7 and a year five mean of 2.0 (unstandardized slope +0.09).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>There was a clear trend of increasing research use by nurses during their first five years of practice. The level of the initial ratings also indicated the level of research use in subsequent years. However, it took more than two years of professional development before this increase 'kicked in.' These findings support previous research claiming that newly graduated nurses go through a 'transition shock,' reducing their ability to use research findings in clinical work.</p

The academic–vocational divide in three Nordic countries : implications for social class and gender

In this study we examine how the academic–vocational divide is manifested today in Finland, Iceland and Sweden in the division between vocationally (VET) and academicallyoriented programmes at the upper-secondary school level. The paper is based on a critical re-analysis of results from previous studies; in it we investigate the implications of this divide for class and gender inequalities. The theoretical lens used for the synthesis is based on Bernstein´s theory of pedagogic codes. In the re-analysis we draw on previous studies of policy, curriculum and educational praxis as well as official statistics. The main conclusions are that contemporary policy and curriculum trends in all three countries are dominated by a neo-liberal discourse stressing principles such as “market relevance” and employability. This trend strengthens the academic–vocational divide, mainly through an organisation of knowledge in VET that separates it from more general and theoretical elements. This trend also seems to affect VET students’ transitions in terms of reduced access to higher education, particularly in male-dominated programmes. We also identify low expectations for VET students, manifested through choice of textbooks and tasks, organisation of teacher teams and the advice of career counsellors.Peer reviewe

Bullying: the moral and social orders at play

This special issue came about following an international symposium on bullying held in December 2008 at the Department of Child Studies, Linko¨ping University, Sweden, led by Jakob Cromdal and Paul Horton. The articles represent a diverse body of theoretical and empirical work that emphasises children and young people’s views of and participation in everyday experiences. The articles, as a collection, aim to be provocative in terms of challenging some existing dominant understandings about bullying to propose alternate ways to understand this phenomenon