HJEM UDEN BØRN

This article explores how childless men and women in Denmark connect their longings for children and their purchase of a house with notions of home and kinship. It investigates thereby how their stories about hopes and longings for children stage and confi gure relationships between materiality and sociality. I draw primarily upon an ethnographic study of interfi le men and women in Denmark in the late nineties and their encounter with procreative technologies. The fi eldwork was centred on three local groups of the National Association for Involuntary Childless. Taking part in their meetings and social gatherings over a period of two years gave me an opportunity to obtain insights in how infertility affected and challenged their lives and plans, and it opened a window to a multi-faceted understanding of kinship in Denmark. This article thus focuses on the material dimensions of kinship and relatedness from a childless perspective. The childless people are in a particular empirical position because what they think and say about children and family life exists primarily as hopes, longings and future projections. The aspirations for children nevertheless contain things and materiality and they epitomize how physicality, locality, dwelling, things and consumer goods are part and parcel of kinship thinking. Keywords: Kinship, involuntary childlessness, things, house/home. &nbsp

SLÆGTSKAB MED DYR

This article discusses the different forms of connections and relatedness between human beings and animals under the heading: Kinship with animals. It is based on an ethnographic study of involuntary childlessness and procreative technologies in Denmark and takes as its starting point the multiple ways childless people make analogies to the animal kingdom when they reflect on and recount their infertility and childlessness. As an example infertile men and women draw analogies to animal reproduction in order to naturalise and legitimise their wish for children, and they compare themselves to experimental animals in order to express their experiences with fertility treatment. Some also refer to their actual relationships with their pets when they consider, for instance, adoption as a solution to their childlessness. The article demonstrates that the ways childless people “think with” and relate to animals are but particular manifestations of a more general Western inclination to integrate pets in human kinship practices and family life. Kinship with animals, however, has its limitation. While pets can be thought of and treated as children and family members, they cannot reproduce personal identity and they cannot connect people in time and ensure genealogical progression and relatedness. &nbsp

Kræft og Håbsarbejde

Flere undersøgelser viser, at en kræftdiagnose kan afstedkomme en eksistentiel chokbølge med angst, fremtidsbekymringer og revidering af livsplaner som følge. Håb er en vigtig komponent af livet med en kræftsygdom, men der mangler viden om, hvordan håb udspiller sig konkret i hverdagslivet med kræft, og hvordan håb påvirker og påvirkes af sociale relationer. En indsigt heri vil kunne bane vej for, at rehabilitering tilrettelægges, således at håb, livsplaner og livsorienteringer bliver en integreret del heraf. Artiklen bygger på etnografisk materiale fra forfatternes antropologiske studier blandt mennesker med kræft i Danmark. Cheryl Mattinglys begreb håbsarbejde og Barbara Adams begreber om tid benyttes til at sætte fokus på nogle overordnede tidsorienteringer eller temporaliteter. Vi viser, at et liv med kræft analytisk kan anskues som et ophold i en lobby, hvor fremtiden er usikker og forbundet med konkrete ny-orienteringer, handlinger og praksis.

Balancing trust and power:a qualitative study of GPs perceptions and strategies for retaining patients in preventive health checks

Objective: Little is known about how strategies of retaining patients are acted out by general practitioners (GPs) in the clinical encounter. With this study, we apply Grimens’ (2009) analytical connection between trust and power to explore how trust and power appear in preventive health checks from the GPs’ perspectives, and in what way trust and power affect and/or challenge strategies towards retaining patients without formal education. Design: Data in this study were obtained through semi-structured interviews with GPs participating in an intervention project, as well as observations of clinical encounters. Results: From the empirical data, we identified three dimensions of respect: respect for the patient’s autonomy, respect for professional authority and respect as a mutual exchange. A balance of respect influenced trust in the relationship between GP and patients and the transfer of power in the encounter. The GPs articulated that a balance was needed in preventive health checks in order to establish trust and thus retain the patient in the clinic. One way this balance of respect was carried out was with the use of humour. Conclusions: To retain patients without formal education in the clinical encounter, the GPs balanced trust and power executed through three dimensions of respect. In this study, retaining patients was equivalent to maintaining a trusting relationship. A strategic use of the three dimensions of respect was applied to balance trust and power and thus build or maintain a trusting relationship with patients.KEY POINTS   Little is known about how strategies for retaining patients are acted out by GPs in preventive health checks.  •  Retaining patients requires a balance of trust and power, which is executed through three dimensions of respect by the GPs.  •  Challenges of recruiting and retaining patients in public health initiatives might be associated with the balance of respect

Parents’ perspectives on preparing for parenthood: a qualitative study on Greenland’s universal parenting programme MANU 0–1 year

Background The transition to parenthood has received increasing attention in research, partly due to evidence pointing out the crucial developmental period of a child’s first thousand days. Parenting programmes aim to prepare and support families in their transition and distress. For a programme to be implemented successfully it is important to consider parents’ needs and resources. Bringing parents’ perspectives and experiences to the forefront of the implementation of the Greenlandic parenting programme MANU 0–1 Year (MANU) is important for determining if the programme can meet its aim of contributing to thriving families. This study aims to investigate how parents’ notions and experiences of parenthood are reflected and challenged in MANU. Method Data were collected in three of Greenland’s five municipalities. Qualitative interviews were held with 38 mothers and 12 fathers either individually or as couples: a total of 40 interviews. Additionally, a Sharing Circle with three fathers was held. Interviews were in Greenlandic or Danish. A thematic, inductive analysis was applied. Results In their transition to parenthood, participants experienced a reprioritisation of their life and changes in their network. It is important to parents that their child experiences security and care, and participants describe this in contrast to their own childhood. Community is the most important value in child-rearing. Conversations and advice from family members and friends are mentioned as a means to prepare for birth and parenthood. Additionally, conversations with midwives and MANU sessions were also used for preparation. Parents appreciated learning from and listening to other parents in MANU sessions. However, accessing MANU depends on the individual parent’s interest and ability to attend sessions. Conclusions Parents’ notions and experiences of parenthood are addressed in the programme, but the use of MANU depends on the parents’ attendance and how it is organised and locally offered. The study suggests that MANU has the possibility to create a space for parents to reflect and prepare. However, for MANU to be universal as intended and to reach both mother and father the facilitation of sessions could be revisited

What are the barriers to implementation of cardiopulmonary resuscitation training in secondary schools?:A qualitative study

OBJECTIVE: Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) training in schools is recommended to increase bystander CPR and thereby survival of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, but despite mandating legislation, low rates of implementation have been observed in several countries, including Denmark. The purpose of the study was to explore barriers to implementation of CPR training in Danish secondary schools. DESIGN: A qualitative study based on individual interviews and focus groups with school leadership and teachers. Thematic analysis was used to identify regular patterns of meaning both within and across the interviews. SETTING: 8 secondary schools in Denmark. Schools were selected using strategic sampling to reach maximum variation, including schools with/without recent experience in CPR training of students, public/private schools and schools near to and far from hospitals. PARTICIPANTS: The study population comprised 25 participants, 9 school leadership members and 16 teachers. RESULTS: School leadership and teachers considered it important for implementation and sustainability of CPR training that teachers conduct CPR training of students. However, they preferred external instructors to train students, unless teachers acquired the CPR skills which they considered were needed. They considered CPR training to differ substantially from other teaching subjects because it is a matter of life and death, and they therefore believed extraordinary skills were required for conducting the training. This was mainly rooted in their insecurity about their own CPR skills. CPR training kits seemed to lower expectations of skill requirements to conduct CPR training, but only among those who were familiar with such kits. CONCLUSIONS: To facilitate implementation of CPR training in schools, it is necessary to have clear guidelines regarding the required proficiency level to train students in CPR, to provide teachers with these skills, and to underscore that extensive skills are not required to provide CPR. Further, it is important to familiarise teachers with CPR training kits

A qualitative study to identify barriers to deployment and student training in the use of automated external defibrillators in schools

BACKGROUND: Student training in use of automated external defibrillators and deployment of such defibrillators in schools is recommended to increase survival after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. Low implementation rates have been observed, and even at schools with a defibrillator, challenges such as delayed access have been reported. The purpose of this study was to identify barriers to the implementation of defibrillator training of students and deployment of defibrillators in schools. METHODS: A qualitative study based on semi-structured individual interviews and focus groups with a total of 25 participants, nine school leaders, and 16 teachers at eight different secondary schools in Denmark (2012–2013). Thematic analysis was used to identify regular patterns of meaning using the technology acceptance model and focusing on the concepts of perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use. RESULTS: School leaders and teachers are concerned that automated external defibrillators are potentially dangerous, overly technical, and difficult to use, which was related to their limited familiarity with them. They were ambiguous about whether or not students are the right target group or which grade is suitable for defibrillator training. They were also ambiguous about deployment of defibrillators at schools. Those only accounting for the risk of students, considering their schools to be small, and that time for professional help was limited, found the relevance to be low. Due to safety concerns, some recommended that defibrillators at schools should be inaccessible to students. They lacked knowledge about how they work and are operated, and about the defibrillators already placed at their campuses (e.g., how to access them). Prior training and even a little knowledge about defibrillators were crucial to their perception of student training but not for their considerations on the relevance of their placement at schools. CONCLUSIONS: It is crucial for implementation of automated external defibrillators in schools to inform staff about how they work and are operated and that students are an appropriate target group for defibrillator training. Furthermore, it is important to provide schools with a basis for decision making about when to install defibrillators, and to ensure that school staff and students are informed about their placement