School nurses’ experience of communicating growth data and weight development to parents of children 8 and 10 years of age

BMC Public Health

Research

Gerd Almqvist-Tangen¹  Caroline Skantze²  Staffan Karlsson³ 

[1] Department of Paediatrics, University of Gothenburg, 40530, Gothenburg, Sweden;School of Health and Welfare, Halmstad University, PO Box 823, 30118, Halmstad, Sweden;School of Health and Welfare, Halmstad University, PO Box 823, 30118, Halmstad, Sweden;Faculty of Health Sciences, Halmstad University and Kristianstads University, 29188, Kristianstad, Sweden;

关键词: School nurses;    Parents;    Communication;    Growth data;    Weight development;    Children;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12889-022-14941-9

 received in 2022-09-19, accepted in 2022-12-23,  发布年份 2022

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

IntroductionThe prevalence of overweight and obesity among children has risen sharply during recent decades. School nurses are key health professionals in interventions targeting the early onset of overweight and obesity during childhood. Understanding how school nurses experience communication with parents concerning their child´s growth and weight development are essential. The aim of the study is to describe school nurses’ experience of communicating growth data and weight development to parents of school children ages 8 and 10 years.MethodThe design of the study is a descriptive, qualitative design with purposive and snowball sampling. Sixteen interviews with school nurses were conducted and analysed with qualitative content analysis.ResultThe analysis resulted in three main categories including subcategories. In Challenges in the professional role, the school nurses expressed a lack of knowledge, skills and tools in communication, described a perception of parental responsibility and stated using several different approaches in communicating growth data and weight development to parents. In Sustainable communication with parents, the school nurses described the value of creating a dialogue, a supportive approach to the parents, and the building of a relation between them and the parents as essential. In Barriers in communicating the child´s weight, the school nurses described the experience of stigma concerning the subject of overweight and obesity, increased concern when they detected underweight as well as an ambivalence towards measuring weight.ConclusionThe study highlights an educational challenge concerning the need for training, skills, and strategies for communication with parents. A variety of ways in school nurses’ communication with parents were identified in the present study and this shows an inconsistency in how School health services was offered and a need for the development of evidence-based procedures for communicating growth data and weight development to parents.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© The Author(s) 2023

【 图 表 】

Fig. 4