Public health nurses' perceptions of interprofessional collaboration related to adolescents' mental health problems in secondary schools: A phenomenographic study

Marie Dahlen Granrud, Agneta Anderzèn‐Carlsson, Birgitta Bisholt and Anne Kjersti Myhrene Steffenak

Journal of Clinical Nursing, 2019, vol. 28, issue 15-16, 2899-2910

Abstract: Aims and objectives To describe the variation in public health nurses' perceptions of interprofessional collaboration related to adolescents' mental health problems in secondary schools in Norway. Background Mental health problems among adolescents account for a large portion of the global burden of disease and affect 10%–20% of adolescents worldwide. Public health nurses in school health services play an important role in disease prevention and promotion of physical and mental health. In order to serve adolescents with regard to mental health problems, public health nurses are dependent on collaboration with other professionals in schools. Design Qualitative interviews were conducted with 18 public health nurses working in the school health services. Method A phenomenographic approach was used for interviewing and for analysing the qualitative interviews. This study is presented in line with COREQ's checklist. Result The analysis resulted in three descriptive categories based on eight identified conceptions. The categories are as follows: “The formal structure has an impact on interprofessional collaboration”; “The public health nurse is an important, but not always self‐evident, partner in interprofessional collaboration”; and “The primary players are the teachers in collaboration.” Conclusion The public health nurses describe that they had limited impact on collaboration and were dependent on both the school principal and the teachers for achieving good collaboration. Teachers have the power to decide whether to collaborate with the public health nurse, and public health nurses regard teachers as the most important collaborative partners. The public health nurses need to make themselves and their competence visible. Relevance to clinical practice The findings demonstrated that public health nurses are important collaborators, but are not always included in interprofessional collaboration. This knowledge is essential to strengthen public health nurses' roles and presence in schools, which could most certainly benefit adolescents with mental health problems in secondary school.

Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1111/jocn.14881

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wly:jocnur:v:28:y:2019:i:15-16:p:2899-2910

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Journal of Clinical Nursing from John Wiley & Sons
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().