Norway Today Research Articles

Parental divorce in late adolescence does not seem to increase mental health problems: a population study from Norway

BackgroundFormer studies have shown increased mental health problems in adolescents after parental divorce all over the Western world. We wanted to see if that still is the case in Norway today when divorce turns to be more and more common.MethodsIn a prospective study design, two samples were constituted, adolescents at a baseline survey in 2001/02 (n = 2422) and those at follow-up in 2003/04 (n = 1861), when the adolescents were 15/16 and 18/19 years-old, respectively. They answered self-administered questionnaires in both surveys of Young-HUBRO in Oslo. Early parental divorce was defined as that which occured before age 15/16 years, and late divorce occured between age 15/16 and 18/19. Internalized and externalized mental health problems were measured by the Hopkin’s Symptom Check List (HSCL-10) and the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ).ResultsAfter linear regression models were adjusted for gender, ethnicity, family economy, social support, and mental health problem symptoms measured at baseline before parental divorce occured, late parental divorce did not lead to significant increase in mental health problems among adolescents in the city of Oslo. Early parental divorce was associated with internal mental health problems among young adolescents when adjusted only for the first four possible confounders.ConclusionsIt seems that parental divorce in late adolescence does not lead to mental health problems in Norway any more, as has been shown before, while such problems may prevail among young adolescents. This does not mean that parental divorce create less problems in late adolescence than before but these youths might have developed adjustment abilities against health effects as divorce have turned to be more common.

Jernmangelanemi - tolking av biokjemiske og hematologiske funn

Iron deficiency and iron deficiency anaemia are frequent problems in both the primary and the specialist health services. It is important to detect iron deficiency and to determine the causal relationship because iron deficiency may be secondary to a serious disease. The diagnosis of iron deficiency is largely based on biochemical and haematological laboratory findings, but there is no standardisation or consensus on the interpretation of these findings. Non-systematic search in the PubMed database with a discretionary selection of articles, based on the authors' knowledge of the field. Ferritin measurement is the most important analysis in the study of iron deficiency, but there is no consensus on the diagnostic cut-off. It is usual in Norway today to use a ferritin level of < 12-20 μg/L, but at this low level the sensitivity for detecting iron deficiency is very low. A number of studies show that if the diagnostic cut-off is increased to the order of 30 μg/L the sensitivity is significantly higher for only a small reduction in specificity. When studying iron deficiency as a cause of anaemia, the diagnostic cut-off for detecting deficiency should be higher than that used today. The ferritin level increases with inflammation and ought in practice to be considered in conjunction with the CRP level. The level of transferrin receptor in plasma increases with iron deficiency without being influenced by inflammation and is therefore a good supplement to ferritin measurement. Measurement of iron, transferrin and transferrin saturation provides little information additional to that provided by ferritin in iron deficiency studies.

Coaching in Norwegian Enterprises: Purposes and Scope

The purpose of this survey was to obtain an overview of how widespread coaching is in Norwegian companies, and for what purposes companies purchase coaching services. In general, practice is far ahead of research in terms of leadership development, which is also the case for coaching. While coaching is a widespread practice and there are more than 40 institutions offering coaching education in Norway today, there is still virtually no scientific evidence about what coaching is used for and how it works. This paper is primarily a quantitative overview of a representative sample of Norwegian companies’ practices when it comes to coaching, and what are their purposes with coaching. Moreover, we try to estimate the economic scope of the use of coaching in Norwegian companies.

Rekrutteringen til de utøvende musikkutdanningene i Norge

The admission to the music performance programs in Norway is not coordinated. There are good reasons for that, but it also presents some challenges. An example of these is that there are no surveys at the national level of the changes over time in the number of applicants to the classical and popular music performance programs. The article contributes to new knowledge and insight in this area in that it explains and discusses the findings of three empirical studies in the 2000s, studies that provide the basis for answering the question: Is it in Norway today more applicants to the popular music educations than to the classical ones?

Braille use among Norwegian children from 1967 to 2007: trends in the underlying causes

The aim of the study was to estimate the occurrence, diagnoses and time trends among Norwegian children that have received education in braille from 1967 to 2007. We used a retrospective population-based study design. The health care system is free for all inhabitants in Norway. We included all children that had received braille education the last four decades. From each student's record, we abstracted year born, country of birth, gender, year diagnosed, diagnosis, classification of visual impairment and type of reading media. We identified 287 children (137 girls and 150 boys) that had received braille education over the last 40 years. Of these, 262 (91.3%) children were born in Norway, 145 (53.7%) were diagnosed within the first year of life and 59 (20.6%) from age of one to five. The most frequent diagnoses were Retinopathy of Prematurity (ROP), Juvenile Ceroid Lipofuscinoses (JNCL), Lebers Congenital Amaurosis (LCA) and Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP). Among the children, 63% (N = 170) used braille only, 9% (N = 25) braille and print, but priority braille, and 27% (N = 73) braille and print, priority print. The number of children with ROP using braille had a peak in 1977, then the number declined. The number diagnosed with LCA increased from 1987 to 1992. The number of braille users among children diagnosed with JNCL tended to increase substantially after 1992. Braille education seemed to be dependent of trends in diagnoses as well as trends in recommendations from professional educators.

Chains of care

More and more children, even the young ones from the age of one year, attend day care on a regular basis. To investigate how small children are taken care of and live their everyday life in Norway today, and how barnehage is included in their lives, a sample of families were followed from when the children were age one until close to three. The barnehage is seen as a link in the chain of care, for which the parents are the responsible ones. The barnehage thus implies an expansion of parenthood, with specific challenges. The family of one of the children, Adam, has been chosen for the presentation. Seeking information, providing Adam with the equipment and skills that seemed to be necessary of Adams parents and building personal relations with the professional care providers were among the strategies to ensure a high-quality care arrangement. It constitutes parenthood in a way that a) incorporates the life of the child at home and in day care, both practically as well as mentally, b) includes the parents' understandings of their own child as the child appears through daily routines and c) makes visible the relevant context for the making and remaking of their standards of care.

Er drøfting av pasientsaker i klinisk etikk-komiteer nyttig?

All health enterprises in Norway today have at least one clinical ethics committee (CEC). One of the aims is to give advice and to counsel the hospital staff on ethical issues. As part of the quality assurance of this work, we wanted to find out if clinicians have benefited from these committees in individual cases.The local committees were requested to distribute a questionnaire to all clinicians who had submitted a case to the committee during the previous 18 months. The survey was anonymous. Out of the 86 questionnaires that were distributed, 43 (50%) were returned to the Centre for Medical Ethics.The majority of clinicians had a number of reasons for contacting the committee. The most usual reason was the desire to have a broad consultation on a case (70%), which was regarded as useful. The most common issue discussed was limiting the treatment of a seriously ill patient (56%), the will/wishes of the next-of-kin (40%) and patient autonomy (37%). The committee gave advice in 50% of the cases. Thirty-eight percent of the consultations resulted in practical consequences, including the discontinuation of treatment in six cases.Because of the low response percentage, the results must be interpreted with caution. The work of the committees is generally evaluated as useful, and the consultations can have practical consequences. However, it is challenging to make this work better known among clinicians and to conduct quality assurance.

Anti-Semitism and Islamophobia: A Comparison of Imposed Group Identities

Do similarities exist among stereotypical portrayals of minority groups, regardless of social and historical context? Can some of the linguistic mechanisms that underlay the stereotypical portrayals of ‘the collective Jew’ at the beginning of the 20th century be found in the stereotyping of ‘the Muslim’ at the beginning of 21st? Is it at all relevant to see antiSemitism in line with other forms of intolerance, discrimination and racism? These questions make up part of a comparative analysis of anti-Semitic texts from the beginning of the 20th century and anti-Islamic debates going on in Norway today. While this article argues against a fundamental analogy between anti-Semitism and Islamophobia, and against an analogy between the structural position of Jews in the nineteen century and Muslims today, it argues for the relevance of a comparative semantic analysis of negative stereotypes of “the Muslims” and “the Jews”.

The estimated number of patients with adult congenital heart defects in Norway

An increasing survival rate for adult patients with congenital heart defects has been related to increased hospitalization and a greater risk of incidences during physical activity. The limited follow-up of these adult patients is partly due to a lack of knowledge about the number of adult patients in need of specialized care. Based on a classification into simple, moderate and severe forms of congenital heart defect, the population size was estimated for three age categories. Based on a conservative prevalence at birth of 7.0 per 1000 live births, approximately 14,000 adult patients with congenital heart defects between 16 and 64 years are alive in Norway today and in need of specialized cardiology attention. This is almost twice the number of children with a congenital heart defect. The assessment of the number of patients is important in order to reveal the risks of fatal incidence during physical activity in the adult congenital heart disease group. There is a need for knowledge and education about the potential risks during sports in coaches, teachers, health personnel, employers, parents, caretakers and in the patients themselves.

Med nøkkelen rundt halsen – Barns opplevelser av mødres og fedres arbeidsliv

The purpose of this thesis has been to provide new insight into sociological coherencies between work and family life. The main subject has been to study how the everyday of parents and children is formed in an interaction between work life, family and welfare arrangements for children and parents. The voices of the children, and their perspectives have been absent in debates on time and time squeeze in the family. The work is the adult's home ground, whereas schools and kindergartens are arenas made for children. This division is also reflected in sociological research. Work research has only dealt with children's perspectives in a very limited degree, while the research on children has not fully included work as a central and important context in the of children.This thesis consists of five articles in total. In the first article, I explore the perspective on spending time with children amongst employed parents. In article number 2 I move on into a theoretical discussion on sociological understandings of children and I will also introduce the question about children's perspective in sociological work research. The articles in the thesis are based on data from two qualitative researches. The first one was performed in relation to the evaluation of the cash support (Bungum, Brandth and Kvande 2001). The cash support research was based on interviews with parents of small children on three different places of work. The analysis in article 1 and 3 are based on this. The other data used is also taken from interviews with children and their parents. This data was gathered during the spring of 2005, as part of this thesis and for the research programme Time conflicts amongst parents and the flexible work life by NTNU. Design and method in this second research can be considered a continuation of experiences made during the cash support project. Article 4 and 5 are based on this data.The background for the introduction of the cash support was to give parents of small children more time to spend with their minors. The support sets no requirements regarding adjustments to the work life. The findings in article 1 show that when welfare arrangements are individually adapted and optional like the cash support, work draws the longer straw for those parents that work the most from before. If one, politically speaking, really wants to make changes in how parents spend time with their children, looking at the time use of fathers in the work would have more potential for change. Changes in how fathers spend time with their children would however require new welfare arrangements to be tied to collective rights in the work life. The variations in regards to the participation of parents in different work cultures, has been a vital context in this study, but also how the gender patterns between work and family forms the time practises of mothers and fathers.In the study I emphasize stories from children about their own everyday with full time working parents. A finding in this relation is that the flexible time cultures in parent's work can be limitless with regards to time use, but can also give the children a bigger space to negotiate time with their parents. The standardized time cultures give limiting time practises, where the space for negotiating is smaller but the everyday seems more predictable and lucid to the children.In the thesis I will also show how children's time practises are formed in an interaction between the time cultures of the working and the committed schoo time. The stories from the children about their own everyday makes it clear that the organizing of time in school is based on a model created in a society where most mothers were working at home, and that it is not adapted to the standardized time cultures in work life.The stories from the children can give us differentiated perspectives on the modern childhood. The variations in the children's experiences of negotiations with the work of their parents, is a contribution to give depth and width to the polarized debate on time crisis and the everyday of children in Norway today.

Expectations for the next generation of electronic patient records in primary care: a triangulated study

Although primary care physicians are satisfied users of electronic patient records (EPRs) in Norway today, EPR systems may not have reached their full potential. We studied primary care physicians' needs and experiences in relation to EPRs and analysed potential improvements for today's EPR systems. RESPONDENTS AND METHODS: This is a triangulated study that compares qualitative and quantitative data from focus groups, observations of primary care encounters and a questionnaire survey. General practioners (GPs) were not satisfied with the level of availability of information within EPR systems. They were especially concerned about follow-up for chronic disease and dealing with patients with multiple conditions. Many expressed a desire for reminders and easier access to clinical guidelines under normal working conditions, as well as the possibility of consultations with specialists from their EPR systems. GPs placed importance on the ability to communicate electronically with patients. Progress toward a problem-oriented EPR system based on episodes of care that includes decision support is necessary to satisfy the needs expressed by GPs. Further research could solve the problem of integration of functionality for consultation with specialists and integration with patient held records. Results from this study could contribute to further development of the next generation of EPRs in primary care, as well as inspire the application of EPRs in other parts of the health sector.

Refurbishing the Doll's House?

Ten years ago A Doll's House was staged at Tr⊘ndelag Teater [the Theatre in Trondheim], in a production that was characterized by the circumstance that the three acts were situated in three differe...

Physical education teacher educators' professional identities, continuing professional development and the issue of gender equality

Background: Despite the evidence that many girls and some boys are regularly subjected to inequalities within school physical education (PE) in Norway today, and international research showing how physical education teacher education (PETE) courses often construct unequal learning opportunities for their students on the basis of gender, few teacher educators' ‘instructional discourses’ seem to reflect these findings about gender relations. In fact, there is very little empirical research available about PE teacher educators in general and how they develop their professional identities. Purpose: This study has aimed to illuminate the duality of structure of PE teacher educators' professional identities and of the social construction of gender in PETE. By gaining a better understanding of the way in which we are both structured by PETE culture, and yet at the same time structure the culture, PE teacher educators may be better positioned to combat discriminatory practices. Participants and setting: Four PE teacher educators (aged between 31 and 42 years, with 5–13 years of teaching experience in PETE) from three universities offering PETE in Norway comprise the ‘purposeful sample’. Research design: The qualitative study is based upon social constructivist theories of professionalism and gender. It asks: ‘Are PE teacher educators’ professional identities constructed as technical or moral projects?' and ‘How are gender, gender equality and equity constructed in PETE?’ Data collection: Data were collected via in-depth interviews (two per informant), researcher log books and policy documents. Policy documents were downloaded from university websites or provided by the informants (for example, course plans and literature). Data analysis: Data were coded and analysed using a ‘content analysis’ approach, in which emerging themes were identified in relation to what being a professional PE teacher educator means and how gender equality and/or equity are constructed within PETE. Findings: The PE teacher educators' identities in this study are closely linked to a performance identity and a desire to pursue a love of sport. Their professional knowledge is based on knowing ‘what and how’, rather than asking why PE students should learn certain things. Their identity projects can be classified as technical rather than moral: the teacher educators are not concerned with developing students as democratic citizens with an interest in social justice; rather, they are interested in the successful transmission of the ‘truths’ of PETE to tomorrow's teachers. They are mostly interested in PE didactics and show little, if any, interest in pedagogical theory. Gender is not perceived as an important factor in the learning arena; it is perceived as a biological given. The teacher educators seem to exercise autonomy in PETE and their practice can be characterised as private, rather than collective. Conclusion: The PE teacher educators' lack of a theoretical understanding of gender unwittingly leads them to perpetuate a discourse which discriminates against many young female and some male students in PETE. Today's neo-liberal, outcome-driven teacher education tends to strengthen the PE teacher educators' technical view of professionalism and provides little room for alternative professional identities. PE teacher educators may benefit from the sharing of self-narratives about our gendered, professional identities with the view to engaging in fruitful continual professional learning.

English

Norway has a long history of mining dating back to the Akersberg silver mine in Oslo about 1000 years ago. Larger-scale mining for copper and sulfur became common in the early 1600s. There is no active mining of massive sulfide deposits in Norway today; but the operations have left behind tailings, waste rocks and adits that in many cases discharge low-pH, metal-laden waste streams. Three of the Norwegian sulfide mines (Roros, Rana, and Sulitjelma) where mitigation has taken place, but metal release is still evident are discussed in this paper. The Roros Mining District consists of many massive sulfide deposits mined primarily for Cu with minor lead and zinc. Some of the tailings dams have been reclaimed, while others have been left open exposed to weathering. Evidence of oxidation appears in the upper ½ meter in one of the uncovered tailings dams, closed 30 years ago, where pH is 2.5 at the surface increasing to a pH 6 at 70 cm depth. These tailings contain silicate minerals that most likely have a neutralizing potential. The Rana mining area consist of a few smaller massive deposits and a recently closed (2002) nickel deposit associated with a mafic intrusive. Tailings from the nickel mine were emplaced along the shore line. Closure of the tailings included a soil cover 10-20 cm thick. Preliminary investigations indicate that this cover is not efficiently reducing the oxidation of sulfide minerals. Magnesium silicate minerals are most likely, however, neutralizing the acid generated from pyrrothite, the main sulfide in the ore. The Sulitjelma Mining District also consists of many massive sulfide deposits mined until 1991. Reclamation of the mining district includes a one meter cover on the tailings dam and the discharge of ARD into old underground mine workings. This has resulted in a mass loading reduction of 80-90%. Characterization of these sites has primarily focused on surface water quality, and in some instances, groundwater quality. The water quality data combined with mineralogical, geochemical, and hydrogeological data of the ore deposit and waste material can be used to improve mitigation, resulting in better control of metal release.

Assessment of the Dynamic Phosphate Model PHOSMOD using Data from Field Trials with Starter Fertilizer to Cereals

Field trials are useful for achieving information about how crops respond to different fertilizer applications. However, the yield is normally only measured at the end of the growing season, and little information about growth and nutrient utilization during the season is obtained. With the aid of models it is possible to simulate plant growth and nutrient uptake from day to day. In the present paper, a mechanistic phosphate (P) model, PHOSMOD, was assessed using measured data from field fertilizer trials, in which spring barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) was grown with various amounts and placements of fertilizer P under contrasting soil and weather conditions. PHOSMOD is developed by Greenwood et al. (2001a), mainly for vegetable crops and runs interactively at www.qpais.co.uk/phosmod/phos.htm. In the test data plant growth and plant P concentration were recorded at three stages of growth. After some adjustments, the model was able to reproduce the observed responses to band placed P and starter fertilizer in plant dry matter, and to predict differences between soil types in the responses to applied fertilizer. The main adjustments to the model were the inclusion of bulk density in the equation for calculating tortuosity, and modifications to the start and end of the growth curve in order to achieve a shorter period of P uptake. Based on the results from this study, PHOSMOD appears to be a promising tool for predicting effects of different P fertilization strategies, and will in our view be a useful aid for improving the fertilizer planning programs used in Norway today.

The Status of Sexuality, Pornography, and Morality in Norway Today: Are the Critics Ready for Bjørneboe's Joyful Inversion of Mykle's Guilt Trip?

This article disputes the sexual freedom in Norway while it makes a case for a rereading of Jens Bjørneboe's Uten en tråd. Though Norway has come a long way in liberating sexuality and achieving sexual equality among the genders, remnants of a puritanical tradition continue to haunt sexuality, as one may glean from contemporary literature, applauded by critics. The liberating power of Uten en tråd is that it laughs in the face of the oppressive puritanical sexual ethic while it joyfully embraces its own new sexual ethic, thus attaining an authentic freedom that has completely let go of the past.

Between Endless Needs and Limited Resources: The Gendered Construction of a Greedy Organization

One of the strategies of the modernization of public services is the decentralization of responsibilities and organizing work in autonomous co‐ operative teams with varied tasks. The empowerment of the public service workers in the front line is therefore a strategy in local government in Norway today. Under the assumption that women have ‘natural’ skills in caring, workers on the lowest levels are given responsibility for care and nursing. A study of the decentralization of public care for the elderly in their homes showed that being given interesting tasks and increased responsibility mobilized the efforts of the care workers. However, since the power of resources has been centralized, this has led to an intensification of work. In gendering the relevant discourses by explaining women's experiences of an over‐heavy workload as a result of their ‘mothering’ and their inability to set limits, women care workers were constructed by their managers as unprofessional and not to be taken seriously. This has made the public care organization a greedy organization for the women care workers.

The challenge of improving therapy of surgical intensive care patients.

Surgical InfectionsVol. 5, No. 1 Surgical Infection Society - Europe Presidential AddressThe Challenge of Improving Therapy of Surgical Intensive Care PatientsAnsgar O. AasenAnsgar O. AasenSearch for more papers by this authorPublished Online:9 Jul 2004https://doi.org/10.1089/109629604773860246AboutSectionsPDF/EPUB Permissions & CitationsPermissionsDownload CitationsTrack CitationsAdd to favorites Back To Publication ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmail FiguresReferencesRelatedDetails Volume 5Issue 1May 2004 To cite this article:Ansgar O. Aasen.The Challenge of Improving Therapy of Surgical Intensive Care Patients.Surgical Infections.May 2004.3-7.http://doi.org/10.1089/109629604773860246Published in Volume: 5 Issue 1: July 9, 2004PDF download

Look to Norway? Gay Issues and Mental Health Across the Atlantic Ocean

SUMMARY This paper addresses the origin of the current theoretical framework for Norwegian psychiatry's understanding of homosexuality. In Norway today, the prevailing attitude is an essentialistic, non-psychopathological understanding of homosexuality based on the generally vague psychosocial and biological understanding of mental health problems and illnesses. This paper points to the influence in Norway of German academic psychiatry, and the impact of both pre- and post-World War II psychoanalytic theories. The gay movement's influence on the pro-gay legislation and position statements in psychiatry is emphasized. Since the radical 1970s, little research has been done in this field of Norwegian psychiatry. This has led to a situation where firm knowledge is scarce and there is a demand for establishing a special competence center. This vacuum has allowed psychoanalysts to fall behind on their theoretical updates and for religious groups to import the reparative therapy movement. Both groups are now cha...

Nursing education in Norway.

The aim of this paper is to describe nursing education in Norway and some essential questions and challenges regarding the undergraduate and newly graduated nurses' competencies and functionally preparedness. The first formal training of nurses in Norway started in Oslo in 1886. Since then the education has changed considerably. As long as society is changing, and nurses are going to meet and adapt to societies needs, the education of nurses will also have to change continuously. The present general plan of nursing education has gone through a long process. The discussions have concerned the content of medical and natural science subjects, the practical part of the training and the relation between theory and practice. There are challenges in nursing education in Norway today. We have seen that recruitment has decreased, and that nurses seek jobs where they are better paid. To increase the accessibility distance and part-time education has been established. The theory-practice gap will always exist. Therefore we should aim to prepare the students to minimize this gap in a way that they can combine training of nursing with training in improvement. The demand of a masters degree to be a nursing teacher has reduced the teachers' ability to keep up their practical skills. The government pays nursing teachers who want to practice as nurses for several months to maintain their salary level during that period. There are many possibilities to improve nursing education in Norway. We are on our way with highly qualified teachers and students, and we still have enough good applicants. The new general plan and new law for universities and university colleges offer great opportunities. However, the shortage of nurses is a great challenge for further quality improvement both in clinical practice and in education.