Managing parental groups: personal impact of a group leadership course for child healthcare nurses

Cultural Competence Interventions in European Healthcare: A Scoping Review

Europe is undergoing rapid social change and is distinguished by its cultural superdiversity. Healthcare is facing an increasing need for professionals to adapt to this environment. Thus, the promotion of cultural competence in healthcare has become a priority. However, the training being developed and their suitability for the European context are not well known. The aim of this qualitative study has been to map the scientific literature in order to comprehend the current state of research on this topic. For this purpose, we conducted a systematic scoping review of the empirical publications focused on cultural competence interventions for healthcare professionals in European countries. The search was conducted in eight thematic (PsycINFO, MedLine, and PubPsych) and multidisciplinary databases (Academic Search Ultimate, E-Journals, Scopus, ProQuest, and Web of Science) to identify relevant publications up to 2023. Results were presented qualitatively. Out of the initial 6506 records screened, a total of 63 publications were included. Although the interventions were implemented in 23 different European countries, cultural competence interventions have not been widely adopted in Europe. Significant heterogeneity was observed in the conception and operacionalización of cultural competence models and in the implementation of the interventions. The interventions have mostly aimed at improving healthcare for minority population groups and have focused on the racial and ethnic dimensions of the individual. Future research is needed to contribute to the conceptual development of cultural competence to design programs tailored to European superdiversity. This scoping review has been registered in OSF and is available for consultation.

Feasibility of an evidence-based educational intervention in screening immigrant mothers for postpartum depression: A pretest-posttest experimental design

BACKGROUND

Screening immigrant mothers for postpartum depression has been shown to be challenging for health care professionals in handling cultural implications of postpartum depression, communicating through interpreter and applying translated versions of the screening scale.

AIM

The aim of the study was to test the feasibility of an evidence-based educational intervention for Child Health Services nurses in screening non-native-speaking immigrant mothers for postpartum depression.

ETHICS

The approval was obtained from Swedish Ethical Review Authority, 2018/1063.

METHOD

Thirty Child Health Services nurses who conducted screening with assistance of interpreter at least three times per year participated. The study was registered at ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT04167709) and a one-group pretest-posttest experimental design was applied. Data on the participants' acceptability and response to outcomes of the intervention were collected by an evaluation questionnaire, the Clinical Cultural Competency Training Questionnaire, the General Self-efficacy Scale and by self-reported data on general performance of the task. Descriptive statistics were used to present the results of the evaluation questionnaire and general performance of the task. Paired t-test were used to compare the scores on the General Self-efficacy scale, while Wilcoxon signed-ranked test was used to compare the scores on the Clinical Cultural Competency Training Questionnaire. Qualitative data were analysed by content analysis.

RESULTS

All 30 participants stated that they found the content of the intervention satisfying. The intervention was shown to provide new knowledge and improved their ability to meet the requirements linked to the screening procedure. The intervention affected their self-estimated cultural competence in some aspects but not their self-efficacy or general performance of the task.

CONCLUSIONS

The intervention was found feasible but require adjustment in the design of the practical training sessions. The use of the provided material, a comic strip on parental support and interpreter information needs further evaluation.

Leaders' limitations and approaches to creating conditions for interaction and communication in parental groups: A qualitative study

The aim of this study was to describe and understand parental group (PG) leaders' experiences of creating conditions for interaction and communication. The data consisted of 10 interviews with 14 leaders. The transcribed interviews were analysed using thematic analysis. The results showed that the leaders' ambition was to create a parent-centred learning environment by establishing conditions for interaction and communication between the parents in the PGs. However, the leaders' experience was that their professional competencies were insufficient and that they lacked pedagogical tools to create constructive group discussions. Nevertheless, they found other ways to facilitate interactive processes. Based on their experience in the PG, the leaders constructed informal socio-emotional roles for themselves (e.g. caring role and personal role) and let their more formal task roles (e.g. professional role, group leader and consulting role) recede into the background, so as to remove the imbalance of power between the leaders and the parents. They believed this would make the parents feel more confident and make it easier for them to start communicating and interacting. This personal approach places them in a vulnerable position in the PG, in which it is easy for them to feel offended by parents' criticism, questioning or silence.

"From resistance to challenge": child health service nurses experiences of how a course in group leadership affected their management of parental groups

Background

All parents in Sweden are invited to child health service (CHS) parental groups, however only 49% of the families participate. The way the parental groups are managed has been shown to be of importance for how parents experience the support and CHS nurses describe feeling insecure when running the groups. Lack of facilitation, structure and leadership might jeopardise the potential benefit of such support groups. This study describes CHS nurses' experiences of how a course in group leadership affected the way they ran their parental groups.

Methods

A course in group leadership given to 56 CHS nurses was evaluated in focus group interviews 5-8 months after the course.

Results

The nurses felt strengthened in their group leader role and changed their leadership methods. The management of parental groups was after the course perceived as an important work task and the nurses included time for planning, preparation and evaluation, which they felt improved their parental groups. Parental participation in the activities in the group had become a key issue and they used their new exercises and tools to increase this. They expressed feeling more confident and relaxed in their role as group leaders and felt that they could adapt their leadership to the needs of the parents.

Conclusions

Specific training might strengthen the CHS nurses in their group leader role and give them new motivation to fulfil their work with parental groups.

Trial registration

 Clinical Trials.gov ID: NCT02494128.