Biomedical subjects

Lars Owe Dahlgren

Publications and source records attributed to Lars Owe Dahlgren.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

To be and to have a critical friend in medical teaching.

BACKGROUND: In order to stimulate reflection and continuous professional development, a model of critical friends evaluating each other was introduced in medical education. OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether the critical friend concept can serve as a pragmatic model for evaluation of medical teachers and as a fruitful tool for enhancing self-knowledge and professional development among medical educators. METHODS: Three pairs of critical friends were formed, consisting of experienced medical teachers (n = 6) at the Karolinska Institutet. Each teacher was assigned to give 1 lecture and 1 seminar in his or her specific research or clinical field. The critical friend evaluated the performance in class, acting as an observer using a pre-formed protocol. The evaluation was communicated to the teacher during a 45-minute session within 48 hours after the teaching session. Each of the 6 teachers was criticised and gave criticism within the pair configurance. The outcome of the process was evaluated by an experimenter, not participating in the process, who performed a semistructured interview with each of the 6 teachers. RESULTS: Each teacher had a different way of reflecting on teaching after the project than before and made changes in his or her way of teaching. We also noted that being a critical friend may be even more effective than having one. The majority of the feedback provided was positive and valuable. CONCLUSION: To be and to have a critical friend is worth the extra workload. Therefore, the critical friend concept should be made part of regular teaching practice.

Clinical Competence↗

PubMed2002

Refusing to be ill: a longitudinal study of patients' experiences of asthma/allergy.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to search for a deeper understanding of the ways patients with asthma/allergy experience their illness situation. METHOD: Thirty patients with a history of airway symptoms on allergen exposure and a positive skin prick test were included in the study. They took part in open-ended interviews in their homes twice at an interval of eight years, according to the phenomenographic approach. RESULTS: Fourteen different categories of experience were identified: 'knowing for oneself, 'body related', 'environment related', 'psychosomatic', 'magic', 'fatalism', 'compliance with medication', 'alternative medicine', 'health care', 'provocation', 'avoidance', 'normalization', 'normification' and 'pursuing life'. The analysis also showed that these categories, to varying degrees, were an expression of a desire to retain an ordinary healthy identity and its value. The longitudinal results showed that with time the patients distanced themselves from the medical perspective and found their own ways of thinking and acting in relation to their ill health, which is seen as strengthening for the identity. CONCLUSIONS: The different, individual ways patients with asthma/allergy developed in relation to the illness situation have a preserving effect on the identity, which ought to be considered in patient education and rehabilitation.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2002

Applying phenomenography in nursing research.

AIMS: This paper examines phenomenography, a research approach designed to answer certain questions about how people make sense of their experience. The research approach, developed within educational research, is a content-related approach investigating the different qualitative ways in which people make sense of the world around them. The outcomes of phenomenographic research are different content-related categories describing the differences in other people's ways of experiencing and conceiving their world. METHODS: The research approach is presented by describing the underlying ontological and epistemological assumptions, describing the research method in detail and providing some examples of phenomengraphic studies in health care and nursing research. The possibilities for applying the methodology to nursing research are discussed, illustrated by research examples. Finally, the future role of the approach within nursing research is discussed. CONCLUSION: The emphasis on differences in the phenomenographical research approach makes it distinct from other research approaches, and accordingly, it seems to be reasonable to incorporate knowledge of this kind in the professional education of health care personnel.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

PubMed1997

Changing Primary Care Doctors' Conceptions - A Qualitative Approach to Evaluating an Intervention.

Objective: To describe conceptions of the management of hyperlipidaemia and assess changes in conceptions after an educational intervention.- Setting and subjects: Primary care in Sweden. Twenty doctors at community health centres.- Methods: Within an educational experiment evaluating the effects of 'group detailing' by community pharmacists at 67 health centres, a selected sample of doctors were interviewed on two occasions, one and a half year apart, regarding their views on atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease and hyperlipidaemia. Half of the doctors had, in between the interviews, participated in four educational group sessions, where information was presented and discussed regarding the national recommendations on the management of hyperlipidaemia. Applying a phenomenographic approach, the variation of conceptions was described regarding six domains: general attitude to cardiovascular disease, risk factors, prevention of ischaemic heart disease, role of blood lipids, treatment of hyperlipidaemia, and screening for hypercholesterolaemia.- Outcome measures: Descriptions of categories of conceptions and changes of conceptions to ones in line with the treatment guidelines for individual doctors and for the two groups of doctors.- Results: There was a variation of conceptions in all six domains in both groups of doctors. The doctors' conceptions in the intervention group changed significantly to ones in line with the treatment recommendations (p < 0.01), which was not the case in the control group. A significant number of doctors in the intervention group changed at least one of the six conceptions to ones in concordance with the recommendations (p = 0.011). Although doctors in the control group also changed conceptions, this change was not statistically significant.- Conclusions: The doctors' conceptions changed significantly after 'group detailing' on management of hyperlipidaemia. Qualitative changes of conceptions may be used as outcome measures when evaluating the impact of an information activity directed at health care professionals.

Journal Article↗