Suchergebnisse

This study is the final part of a larger project with an action research approach focusing on food distribution (FD) within municipal service and care for elderly persons, living at home ( ≥ 65 years), from various perspectives. The aim was to describe the decision-makers' the politicians and top level administrative manager's views on the FD service, and to give feedback from the results of earlier studies based on information given by FD receivers, the perspectives of involved professionals, and the results of an intervention study and further to report the decision-makers suggestions for which areas should be take n into consideration as starting points to improve the FD process and practice. Data was gathered in two steps: step 1, through individual interviews (n=12) with the decision-makers during the spring of 2009, step 2a th rough feedback from previous studies, received during the autumn of 2011 and step 2b from discussions based on the feedback. The interview data was analysed using qualitative content analysis. The findings indicated a discrepancy between the reality and the political visions. It was shown that decision-maker's needed to make decision s despite their uncertain knowledge of the complexity of the FD programme . They considered what has been, what is, and will be, when setting goals. Their goal was that elderly person's rights and needs should be fulfilled. This included freedom of choice and individual consideration. In addition, it meant, meeting elderly people's medical and social needs. Three areas were found to require facilitation for change related to FD: 1) the monitoring of the elderly's health and wellbeing while providing FD, 2) the increasing of professional competen ce, and 3) the creation of a forum for inter-professional communication. The findings in this study have implications for nursing, gerontology and public administration. ; publishedVersion

This study is the final part of a larger project with an action research approach focusing on food distribution (FD) within municipal service and care for elderly persons, living at home (≥65 years), from various perspectives. The aim was to describe the decision-makers' the politicians and top level administrative manager's views on the FD service, and to give feedback from the results of earlier studies based on information given by FD receivers, the perspectives of involved professionals, and the results of an intervention study and further to report the decision-makers suggestions for which areas should be taken into consideration as starting points to improve the FD process and practice. Data was gathered in two steps: step 1, through individual interviews (n=12) with the decision-makers during the spring of 2009, step 2a through feedback from previous studies, received during the autumn of 2011 and step 2b from discussions based on the feedback. The interview data was analysed using qualitative content analysis. The findings indicated a discrepancy between the reality and the political visions. It was shown that decision-maker's needed to make decisions despite their uncertain knowledge of the complexity of the FD programme. They considered what has been, what is, and will be, when setting goals. Their goal was that elderly person's rights and needs should be fulfilled. This included freedom of choice and individual consideration. In addition, it meant, meeting elderly people's medical and social needs. Three areas were found to require facilitation for change related to FD: 1) the monitoring of the elderly's health and wellbeing while providing FD, 2) the increasing of professional competence, and 3) the creation of a forum for inter-professional communication. The findings in this study have implications for nursing, gerontology and public administration.

Findings from international research as well as from Sweden show that food distribution as a single inter­vention involves various professional groups on the various levels in organisation. The present research is one of several Action Research projects initiated as a result of a resolution on the highest political level aiming at achieving improvements within the care and service through collaboration between different levels in the organisations. The overall aim of this specific study is to describe the "top-down" perspective i.e. decision-makers involvement in identifying areas for the development of the food distribution chain. Data was collected in two steps, firstly by individual interviews with decision makers (politicians n=21, one administrative manager and one medical responsible nurse) and secondly by evaluation dialogue in group (n=23) discussion. The group discussions were based on findings from individual interviews and results from two previous studies focused on interviews with various professionals and food distribution recipients. The findings were that food distribution was seen as a multifaceted system that included three interrelated issues: the administration of work, the professional's competence in nutrition and the relationship between various professional groups. To achieve a change, the central component of complexity needs to be clarified. When the issues are multifaceted the solutions need to regard the whole picture rather than its parts.