More than a break: the impact of a social-pedagogical intervention during young persons’ long-term hospital admission – a qualitative study
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Katrine Weiersoe Villadsen
Abstract
Background: Critical illness and long-term or repeated hospitalization can affect normal adolescent development. As a result, adolescents may feel isolated and “misplaced” on both pediatric and adult departments. The mission of the Center of Adolescent Medicine is to improve conditions for adolescent patients. To achieve this, the social educator offers an individualized social-pedagogical intervention for young people during long-term or repeated hospitalization.
Objective: The aim of this study was to identify the impact of the social-pedagogical intervention using a qualitative approach.
Materials and methods: A trained anthropologist interviewed seven adolescents who had individual sessions with a social educator during their hospital stay. The interviews were recorded and transcribed verbatim, and the transcripts were coded and thematized continuously.
Results: Through qualitative analysis, the following themes emerged: Recreation; Structure, participation, and motivation; and Friends and social network. The social-pedagogical approach is a combination of interpersonal relationships and individually tailored recreational activities. Even small entertaining activities changed the focus from patient identity and contributed to the feeling of being “normal.” All young patients reported that the increased opportunities for decision-making and influence on the daily structure supported the feeling of being recognized and respected as an individual person as well as increased their motivation to go through their treatment. The interviewees emphasized the importance of experiencing something that was worth telling their friends about to help them stay in touch.
Conclusion: Although the young patients emphasized the recreational aspects, the time spent with the social educator facilitated training in social competencies as well as conversations about emotional and sensitive topics.
Acknowledgments
We want to thank social educator Jakob Højer Larsen for his fantastic and inspirational social-pedagogical work with the young patients at Rigshospitalet. We are also grateful to the young interviewees and their invaluable reflections on their hospital admission.
Conflict of interest statement:
The authors declare no conflict of interests. The study has only received public funding from Rigshospitalet and the Egmont Foundation.
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©2015 by De Gruyter
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Artikel in diesem Heft
- 10.1515/ijamh-2015-frontmatter1
- Editorial
- Pregnant, even when you did not want to be pregnant
- Original articles
- How adolescents learn about risk perception and behavior in regards to alcohol use in light of social learning theory: a qualitative study in Bogotá, Colombia
- An assessment of basic nutrition knowledge of adolescents with eating disorders and their parents
- More than a break: the impact of a social-pedagogical intervention during young persons’ long-term hospital admission – a qualitative study
- Effect of external classroom noise on schoolchildren’s reading and mathematics performance: correlation of noise levels and gender
- Physical self-esteem – a ten-year follow-up study from early adolescence to early adulthood
- Street hawking among in-school adolescents in a south-western town in Nigeria: pattern, determinants and effects on school performance
- Outcome of adolescents with eating disorders from an adolescent medicine service at a large children’s hospital
- Female adolescents’ perspective about reproductive health education needs: a mixed methods study with explanatory sequential design
- Study of menstrual patterns in adolescent girls with disabilities in a residential institution
- Characteristics of hand sanitizer ingestions by adolescents reported to poison centers
- Health care providers and adolescents’ perspectives towards adolescents’ health education needs: a need assessment based on comparative approach
- Determinants of abortion decisions among Ghanaian university students
- Predictors of peer victimization among Peruvian adolescents in the young lives cohort
- Risk of eating disorders among university students in Bangladesh
- Short Communication
- Nutrition and physical activity during the transition from adolescence to adulthood: further research is warranted
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