Gudrun Kristjansdottir

University of Iceland | HI · Faculty of Nursing

Access to healthcare can facilitate parents’ self-management of their children’s care. Healthcare access can be described as consisting of six dimensions: approachability, acceptability, affordability, availability, appropriateness, and aperture. The aim of this study was to analyse these dimensions of healthcare access experienced by parents carin...

It is often a challenge for a child to communicate their pain, and their possibilities to do so should be strengthened in healthcare settings. Digital self-assessment provides a potential solution for person-centered care in pain management and promotes child participation when a child is ill. A child's perception of pain assessment differs when it...

Aim: To explore the International Network for Child and Family Centred Care (INCFCC) members' experiences and views on the long-term impact of COVID-19 on the nursing workforce. Background: On the 11 March 2020, the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic. While some countries adopted a herd immunity approach, others impose...

Background The World Health Organization (WHO) acknowledges the importance of preschool children taking part in comprehensive physical activities supporting, among other things, their motor development, and competencies. A growing number of children attend early childhood education and care (ECEC), and expectations that this will support the develo...

Background In recent years a variety of eHealth solutions has been introduced to enhance efficiency and to empower patients, leading to a more accessible and equitable health care system. Within pediatric care eHealth has been advocated to reduce emergency and hospital outpatient visits, with many parents preferring eHealth to physical visits follo...

Þrátt fyrir fjölda svefnrannsókna á undanförnum árum er enn margt á huldu um útbreiðslu svefnvenja meðal ungmenna. Nægur nætursvefn er mikilvægur fyrir þroska, heilsu og námsgetu ungs fólks. Markmið rannsóknarinnar var að skoða hvort svefnlengd íslenskra skólanema samræmdist svefnráðleggingum, hver meðalsvefnlengd nemendanna væri og hver munur væri...

The purpose of this study was to examine the values of movement and physical activity (MoPA) using government policy documents (e.g., laws and curricula) on early childhood education and care (ECEC) from Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden. This descriptive, comparative study was designed based on curriculum theory and used word count and...

Parents of children with a congenital heart defect needing complex heart surgery are at high risk of developing health problems. One can assume that parents whose child undergoes heart surgery abroad will undoubtably face added and unique stressors and health vulnerabilities. The aim of this qualitative study was to explore the transition experienc...

Objective The aim of the current study was to examine whether health complaints and self-reported health were associated with bullying victimization in a large cohort of Icelandic children and adolescents. Methods In this study, we used data from a school-based cross-sectional survey, specifically, the Icelandic contribution to the international r...

Aims and objectives: To elucidate knowledge available on parents' experience and perception of sleep when they stay overnight in hospital together with their sick children. Background: In Nordic countries, children are entitled to have at least one parent with them during hospitalization. Parents' sleep, when accommodated at the hospital during...

Bullying is defined as repeated and unwanted aggressive behavior involving a power imbalance and hurt children and adolescents’ socioemotional functioning. The aim is to investigate associations between pain (headache, stomach pain, backache, and neck/shoulder pain) and bullying among school-aged children and adolescents. This cross-sectional schoo...

Aims: Numerous studies indicate that stressors associated with parenthood can adversely affect parental well-being and children's psychosocial development. The aim of the study was to analyze sociodemographic differences in parental role strain in the general parental population. Methods: The study is based on a national postal survey of a rando...

Aim The aim of this study was to examine whether the self‐reported use of analgesics is associated with being a victim of bullying. Methods This cross‐sectional, school‐based survey included all students in grades 6 (11 years old), 8 (13 years old) and 10 (15 years old) in Iceland (response rate: 84%; n = 11 018). The students filled out an anonym...

Background: Preterm infants are especially vulnerable to pain. The intensive treatment often necessary for their survival unfortunately includes many painful interventions and procedures. Untreated pain can lead to both short- and long-term negative effects. The challenge of accurately detecting pain has been cited as a major reason for lack of pa...

There is a scarcity of work examining the relationship between culture and pain-related caregiver behaviors. Moreover, no pediatric pain studies have examined the relationship between caregiver cultural values and pain-related caregiver behaviors, specifically, if this process is mediated by caregiver parenting styles and moderated by eco-social co...

Background: Nursing practice requires application of knowledge, skills and values in various combinations and has undergone substantial changes the last decades. An increased focus on inter-professional collaboration and possible new and more independent roles for nurses are described. A variety of programs have been developed in order to educate...

Purpose We describe the frequency and variations in bullying among a representative national sample of school-age children and examine whether sociodemographic characteristics are associated with bullying. Design and Methods This study is based on a cross-sectional school-based survey—the Icelandic contribution to the international research networ...

This article does not have an abstract

Background Determination of the blood oxyhemoglobin saturation in the retinal vessels of the eye can be achieved through spectrophotometric retinal oximetry which provides access to the state of oxyhemoglobin saturation in the central nervous system circulation. The purpose of this study was to test the capability of the Oxymap T1 oximeter to detec...

Correlations of retinal oximetry with radial artery oxyhemoglobin saturation and finger pulse oximetry. (TIF)

Í bók þessari er fjallað um íslenskar rannsóknir á heilsu og velferð ungs fólks og gerður samanburður við önnur lönd. Ljósi er varpað á ýmis krefjandi viðfangsefni og áskoranir, sem ungmenni standa frammi fyrir. Togað er í ungt fólk úr mörgum áttum. Iðulega berast andstæð skilaboð frá samfélaginu annars vegar og foreldrum hins vegar og valda togstr...

Evidence suggests that those who have difficulties relating to their self-image in adolescence will continue to have problems in adulthood. The main purpose of this chapter is to give an overview of research on adolescent self-image and how it is related to health and wellness. The Offer Self-image questionnaire (OSIQ) is meant to measure the self-...

Studies show that pain is common among Icelandic school-children. Similar findings are recorded in neighbouring countries. Headache, stomach pain and back pain are common among individuals age 11–16 years. When having combined pain or recurrent pain they cause distress, interuptions in academic as well as social performance and impaired quality of...

Aims To establish a network for research and education and to provide expert knowledge to parents and health care professionals about pain in early life. Methods In November 2014 a group of Nordic researchers and research students, committed to the field of pain in early life, gathered for an open lecture day and workshop in Örebro, Sweden. Inspir...

Aims Children who experience pain and anxiety while undergoing interventions or treatments during hospitalization at a young age can experience negative feelings which can influence how they experience health care in the future. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the protocol of using a tablet computer as a source of distraction from pain and...

Dear editor;We want to thank Yolcu et al. for their insightful letter about our study. We fully agree with their opinion on pertinence for oximetric results of central retinal vein occlusion (CRVO) eyes with and without macular edema or retinal ischemia to be compared with each other. We also agree that its results can be compared with fluorescein...

To estimate the presence and variability of retinal hypoxia in patients with central retinal vein occlusion (CRVO). Hemoglobin oxygen saturation was measured in retinal vessels of both eyes in 14 patients with unilateral CRVO. The noninvasive spectrophotometric retinal oximeter is based on a fundus camera and simultaneously captures two images at 5...

TDRÁTTUR Eftirlit með blóðsykri er mikilvaegt fyrst eftir faeðingu hjá ákveðnum hópum nýbura. Hins vegar greinir fraeðimenn á um skilgreiningu of lágs blóðsykurs hjá nýburum og hver gildi hans þurfi að vera til að tryggja eðlilega líkamsstarfsemi. Óvissa einkennir því ákvarð-anatöku um eftirlit með blóðsykri nýbura: hverja eigi að maela og hvenaer...

Triage admissions to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at the Children’s Hospital in Reykjavik is a part of everyday service to newborns. Their conditions are documented on specific forms for relevant interventions. The goal of this study was to appraise the condition of the newborns not admitted to the NICU after triage, the reasons for tria...

Adolescents with unusually sized or shaped bodies may experience ridicule, rejection, or exclusion based on their negatively valued bodily characteristics. Such experiences can have negative consequences for a person’s image and evaluation of self. This study focuses on the relationship between bodily deviations and body image and is based on a nat...

Distraction has shown to be a helpful pain intervention for children; however, few investigations have studied the effectiveness of this method with adolescents. The aim of this study was to evaluate the usefulness of an easy and practical musical distraction in reducing adolescents' immunization pain. Furthermore, to examine whether musical distra...

The aim of the study was to assess sociodemographic, parental and peer predictors of self-reported drunkenness in mid-adolescence. The data were obtained from a national school survey covering a random half of all Icelandic 9th and 10th grade students (mean age 14.7 years). The overall response rate was 92% (n = 3,913). 30% of the respondents repor...

The present study uses a qualitative approach to explore and identify areas of needs among parents of 2- to 6-year-old children who are hospitalized. An extensive literature review and informal in-depth interviews with five parents and six pediatric health care professionals were analyzed by content to develop a representative list of statements ab...

•Although numerous definitions have been presented and several attempts have been made to operationalize the concept of empathy, no theoretical framework exists that addresses the concept in depth.•This paper focuses on the concept of empathy as it is presented in the literature by comparing the different theoretical and operational approaches pert...

The aim of the study was to analyse sociodemographic differences in specific and overall parental role strains in the general population of parents of children under 18. The study is based on a subsample of 872 Icelandic parents of children under 18, derived from a national postal health survey of Icelandic adults (response rate 69%). The study fou...

The present study uses an Icelandic translation of the original version of the Premature Infant Pain Profile (PIPP) in order to assess its accuracy and sensitivity to the measure of pain in hospitalized neonates in Iceland. The PIPP is a composite tool developed to assess acute pain in preterm and term neonates. A crossover design, with a sample of...

Börn fæðast með margvíslega eiginleika sem ýmist veita þeim styrk eða verða þeim farartálmi í gegnum lífið. Fjölskylda þeirra ræður miklu um hvernig spilað er úr þessum eiginleikum. Hér verður gerð grein fyrir fyrstu niðurstöðum rannsóknar á reynslu íslenskra foreldra barna sem fæðst hafa með Downs-heilkenni. Rannsakaðar voru þarfir mæðra og feðra...

To 'own' a person is considered an infringement of human rights, but we suggest that concepts of ownership influence interactions between parents and staff when a child is admitted to hospital. This paper aims to stimulate debate and contains an explanation of the exploration of the literature for research and discussion of ownership of the child....

Previous studies have generally had limited success in accounting for gender differences in leisure time physical activity. Based on a representative national survey of 3270 Icelandic 6th, 8th and 10th grade students, the study found that girls' lower enrollment in organized sport clubs fully accounts for gender differences in frequency of overall...

Unlabelled: This study examined physical, behavioral and social factors associated with schoolchildren's back pain. Factors associated with back pain were also identified using a stepwise regression method. The study was based on a self-administered questionnaire survey of a random national sample of 2173 Icelandic 11-12 and 15-16-y-old schoolchil...

Numerous studies have found that involvement in moderate-intensity and strenuous activity has positive effects on health. This study considered the prevalence of different aspects of physical activity and sedentary behavior in 11–16-y-olds based on a representative national survey of 3270 Icelandic primary schoolchildren (91% response rate). All-da...

The study considers numerous factors potentially related to suicide ideation in adults, including life stress, stress perceptions, social support, personality, alcohol use, chronic conditions, distress symptoms and sociodemographic background. Using data from a health survey of 825 adult residents in the urban Reykjavik area of Iceland, the study f...

This study differentiates multiple and specific pain experiences (headache, stomach pain and back pain) in a sample of 2173 Icelandic 11- to 12- and 15- to 16-year-old schoolchildren, and explores their relationship with other discomforts typically viewed as distress symptoms. In particular, the study explores the relationship between pain combinat...

The prevalence of pain combinations among school children is addressed in view of earlier findings of high pain prevalence in this population. The study considers the prevalence of combinations of three common pains headache, stomach pain and back pain-in a random national sample of 2173 Icelandic 11-12 and 15-16 year-old school children. According...

Unlabelled: The study considered the prevalence of experienced stomach pain in a nationwide random sample of 2161 Icelandic 11-12 and 15-16-year-old school children. It found an 18.4% prevalence of "at least weekly" stomach pain and a 53.4% overall prevalence. The prevalence of stomach pain was significantly higher among younger children (P < or =...

Unlabelled: The study considers the prevalence of back pain experienced in a nationwide random sample of 2173 Icelandic school children aged 11-12 and 15-16. The study found a 20.6% prevalence of "at least weekly" back pain. The prevalence of back pain was significantly more frequent among the older children. No gender or class difference was foun...

The study describes the needs of 34 parents, 12 fathers and 22 mothers, of hospitalized 2-6 year-olds in a Pediatric Hospital in Iceland. Subjects responded to 43 statements of possible needs during a child's hospitalization on a Likert-type scale based on their perception of the importance of items. The reliability coefficient was over 0.91 for al...

SYNOPSIS The study considers the prevalence of headache experiences in a random national sample of 2140 Icelandic 11-12 and 15-16 year-old school-children. The study finds an overall 21.9% prevalence of "at least weekly" headache. The prevalence is significantly higher among younger children end among girls. The gender difference is found to be rel...

Greinin fjallar um þætti tengda mati unglinga á heilsu sinni og byggir á rannsókn á 1131 unglingi sem valdir voru af handahófi úr hópi nemenda í 9. bekk á öllu landinu. Rannsóknin leiðir í ljós að mat á eigin heilsu er einkum tengt andlegri líðan, virkri þátttöku í hlutverkum og verkefnum og líkamlegu formi (þjálfun) unglingsins. Heilbrigðishegðun...

Börn eru óaðskiljanlegur hluti hvers þjóðfélags og endurspegla gildi þess og reglur. Í hverju þjóðfélagi hafa ´kveðnir einstaklingar eða hópar það hlutverk að ákveða hvenær einhver er heilbrigður eða veikur. Heilbrigðisstéttir hafa tekið að sér að skilgreina heilbrigði og veikindi og hefur útkoman orðið margvísleg. Þessar skilgreiningar má flokka á...

This article briefly presents a total academic program for preparing professional nurses at the University of Iceland and discusses the reasons for teaching an introductory course in scientific methodology and research evaluation in its curriculum. It is argued that scientific methodology and research evaluation adds a necessary component to the qu...

Þessi rannsókn var gerð í þeim tilgangi að kanna veikindaskilning 6-7 og 10-11 ára íslenskra barna. Hálfstöðluð viðtöl voru tekin við 53 67 ára gömul börn og jafnmörg 10-11 ára gömul börn. Notaðar voru spurningar í tólf liðum um eðli veikinda, orsakir veikinda og bata. Með því að beita flokkunarstaðli Biabce og Walsh og skipa útskýringum barna á ve...

Tilgangur þessarar greinar er að örva umræður um aðferðir í mótun nýrra hugtaka og þróun eldri hugtaka innan hjúkrunar. Leitast er við að ræða þá þróun sem á sér stað við mótun nýs hugtaks og lýsa aðferðum til að þróa eldri hugtök. Fjallað verður um beitingu hugtaka sem fulltrúum ákveðinna fyrirbæra og viðfangsefna innan hjúkrunar og mikilvægi ýtar...

Hægt er að lesa greinina í heild sinni með því að smella á hlekkinn View/Open A descriptive study was conducted on the important needs of parents whose children are hospitalized and to what extent these needs are met. Participants were 205 parents from three inpatients pediatric units and one outpatient pediatric unit at the Childrens’ Hospital, La...

Neðst á síðunni er að nálgast greinina í heild sinni með því að smella á hlekkinn View/Open Tilgangur þessarar greinar er að gefa stutt yfirlit yfir notkun tónlistar í hjúkrun og hvaða þáttum þurfi að huga að við beitingu hennar. Gefið verður yfirlit yfir þau áhrif sem niðurstöður rannsókna hafa leitt í ljós að tónlist geti haft á skjólstæðinga. Hö...

Neðst á síðunni er að nálgast greinina í heild sinni með því að smella á hlekkinn View/Open Veikir nýburar verða fyrir mjög mörgum smávægilegum en sársaukafullum inngripum meðan á dvöl þeirra á nýburagjörgæslu stendur. Verkjameðferð vegna flessara inngripa er enn ekki stunduð á nýburagjörgæsludeildum að neinu ráði. Markmið þessarar samantektar var...

Neðst á síðunni er hægt að nálgast greinina í heild sinni með því að smella á hlekkinn Skoða/Opna(view/open) Í þessari grein verður fjallað um þætti sem tengjast heilsu og velferð barna sem fæðst hafa með downsheilkenni, farið yfir tíðni þess og rætt stuttlega um framtíðarhorfur barnanna og þau atriði sem hjúkrunarfræðingar þurfa að huga að við fre...