Day, R. E., Sahota, P., & Christian, M. S. (2019). Effective implementation of primary school-based healthy lifestyle programs: A qualitative study of views of school staff. BMC Public Health, 19(1), 1-16. Web.
Introduction and Purpose: The purpose of the article is to identify the factors that prevent the successful implementation and maintenance of a healthy lifestyle for children in schools, which causes obesity. The total number of pages of the article written by Day et al. is sixteen.
Methodology: Day et al. conducted semi-structured interviews in fourteen schools, which allowed them to conduct sixty-five interviews with various school staff. The interviews helped the authors identify the main advantages and disadvantages of implementing childhood obesity programs in schools.
Key Findings and Conclusions: The article’s key conclusions are that the problems that reduced the effectiveness of the programs were related to insufficient time, limited curriculum, insufficient resources, and lack of necessary skills. The value of Day et al. study is that, based on the results of the interviews, they could develop recommendations for improving school-based programs aimed at combating childhood obesity. The article identifies the primary resources and activities that can be directed by school staff to reduce the problem of childhood obesity.
Recommendations and Limitations: Therefore, the article argues that developing and effectively implementing a healthy lifestyle program in schools will reduce childhood obesity. The authors also suggest that curricula and healthy lifestyle policies should be combined to be the most effective. The current study is limited because it only includes the perceptions of school staff members and omits the experiences of students or parents who participate in the interventions.
Relevance to Practice: The findings are relevant to me as a family nurse practitioner because I need to adapt my obesity strategy to the school curriculum to be effective. Hence, doubling the efforts will enable me to achieve outcomes that do less damage to children’s emotional states.
Sjunnestrand, M., Nordin, K., Eli, K., Nowicka, P., and Ek, A. (2019). Planting a seed-child health care nurses’ perceptions of speaking to parents about overweight and obesity: A qualitative study within the STOP project. BMC Public Health, 19(1), 1-11. Web.
Introduction and Purpose: The article by Sjunnestrand et al. aims to explain the importance of communication between parents and healthcare providers in treating childhood obesity. The article is eleven pages long, and the authors surveyed seventeen nurses in Stockholm County. All nurses had at least five years of experience and worked with morbidly obese children.
Methodology: After the invited nurses answered the questions, they were coded for anonymity, and then the answers were transcribed and analyzed.
Study Results:
- The Relationship Between Nurses and Parents: The study’s results allowed Sjunnestrand et al. to obtain information related to two topics: the relationship between nurses and parents and system failures. The study found that nurses struggle to establish a trusting relationship with children’s parents to discuss obesity with them effectively (Sjunnestrand et al., 2019). The health care workers also noted that sometimes parents do not understand the importance of maintaining an average weight for their children and do not take the words of health care workers seriously.
- Organizational Barriers: The research also revealed that there are organizational barriers between parents and nurses. For instance, limited cooperation, the time of hospital visits by parents, and the need for nurses’ ability to propose solutions to problems contribute to decreased communication (Sjunnestrand et al., 2019). The authors determined that relational and organizational factors negatively affect communication between parents of obese children and nurses.
Limitations and Relevance: Correspondingly, the article by Sjunnestrand et al. (2019) has limitations because the survey was conducted only in Stockholm County, demonstrating an insufficient territorial sample. Moreover, this research is essential because I plan to work with parents of overweight kids. Therefore, the information will permit me to establish an effective dialog with parents to support my efforts.