Ann-Christin Björklund

Doctoral Student
Research School of Health and Welfare , School of Health and Welfare
Presentation Publications

Ann-Christin Björklund is a PhD-student (50%) since 2017 at the Research School of Health and Welfare, Jönköping University. Ann-Christin is a pediatric nurse working part time as a Consultant Nurse for pediatric braintumors at Uppsala University hospital in Sweden.

This doctoral thesis has two aims. The first is to explore how the child´s problems with body function, activity performance and participation in everyday life in school-related activities, are documented in school and health care records and communicated between the family and professionals after ending braintumor treatment. The second aim is to explore if a structured supportive intervention based on collaborative problem solving (CPS) improves the child´s health and participation in school.

In Sweden about 80 children are diagnosed with a braintumor early. The treatment consists of surgery, chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy depending on tumortype. Most of the children survives but often experience difficulties in physical, psychosocial, and cognitive areas after the tumor and treatment. The need for a multi-professional follow up care is essential to detect what kind of support the child needs. It is also important for the staff involved in the child to document and communicate the child’s problems, needs and given support in a good way, to be able to support the child’s participation in school.

The thesis consists of four studies using various methodological approaches. When studying how the child’s problems, recommended, and received support are documented, qualitative data from journal documentation will be collected and linked to ICF-CY*, body function, activity, participation, and environmental factors. From the intervention where an experimental single-case multiple-baseline design will be used, questionnaires evaluating the intervention will be collected as well as interviews performed for the process evaluation.

* International classification of functioning, disability, and health: children and youth version: ICF-CY.

Article

Björklund, A., Darcy, L., Santacroce, S., Granlund, M., Björk, M. (2023). Individual patterns of problems with participation, activity, body function and environment in everyday life for children who completed brain tumor treatment Disability and Rehabilitation, 45(23), 3841-3851. More information
Björklund, A., Granlund, M., Santacroce, S., Enskär, K., Carlstein, S., Björk, M. (2021). Using ICF to Describe Problems With Functioning in Everyday Life for Children Who Completed Treatment for Brain Tumor: An Analysis Based on Professionals’ Documentation Frontiers in Rehabilitation Sciences, 2. More information
Björklund, A., Granlund, M., Santacroce, S., Enskär, K., Björk, M. (2019). The Documentation of Everyday Functioning in Children with Brain Tumors in Medical Care, Habilitation Services and School - is There a Coherent Description? Pediatric Blood & Cancer, 66(4, SI), S437. More information

Conference paper

Björklund, A., Granlund, M., Santacroce, S., Enskär, K., Björk, M. (2019). The documentation of everyday functioning in children with brain tumors in medical care, habilitation services and school – is there a coherent description?. The 51th Congress of the “Société Internationale d’Oncologie Pédiatrique” (SIOP), October 23-26, 2019, Lyon, France. More information