Elisabeth Hansen
Telemark University College, Health and Social studies, Faculty Member
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Background: There is little consensus about the relative determinative value of each individual factor in female breast aesthetics. When performing breast surgery with an aesthetic goal, certain factors will be more important than others.... more
Background: There is little consensus about the relative determinative value of each individual factor in female breast aesthetics. When performing breast surgery with an aesthetic goal, certain factors will be more important than others. The purpose of this study was to make an aesthetic factor rank list to determine the relative contributions to overall breast aesthetics. Method: Volunteers were scanned using the 3-dimensional Vectra system. Ten Scandinavian plastic surgeons rated 37 subjects, using a validated scoring system with 49 scoring items. The correlation between specific aesthetic factors and overall breast aesthetic scores of the subjects were calculated using Pearson’s r, Spearman’s ρ, and Kendall’s τ. Results: A very strong correlation was found between overall breast aesthetic score and lower pole shape (0.876, P < 0.0001). This was also true for upper pole shape (0.826, P < 0.0001) and breast height (0.821, P < 0.0001). A strong correlation was found betwee...
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Background and PurposeNurse practitioners (NPs) are well established internationally, and Norway is now in the first phase of implementing their role. The aim of this study was to describe the reflections of nurse leaders and general... more
Background and PurposeNurse practitioners (NPs) are well established internationally, and Norway is now in the first phase of implementing their role. The aim of this study was to describe the reflections of nurse leaders and general practitioners (GPs) on the establishment of the new NP role in primary healthcare.MethodsThis study was qualitative and longitudinal. Written reports and audio recordings from 11 meetings with nurse leaders and GPs during 3 years in 3 municipalities were analyzed by a thematic analysis.ResultsFour themes were identified: the need for enhanced clinical competence among registered nurses, the need for reorganization of advanced practice, the need for negotiating professional barriers, and demanding economic situations. Nurse leaders and GPs were generally positive toward NPs, but they had difficulty in clarifying their roles and how to organize them in the existing work models. This was due to economic pressures, different needs in departments, and shift ...
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Det ble gjennomført en kartleggingsundersøkelse ved Porsgrunn legevakt om fastlegeordningen og pasienttilstrømming til legevakten i 2006. Formålet med studien var å undersøke om det var pasienter tilhørende legesentra eller pasienter... more
Det ble gjennomført en kartleggingsundersøkelse ved Porsgrunn legevakt om fastlegeordningen og pasienttilstrømming til legevakten i 2006. Formålet med studien var å undersøke om det var pasienter tilhørende legesentra eller pasienter tilhørende solopraktikere som hyppigst kontaktet legevakt i Porsgrunn. Det er tidligere gjort studier blant annet om legevaktsøkning fra fastleger, legevaktaktiviteter før og etter innføring av fastlegeordningen og fastlegeordningen og legevakt i Bergen. Resultatet av studien viser ingen signifikante forskjeller i tilstrømming til legevakt for pasienter tilknyttet leger på legesentra kontra pasienter tilknyttet leger som driver solopraksis i Porsgrunn kommune. Studien viser derimot signifikante forskjeller i pasienttilstrømming til legevakt mellom hver enkelt lege, også innenfor samme legekontor. Det var ingen signifikante forskjeller i henvendelser til legevakten mellom kvinnelige og mannlige leger, eller rater fordelt etter listelengde
BACKGROUND Out-of-hours services in Norway have not been systematically assessed and no national statistics exist. This article reports a pilot study of requests to three casualty clinics and the activities related to these requests.... more
BACKGROUND Out-of-hours services in Norway have not been systematically assessed and no national statistics exist. This article reports a pilot study of requests to three casualty clinics and the activities related to these requests. MATERIAL AND METHODS All requests to the three clinics, day and night for four weeks in the spring of 2006, were recorded. Variables and definitions were discussed with all participating personnel before start. A coordinator at each casualty clinic was responsible for ensuring data quality and sending data to the study centre weekly. RESULTS 5,041 requests were recorded. Contact rates per 1,000 inhabitants ranged from 29 to 84. In two casualty clinics a large majority of the contacts were given the priority grade "not urgent". In one casualty clinic the rate "acute" was more than twice the rate in the two others. The rate of consultation with GPs differed, but the rate of home visits and acute response by ambulance and GP was low in ...
Research Interests: Adolescent, Medicine, Norway, Humans, Child, and 5 moreAged, Middle Aged, Medical Emergency, Adult, and Pilot Projects
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Limited data are available on casualty clinic facilities and localisation, inter-municipal co-operation and routines for out-of-hours services in the 433 Norwegian municipalities. The National centre for emergency primary health care... more
Limited data are available on casualty clinic facilities and localisation, inter-municipal co-operation and routines for out-of-hours services in the 433 Norwegian municipalities. The National centre for emergency primary health care collected data on these issues from October 2005 until February 2006. Questionnaires concerning organisation of the out-of-hours services, casualty clinic facilities, locations and routines were sent to every Norwegian municipality. 282 of the 433 municipalities are in charge of out-of-hours services in 262 districts in the evenings and 230 districts during nights and weekends. There is inter-municipal cooperation in 100 of the districts. Most out-of-hours services are located in one casualty clinic in the host municipality and have the same locations as GP surgeries and laboratories. Most clinics offered the same services, but some routines were different. About half of the casualty clinics had a system for training of doctors and other health personne...
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The organization of out-of-hours primary health care services in Norway is currently changing from municipal-based to larger inter-municipal co-operations with regular employees and improved competence. The Norwegian Medical Association... more
The organization of out-of-hours primary health care services in Norway is currently changing from municipal-based to larger inter-municipal co-operations with regular employees and improved competence. The Norwegian Medical Association and others have encouraged the establishment of larger out-of-hours primary health care units that include all municipalities and regular GPs and serve the entire population. More data are needed to study the situation for out-of-hours services in Norway. The National Centre for Emergency Primary Health Care sent questionnaires to all 433 municipalities in Norway the autumn of 2005 to study how the out-of-hours primary health services are organized. Out-of-hours primary health services is an inter-municipality endeavour in two-thirds of Norwegian municipalities and one third of the remaining municipalities have plans to start such co-operation. Regular GPs participate in out-of-hours services to a varying degree. In half of the municipalities all reg...
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Research Interests: Primary Health Care, Health Care, Norwegian, Adolescent, Medicine, and 15 moreNorway, Emergency Medical Services, Humans, Child, Primary Healthcare, Infant, Clinical Sciences, Aged, Middle Aged, Medical Emergency, Adult, Observational Study, Emergency Department, Health Personnel, and Child preschool
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Research Interests: Primary Care, Primary Health Care, Health Informatics, Health Services Research, Health Administration, and 13 moreNorwegian, Medicine, Norway, Emergency Medical Services, Library and Information Studies, Humans, Data Collection, Computer Program, Pilot study, Health Care System, Public health systems and services research, Pilot Projects, and Sentinel surveillance
In Norway, more patients are visiting the out-of-hours primary clinic than before, and with a higher urgency level. As the first out-of-hours clinic in Norway, the leader at one medium/large clinic wanted to introduce the role of nurse... more
In Norway, more patients are visiting the out-of-hours primary clinic than before, and with a higher urgency level. As the first out-of-hours clinic in Norway, the leader at one medium/large clinic wanted to introduce the role of nurse practitioner (NP) for more effective and safer service for patients. The aim of this study was to explore challenges in the current model of care and whether NPs can perform new tasks in an out-of-hours clinic seen from both care providers’ and patients’ perspectives. All general practitioners and registered nurses who took part in out-of-hours shifts and patients classified as urgent priority during one week were invited to participate in a survey. Descriptive statistics and a chi-square test were used to identify statistically significant differences between groups. Long waiting times in the clinic and lack of patient information during waiting time were identified. General practitioners (GPs) were skeptical about task shifting, while the registered...
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The use of nurses for telephone-based triage in out-of-hours services is increasing in several countries. No investigations have been carried out in Norway into the quality of decisions made by nurses regarding our priority degree system.... more
The use of nurses for telephone-based triage in out-of-hours services is increasing in several countries. No investigations have been carried out in Norway into the quality of decisions made by nurses regarding our priority degree system. There are three levels: acute, urgent and non-urgent. Nurses working in seven casualty clinics in out-of-hours districts in Norway (The Watchtowers) were all invited to participate in a study to assess priority grade on 20 written medical scenarios validated by an expert group. 83 nurses (response rate 76%) participated in the study. A one-out-of-five sample of the nurses assessed the same written cases after 3 months (n = 18, response rate 90%) as a test-retest assessment. Among the acute, urgent and non-urgent scenarios, 82%, 74% and 81% were correctly classified according to national guidelines. There were significant differences in the proportion of correct classifications among the casualty clinics, but neither employment percentage nor profes...
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The substantial prevalence of bacterial lower urinary tract infections (LUTIs) in out-of-hours (OOH) primary care is a reason for frequent prescription of antibiotics. Insight in guideline adherence in OOH primary care concerning... more
The substantial prevalence of bacterial lower urinary tract infections (LUTIs) in out-of-hours (OOH) primary care is a reason for frequent prescription of antibiotics. Insight in guideline adherence in OOH primary care concerning treatment of LUTIs is lacking. To check feasibility of the use of OOH routine data to assess guideline adherence for the treatment of LUTI in OOH primary care, in different regions of Europe. We compared guidelines for diagnosis and treatment of uncomplicated LUTIs in nine European countries, followed by an observational study on available data of guideline adherence. In each region a convenience sample of registration data of at least 100 contacts per OOH primary care setting was collected. Data on adherence (% of contacts) was identified for type of antibiotic and for full treatment adherence (i.e. recommended type and dose and duration). Six countries were able to provide data on treatment of LUTIs. Four of them succeeded to collect data on type, dosage ...