Tiltai

The nursing profession is full of challenges, and constant contact with ill patients and complex situations generates stress and anxiety. Reflection is considered one of the most effective ways to cope with stress. The benefits of reflection are multifaceted. Reflection helps us to analyse experiences, learn from them, and reduce emotional tension. To reveal the benefits of reflection, a qualitative study was conducted using semi-structured interviews with nurses. It was found that nurses employ various modes of reflection that help them analyse the situations they experience and the actions they have taken. The results show that reflection empowers nurses for mindfulness, intra-dialogue, structured action, and professional reciprocity.

With the increasing number of individuals diagnosed with oncological diseases in Lithuania, support measures that promote patients’ quality of life are becoming particularly relevant. International research indicates that art therapy can serve as an effective form of psychosocial support for individuals facing cancer. However, the implementation of art therapy is still in its early stages in the Lithuanian healthcare system. This article presents a single case study exploring the application of art therapy. for a woman diagnosed with cancer. The qualitative research findings suggest that art therapy may function not only as a supportive intervention for individuals undergoing treatment, but also as a transformative space that facilitates the processing of physical, emotional and spiritual changes associated with the illness.

This article highlights the need to increase the variety of support available to health-care professionals to maintain their mental health and reduce stigma. The medical profession involves caring for the well-being of others. Resources of positive emotion are exhausted over time. The body becomes susceptible to stress. The extracts from interviews and case studies presented in this article illustrate well the quality of life of medical staff in the Covid-19 period. If this state persists for a long time, it can lead to the complete exhaustion of physical and mental health, which affects a person’s motivation, attitude and behaviour towards their health, work, relationships and life. Pre-existing negative attitudes towards the promotion and improvement of mental health have had a negative impact on health and have led to suicide. It should be noted that the suicide risk rate among doctors is twice as high as in the general population. The importance of maintaining the mental hygiene of medical staff during the Covid-19 period, as a prerequisite for a quality lifestyle, is emphasised.

Each responsible personality who seeks productive outcomes in the professional activity tends to experience stress. Stress is an inseparable element of the contemporary professional activity. The analysis of the causes of the experienced stress and an appropriate choice of the stress management techniques enable one to cope with stress and to prevent its negative manifestations in an organization. The aim of the research: after the investigation of the distribution of stress as a psycho-social factor and the ways of coping with it in Klaipeda district educational organizations, to make an action plan for coping with stress with the aim of improving the work climate in organizations. The material and methods. For the research, educational organizations in Klaipėda district were chosen (in accordance with the data of Klaipėda District Municipality of 2011, there were 19 organizations with the staff of 599 at the time). The survey was conducted in September 2011 in collaboration with school public health care specialists from Klaipėda District Public Health Office. 286 questionnaires were handed out, and 246 ones were returned and found appropriate for the investigation. 31 questionnaires did not meet the criterion of representativeness, and 9 people refused to participate. For the statistical processing of the obtained data, the methods of descriptive, comparative, and correlation analysis were applied. The statistical processing of the data was carried out by the SPSS 17.0 software.The outcomes. The stressors characteristic of the staff of Klaipeda district educational organizations were established: responsibility for the future of the staff in the organization; personal skills and abilities completely fail to be realised in the organization; the work is monotonousand full of tension; the necessity to suppress one’s genuine emotions and not to show one’s true feelings; andresponsibility for the actions of other staff members. Statistically significant correlations were established between the coping with stress and the skills of management oriented towards problems and emotions. Conclusions. The staff of Klaipeda district educational organizations tended to belong to Type B personality, i.e. people whose response to stress was rather calm, however, they experienced work-related stress. To reduce the stress or to cope with it, an action plan was recommended. The responsibility for the said plan implementation was to be taken by the head of the institution.

A substantial number of young people in Western countries are facing severe difficulties due to wider social, political and economic change. Using a review of the literature and a descriptive approach, this paper explores issues of youth education, training, employment and social capital on the Swedish welfare landscape, as important factors in the education of the social professions, to understand and meet the needs of young vulnerable populations. The research found growing uncertain conditions in young populations, growing socio-economic vulnerability, mental ill-health and insufficient access to the labour market. Furthermore, the results of the paper suggest shortcomings in the social services for disadvantaged young people, and current socio-political programmes seem to reinforce the existing pattern of inequality. The insights generated by this study have the ability to inform international, national and local evidence bases in this area. It may contribute to the support of reflective future practitioners who use research as an integral element of improving their holistic client-centred interventions. The article has been prepared in the frame of the project „Social Professions for Youth Education in the Context of European Solidarity“* with participation of Latvian, Lithuanian, Polish, and Swedish universities that deliver programmes of training social professionals.