Evidence map›Paper›PMID 40713056›Full record

ArticleBMJ open2025

School health professionals' understanding of culture: a scoping review.

Emmie Wahlström, Sara Landerdahl Stridsberg, Camilla Larsson, Jonas Stier

Abstract readScoping Review
In one paragraph

Article in BMJ open, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed.

  1. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors.

Emmie WahlströmSchool of Health, Care and Social Welfare, Mälardalen University, Västerås, Sweden emmie.wahlstrom@mdu.se.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7828-6999
Sara Landerdahl StridsbergUniversity library, Mälardalen University, Västerås, Sweden.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7222-202X
Camilla LarssonUniversity library, Mälardalen University, Västerås, Sweden.ORCID http://orcid.org/0009-0002-1475-4113
Jonas StierSchool of Health, Care and Social Welfare, Mälardalen University, Västerås, Sweden.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

introductionCulture underpins social interaction between school health professionals and children. Both practice and research suggest that cultural variations, migration and intercultural interactions pose potential challenges in encounters between school health professionals and children and may relate to the health professionals' understanding of their own culture as a factor in such encounters. Still, for the school health services (SHS), reviews collating existing research on school health professionals' understanding of culture are lacking.

objectivesThis review aims to identify, describe and analyse existing research on school health professionals' (ie, school nurses, school social workers, school doctors and school psychologists) understanding of culture.

designA scoping review of peer-reviewed and published scientific articles on school health professionals' understanding of culture. INCLUSION CRITERIA: Articles published between 2013 and 2024 on culture, SHS and school nurses, school doctors, school social workers or school psychologists. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: Searches were conducted in October 2023 and September 2024 in 10 databases. Two reviewers independently screened the article titles, abstracts and full texts for inclusion. Extracted data were analysed using descriptive statistics and qualitative content analysis. The qualitative content analysis focused on content related to theoretical considerations, key findings and conceptualisations of culture.

resultsFrom 1784 screened articles, 100 articles were screened in full text and 21 articles fulfilled the eligibility criteria. After identifying two additional articles through manual searches, a total of 23 articles were included in the review. The findings show that the articles primarily applied a quantitative study design, focused on school psychologists and school nurses and were conducted in the USA and Nordic-Baltic area. Self-understanding was mainly studied using validated instruments, leaving the conceptualisation of culture to the researchers. Still, only about half of all the articles described the theoretical conceptualisation of culture. Studies of intercultural interaction focused on the challenges of encountering 'diverse' children and raised concerns about barriers and hindrances to the encounters.

conclusionsThis review shows that SHS professionals' understanding of culture has mainly been studied within two SHS professions, within a narrow geographical sphere and without a theoretical stance on culture. Thus, more qualitative research, a clearer theoretical conceptualisation of culture and more research on SHS professionals' practice and self-understanding are needed.

Indexed as

CultureHealth PersonnelSchool Health ServicesHumansHealth EquityHealth ServicesPrimary PreventionPUBLIC HEALTHReviewSchools

Identifiers

PMID40713056
PMCPMC12306337

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.