Sophie Schön Persson

Research

I began my career at Kristianstad University in 2003 as a recently graduated public health pedagogue,  by providing individual health coaching within health-promoting organisations. I then went on to work with health promotion at a group level within occupational healthcare before enrolling in the Master’s Programme in Public Health Sciences at Karolinska Institutet in 2005, a period that awakened my interest in research. I have also worked as a public health pedagogue in education and school development at a strategic social level.

I defended my doctoral thesis, Workplace relationships as health-promoting resources at work, at Lund University in 2019, with an emphasis on wellbeing and workplace relationships from a salutogenic perspective. I am interested in how workplace relationships can function as a positive resource and contribute to health and wellbeing among health and welfare professionals. In broad strokes, the results of the thesis demonstrate that different workplace relationships affect one another; togetherness with one’s colleagues affects relationships with both managers and those receiving care, as well as having a strong link to health.

The time and opportunity to develop a personal relationship with the care receiver is a prerequisite if relationships are to be a health-promoting resource. Colleague belongingness is a significant factor if one is to feel satisfaction both in one’s work as a carer and in relationships with management, even if this is also affected by length of employment and a generally positive experience of the job. The results of my thesis also show that the relationship between employee and manager is both a resource for good performance and a means for achieving belongingness in the workplace. Another prerequisite for promoting good relations is that staff and management are well-aware of each other’s expectations and perceptions, as well as how these may differ.

The results also demonstrate that two of the main areas of development encompassing relationships that can contribute to a health-promoting workplace are meetings, whether formal or informal. We can increase our ability to maintain a healthy staff by focusing more on relationships and the psychosocial work environment. The development of health-promoting working methods in the care of the elderly is also a success factor.

In 2018, while working with strategic school development, I participated in a research project intended to increase knowledge regarding supplementary competences in the field of school healthcare to promote both pupils’ learning and the work environment for head teachers and principals. This project was conducted in collaboration with the Swedish National Agency for Education for the purpose of increasing pupil attendance and their sense of security and wellbeing.

The purpose of ongoing evaluation research was to assess how the commencement of the project affected the ongoing work and what practical challenges existed, as well as which issues were central to continued research into pupil attendance and success in school. This mapping work took as its starting point questions relating to how the work of school healthcare teams affected pupil attendance and the working conditions of headteachers.

Education and collaboration

I am employed at Kristianstad University as a lecturer in public health sciences. I teach and supervise, primarily in the Study Programme in Public Health and Education on the subject of public health sciences, as well as on methodology courses. I am affiliated to the research group Human Health and Society and am currently participating in a newly started meta-analysis with an interdisciplinary approach, regarding person-centred based on participation and shared decision-making.

Publications