Den kommunala folkhälsosamordnaren söker sin arbetsroll

Coordinator of public health has recently become a new profession in the field of Health Promotion. During the last few years the pedagogic perspective has been increasingly important for the coordinators as a way of adapting their work methods to the circumstances. The conditions for coordinators of public health differ between municipalities and thus their tasks and responsibilities may vary with the local structure. According to the literature there are several ways to conduct Health Promotion and it is in the hands of the coordinator to adjust the methods to fit local conditions. The purpose of the study was to examine what influences the coordinators of public health and how that affects their work methods. In order to collect data for the study eight interviews were carried out with coordinators of public health in the region of Scania. The theories applied in the study included learning, levels of action and professional competence. The result showed that projects were the most common work method and one-way communication the most common way to convey a message. Factors which affected the work method included structural conditions, politicians’ view of public health and impact of the participants. In most cases the empirical material supported former studies but some exceptions were observed. In general the coordinators work was founded on their practical knowledge and could possibly be interpreted as a routine- or regular based level of action. The idea of this study is to make people who work within this field reflect over their work method and thereby develop their professional competence