When staff in the child health clinic and school health services tell parents that their child is overweight, many feel both a sense of shame and guilt.

Health personnel find that high-energy smoothies do not always have the intended effect. Some patients become obstipated or nauseous, and undernourished patients do not gain weight.

By adopting a new supervision model, nurse managers acquired more positive attitudes towards students and started paying more attention to nursing issues.

Measures such as the ‘getting-to-know-you’ day, the ‘float nurse’ function at an early stage, group meetings and internal training greatly benefitted supervisors and students at Oslo University Hospital.

Public health nurses make active use of the International Child Development Programme (ICDP) in their work to improve the interaction between parents and children.

Nurses report that the end-of-life nursing care provided in nursing homes calls on staff to provide “more of everything”, and that nurses feel they are “left to deal with everything on their own”. This situation must be taken seriously, organisationally and policywise.

They observe eye contact, comforting and other behaviours based on experience rather than by making use of recognised instruments. Their assessments are influenced by professional development opportunities, a heavy workload and interdisciplinary collaboration.

When ESAS is routinely used to map symptoms, the patients experience greater symptom relief and a better quality of life. However, not everyone uses the tool systematically.

Weight is one of the simplest measurements of nutritional status. Nevertheless, a number of personnel in the community nursing services lack knowledge about nutrition and good routines for weighing patients.