Kari Nyheim Solbrække

• Staff, Anne Cathrine; Sjaavik, Anja Dusik; Noll, Josef; Sugulle, Meryam; Fiskå, Bendik Seth & Klovning, Atle [Show all 11 contributors for this article] (2026). Co-creation of a mobile health program (MumCare) for preventing maternal cardiovascular disease after pregnancy complications. Frontiers in Global Women's Health. 7. doi: 10.3389/fgwh.2026.1717203. Full text in Research Archive
• Solbrække, Kari Nyheim; Skilbrei, May-Len & Holen, Mari (2026). Pasientorganisasjoners mobilisering av brukerkunnskap: en utforskning av pasientaktivismes maktpotensial i norsk kontekst. Norsk sosiologisk tidsskrift. 10(1), p. 1–16. doi: 10.18261/nost.10.1.2. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Det har de siste årene utviklet seg en sterk norm om å involvere brukere i planleggingen, utførelsen og formidlingen av forskning. Dette gjelder spesielt medisinsk og helsefaglig forskning, men også samfunnsvitenskapelige forskere forventes ofte å ha planer og prosedyrer for å inkludere brukere i forskning. Innen medisinsk og helsefaglig forskning utgjør denne endringen et brudd med det tradisjonelle biomedisinske kunnskapshierarkiet, hvor pasient- og brukerperspektivet lenge har vært lavest rangert, om ikke neglisjert. I dag har vi å gjøre med et mer tydelig demokratisk ideal, nemlig at pasientenes stemmer og perspektiver også skal inkluderes i den medisinske og helsefaglige kunnskapsproduksjonen, for derigjennom å skape et mer inkluderende og perspektivrikt grunnlag for diagnostisering og behandling. Selv om det finnes noe internasjonal forskning på hvordan deltakelse har blitt inkludert i og påvirket medisinsk helseforskning, er pasientaktivistisk involvering i denne typen kunnskapsproduksjon ikke undersøkt i en norsk kontekst. I denne artikkelen belyser vi Kreftforeningen, ADHD Norge og Endometrioseforeningen og deres nettsider, for å utforske hvordan slik aktivisme kan ta form i dagens Norge. I siste del av artikkelen reiser vi spørsmålet om i hvilken grad det demokratiserende premisset som bruker- og pasientperspektivet opprinnelig var basert på, utfyller biomedisinsk ekspertkunnskap eller ikke. Dette er et spørsmål som fortjener større sosiologisk interesse og belysning, ikke minst i lys av dagens diskusjoner om hvordan man kan forstå nye former for makt og demokrati i det norske samfunnet.

• Aurén-Møkleby, Eva Margareta; Aasbø, Gunvor; Mengshoel, Anne Marit; Solbrække, Kari Nyheim & Thoresen, Lisbeth (2025). Kept at a Distance: A Qualitative Study of Bereaved Individuals’ Experiences of How Death Was Addressed When Their Partner Died at Home. Qualitative Health Research. ISSN 1049-7323. doi: 10.1177/10497323251328294. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Open awareness and dialogue concerning dying are considered essential for planning and realizing death at home. Moreover, much help and support throughout the dying process and death trajectory are provided by a person’s next of kin, often a spouse or partner. To explore how death was addressed among couples when one of the partners had died at home, we interviewed 14 bereaved individuals. The results were grouped into the following themes: “Idea(l)s and realities of communication,” “Different kinds of talks,” and “Unspoken understandings and showing without talking.” We found that prevailing narratives about how death should be discussed in socially and culturally expected ways affected how the bereaved addressed the imminent death of their partner, both at the time and in their retrospective reflections. In a few cases, death had been talked about directly using words such as “death” and “dying,” although indirect or avoidant discussions about death were more common. The bereaved mentioned unspoken understandings about how it was unnecessary to address death—that is, one just knew. In cases where the couple could not share a silent understanding, the bereaved had experienced loneliness. Death could also be addressed through actions, such as becoming closer or the ill person arranging for an easier subsequent life for their partner. To reduce the expectations that dying people and their partners might have to interact in certain ways at the end of life, it is important to acknowledge that awareness of dying can be expressed and shared in various ways.

• Aasbø, Gunvor & Solbrække, Kari Nyheim (2025). (Bio)makt, motmakt og kjønn. Ny kunnskap om hva som gjør at norske kvinner ikke går til livmorhalskreftscreening, Kjønn, helse og marginalisering. Cappelen Damm Akademisk. ISSN 9788202869090. p. 89–106. doi: 10.23865/cdf.249.ch5. Full text in Research Archive
• Krawczyk, Marian; Solbrække, Kari Nyheim & Thoresen, Lisbeth (2025). Extending the concept of total pain to cancer survivorship. Frontiers in Sociology. 9. doi: 10.3389/fsoc.2024.1387096. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  More people are surviving cancer than ever before. While there is a growing body of research on quality of life in cancer survivorship, we still do not have a good understanding of the lived complexities that many people experience after successful treatment. Inspired by the literature on existential concerns in cancer survivorship, we consider how the concept of ‘total pain’, which emerged from the contemporary hospice movement, may be useful to think about experiences of suffering in cancer survivorship, using interviews from a Norwegian research project Rethinking Cancer Survivorship. We find that the concept of total pain encapsulates concerns for existential suffering and also has unique features which offer new forms of understanding and action. This includes its origins within cancer care; how it addresses the individual as a whole and re-centres the body; its reliance on and recognition of the limits of narrative; how it attends to relationality; and how the concept may afford unique insights for service development. Dying from cancer and surviving cancer are different processes, but total pain can serve as a useful conceptual compass to orient our understandings of those who experience this illness, regardless of disease outcome

• Aurén-Møkleby, Eva Margareta; Aasbø, Gunvor; Fredheim, Olav Magnus Søndenå; Mengshoel, Anne Marit; Solbrække, Kari Nyheim & Thoresen, Lisbeth (2024). “It turned out right for both of us”: A qualitative study about a preference for home death and actual place of death. Death Studies. ISSN 0748-1187. doi: 10.1080/07481187.2024.2369847. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This qualitative study was conducted in Norway to explore couples’ preference for home death when one of the partners was dying from cancer, and what made home death possible or not. We conducted dyad interviews with five couples. After the patients’ death, the spouses participated in individual interviews. The data were interpreted using thematic narrative analysis. One patient died at home, and three died in a healthcare institution. The narratives show how interdependency and mutual care were important when dealing with home death. When care needs were manageable at home, home was perceived a safe place and the preferred place for death. When care needs were experienced to become unmanageable at home, the sense of safety changed and admission to a health care institution was considered the best option. Regardless of place of death, the spouses experienced the end to have turned out right for their partner and themselves.

• Botn, Cecilie Strauman & Solbrække, Kari Nyheim (2024). Når helsetjenesten definerer hvordan man skal bli frisk. In Solbrække, Kari Nyheim & Bondevik, Hilde (Ed.), Kreftoverlevelse på nye måter. Scandinavian Academic Press . ISSN 9788230403310. p. 121–144. doi: 10.62342/SAP.OA.2006. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  I dagens Norge er det mer enn 300 000 personer som har hatt kreft, eller som lever med kreftsykdom. Kunnskapen om de sosiale og personlige sidene ved det å overleve en kreftsykdom er likevel begrenset, noe denne boka tar opp i bred forstand. Vekker alle former for kreft, bivirkninger av behandlingen eller senvirkninger like mye empati? Hvilket språk er tilgjengelige for dem som rammes? Hvem setter dagsorden for hvordan sykdom generelt, og kreft spesielt, tas opp offentlig? Hvilke stemmer blir hørt? Og hvordan kan kreftoverlevere i større grad forstås og møtes på egne premisser? I denne antologien undersøker forskere med ulik fagbakgrunn hvordan det erfares å få kreft, og hvordan disse erfaringene er knyttet til storsamfunnets forestillinger om kreft og kreftoverlevelse. På film, i blogger og andre personlige beretninger beskrives ofte kreftoverleveren som en helt. På hvilken måte påvirker dette idealet om heroisme mennesker som lever med – og har levd med – kreft? Boka tar særlig for seg erfaringer med gynekologisk kreft, kolorektal kreft og lungekreft, kreftformer som har vært lite synlige i dagens kulturelle offentlighet. Den bygger på nyskapende forskning og vil være interessant for alle som er i berøring med kreft, også helsepersonell.

• Solbrække, Kari Nyheim (2024). Om kolorektal kreft og den (over)levde kroppens betydning. In Solbrække, Kari Nyheim & Bondevik, Hilde (Ed.), Kreftoverlevelse på nye måter. Scandinavian Academic Press . ISSN 9788230403310. p. 145–168. doi: 10.62342/SAP.OA.2006. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  I dagens Norge er det mer enn 300 000 personer som har hatt kreft, eller som lever med kreftsykdom. Kunnskapen om de sosiale og personlige sidene ved det å overleve en kreftsykdom er likevel begrenset, noe denne boka tar opp i bred forstand. Vekker alle former for kreft, bivirkninger av behandlingen eller senvirkninger like mye empati? Hvilket språk er tilgjengelige for dem som rammes? Hvem setter dagsorden for hvordan sykdom generelt, og kreft spesielt, tas opp offentlig? Hvilke stemmer blir hørt? Og hvordan kan kreftoverlevere i større grad forstås og møtes på egne premisser? I denne antologien undersøker forskere med ulik fagbakgrunn hvordan det erfares å få kreft, og hvordan disse erfaringene er knyttet til storsamfunnets forestillinger om kreft og kreftoverlevelse. På film, i blogger og andre personlige beretninger beskrives ofte kreftoverleveren som en helt. På hvilken måte påvirker dette idealet om heroisme mennesker som lever med – og har levd med – kreft? Boka tar særlig for seg erfaringer med gynekologisk kreft, kolorektal kreft og lungekreft, kreftformer som har vært lite synlige i dagens kulturelle offentlighet. Den bygger på nyskapende forskning og vil være interessant for alle som er i berøring med kreft, også helsepersonell.

• Solbrække, Kari Nyheim & Bondevik, Hilde (2024). Kreftoverlevelse på nye måter – en introduksjon. In Solbrække, Kari Nyheim & Bondevik, Hilde (Ed.), Kreftoverlevelse på nye måter. Scandinavian Academic Press . ISSN 9788230403310. p. 7–19. doi: 10.62342/SAP.OA.2001. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  I dagens Norge er det mer enn 300 000 personer som har hatt kreft, eller som lever med kreftsykdom. Kunnskapen om de sosiale og personlige sidene ved det å overleve en kreftsykdom er likevel begrenset, noe denne boka tar opp i bred forstand. Vekker alle former for kreft, bivirkninger av behandlingen eller senvirkninger like mye empati? Hvilket språk er tilgjengelige for dem som rammes? Hvem setter dagsorden for hvordan sykdom generelt, og kreft spesielt, tas opp offentlig? Hvilke stemmer blir hørt? Og hvordan kan kreftoverlevere i større grad forstås og møtes på egne premisser? I denne antologien undersøker forskere med ulik fagbakgrunn hvordan det erfares å få kreft, og hvordan disse erfaringene er knyttet til storsamfunnets forestillinger om kreft og kreftoverlevelse. På film, i blogger og andre personlige beretninger beskrives ofte kreftoverleveren som en helt. På hvilken måte påvirker dette idealet om heroisme mennesker som lever med – og har levd med – kreft? Boka tar særlig for seg erfaringer med gynekologisk kreft, kolorektal kreft og lungekreft, kreftformer som har vært lite synlige i dagens kulturelle offentlighet. Den bygger på nyskapende forskning og vil være interessant for alle som er i berøring med kreft, også helsepersonell.

• Aurén-Møkleby, Eva Margareta; Thoresen, Lisbeth; Mengshoel, Anne Marit; Solbrække, Kari Nyheim & Aasbø, Gunvor (2023). ‘It’s not just about me’: a qualitative study of couples’ narratives about home death when one of the partners is dying of cancer. Palliative Care & Social Practice. 17. doi: 10.1177/26323524231189517. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Background: Most cancer patients state a preference for home death. Care and support from primary caregivers are important to enable dying at home. A preference for home death from the perspective of couples has rarely been investigated.<p> <p>Objectives: To explore how a preference for home death is understood and enacted in couples where one of the partners is dying of cancer.<p> <p>Design: A qualitative interview research design with a narrative approach was used.<p> <p>Methods: Five couples participated in dyad interviews. During the analysis, two interviews that particularly illuminated couples’ shared and individual views were chosen as the primary cases.<p> <p>Results: The interviews show, in two highly different ways, how a preference for home death is a significant relational matter. The interviews are presented as two cases: ‘Struggles in an Unknown Terrain’ and ‘Reliance at the Kitchen Table’. They show how a preference for home death can be understood and enacted as a struggle or as reliance based on the couple’s shared biography and the partner’s ability to care for the partner during the end-of-life phase. The analysis highlighted the negotiations that underpin a preference for home death. In these negotiations, the couples drew on idealised understandings of home death. These ideas were supported by cultural values related to autonomy and independence as well as participation and citizenship. Thus, in the negotiations about being cared for and caring, legitimate dependency and the maintenance of a reciprocal relationship were balanced. The presence of healthcare professionals and medical devices in the home had to be balanced with the need to maintain a sense of self and an authentic home.<p> <p>Conclusion: A relational perspective on a preference for home death made us attentive to couples’ negotiations. These negotiations give couples the opportunity to re-evaluate and reconfirm individual and mutual needs in the end-of-life phase.

• Aasbø, Gunvor; Staff, Anne Cathrine; Blix, Ellen; Pay, Aase Serine Devold; Waldum, Åsa & Rivedal, Sunniva [Show all 7 contributors for this article] (2023). Expectations related to home-based telemonitoring of high-risk pregnancies: A qualitative study addressing healthcare providers' and users' views in Norway. Acta Obstetricia et Gynecologica Scandinavica. ISSN 0001-6349. p. 1–10. doi: 10.1111/aogs.14726. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Introduction: A pregnancy can be evaluated as high-risk for the woman and/or the fetus based on medical history and on previous or ongoing pregnancy characteristics. Monitoring high-risk pregnancies is crucial for early detection of alarming features, enabling timely intervention to ensure optimal maternal and fetal health outcomes. Home-based telemonitoring (HBTM) is a marginally exploited opportunity in antenatal care. The aim of this study was to illuminate healthcare providers' and users' expectations and views about HBTM of maternal and fetal health in high-risk pregnancies before implementation. Material and methods: To address diverse perspectives regarding HBTM of high-risk pregnancies, four different groups of experienced healthcare providers or users were interviewed (n = 21). Focus group interviews were conducted separately with midwives, obstetricians, and women who had previously experienced stillbirth. Six individual interviews were conducted with hospitalized women with ongoing high-risk pregnancies, representing potential candidates for HBTM. None of the participants had any previous experience with HBTM of pregnancies. The study is embedded in a social constructivist research paradigm. Interviews were analyzed using a thematic approach. Results: The participants acknowledged the benefits and potentials of more active roles for both care recipients and providers in HBTM. Concerns were clearly addressed and articulated in the following themes: eligibility and ability of women, availability of midwives and obstetricians, empowerment and patient safety, and shared responsibility. All groups problematized issues crucial to maintaining a sense of safety for care recipients, and healthcare providers also addressed issues related to maintaining a sense of safety also for the care providers. Conditions for HBTM were understood in terms of optimal personalized training, individual assessment of eligibility, and empowerment of an active patient role. These conditions were linked to the importance of competent and experienced midwives and obstetricians operating the monitoring, as well as the availability and continuity of care provision. Maintenance of safety in HBTM in high-risk pregnancies was crucial, particularly so in situations involving emerging acute health issues. Conclusions: HBTM requires new, proactive roles among midwives, obstetricians, and monitored women, introducing a fine-tuned balance between personalized and standardized care to provide safe, optimal monitoring of high-risk pregnancies.

• Bjørvik, Eira; Thoresen, Lisbeth; Salamonsen, Anita; Fauske, Lena & Solbrække, Kari Nyheim (2023). Exploring the Impact of Interview Location on Knowledge Development. International Journal of Qualitative Methods (IJQM). 22. doi: 10.1177/16094069231168483. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  In ethnographic and participatory studies, the study location is often claimed to have an obvious significance, whereas, in the methodology literature on qualitative interviews, this aspect is frequently treated as a pragmatic issue. Based on this background, there are claims that the location of an interview should be understood as a fundamental, active aspect of the research process as well as a sensitizing concept. Considering this ambition, the aim of this article is to develop further insights into how different interview locations may contribute to knowledge development regarding the issue being studied. Based upon a study on cancer survivorship and experiences from conducting interviews in three different settings, namely the participants’ home, an office on the university’s premises, and a cancer care center located at a hospital, this paper illustrates how the choice of location may have an impact and evoke insights and knowledge regarding the research issue. The interviews conducted in private homes provided insights into how life post cancer implicated a more house-bound lifestyle than before, with a risk of becoming isolated. The hospital setting yielded responses that were more mixed. While some could not stand coming there, others considered the hospital to represent safety. The third interview location, an office at the university, was the most ‘formal’ location and seemed to resonate with the participants’ present busy but exhausting work life.

• Aasbø, Gunvor; Hansen, Bo Lars Thorvald Terning; Waller, Jo; Nygård, Mari & Solbrække, Kari Nyheim (2023). Unpacking the Lay Epidemiology of Cervical Cancer: A Focus Group Study on the Perceptions of Cervical Cancer and Its Prevention among Women Late for Screening in Norway. Healthcare. 11(10). doi: 10.3390/healthcare11101441. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Nonattendance for cervical cancer screening is often understood in terms of a lack of ‘appropriate’ or ‘correct’ knowledge about the risks and prevention of the disease. Few studies have explored how lay persons—the users themselves—interpret and contextualise scientific knowledge about cervical cancer. In this study, we address the following research question: How is the epidemiology of cervical cancer and its prevention discussed among women who are late for cervical cancer screening in Norway? We completed nine focus group interviews (FGIs) with 41 women who had postponed cervical screening. The analyses were both inductive and explorative, aiming to unpack the complexity of lay understandings of cervical cancer. Interactive associations expressed in the FGIs reflected multiple understandings of aetiology and risk factors, screening, and interpretations of responsibility for acquiring cervical cancer. The term ‘candidacy’ was employed to provide an enhanced understanding of lay reasoning about the explanations and predictions of cervical cancer, as reflected in the FGIs. Both interpretations of biomedical concepts and cultural values were used to negotiate acceptable and nuanced interpretations of candidacy for cervical cancer. Uncertainties about risk factors for acquiring cervical cancer was an important aspect of such negotiations. The study’s findings provide an in-depth understanding of the contexts in which screening may be rendered less relevant or significant for maintaining health. Lay epidemiology should not be considered inappropriate knowledge but rather as a productive component when understanding health behaviours, such as screening attendance.

• Blixt, Line; Solbrække, Kari Nyheim & Bjorbækmo, Wenche (2022). Embodying Digital Spaces in a Clinical Encounter: A postphenomenological Analysis. Phenomenology & Practice. 17(4), p. 4–18. doi: 10.29173/pandpr29428. Full text in Research Archive
• Kvernflaten, Birgit; Fedorcsak, Peter Zoltan & Solbrække, Kari Nyheim (2022). It’s all about kids, kids, kids! Negotiating reproductive citizenship and patient centered-care in ‘factory IVF’. BioSocieties. ISSN 1745-8552. doi: 10.1057/s41292-021-00268-y. Full text in Research Archive
• Kvernflaten, Birgit; Fedorcsak, Peter Zoltan & Solbrække, Kari Nyheim (2022). Kin or Research Material? Exploring IVF Couples’ Perceptions about the Human Embryo and Implications for Disposition Decisions in Norway. Journal of Bioethical Inquiry. ISSN 1176-7529. doi: 10.1007/s11673-022-10214-7. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  In vitro fertilization (IVF) involves making embryos outside of the human body, which has spurred debate about the status of the embryo, embryo research and donation. We explore couples’ perceptions about embryos and their thoughts and acceptability about various disposition decisions in Norway. Based on an ethnographic study including interviews and observations in an IVF clinic, we show that couples do not perceive their pre-implantation IVF embryos to be human lives; rather, they consider successful implantation the start of life. We suggest that this response indicates a change in the perception of the human embryo or the fertilised egg from incipient life—a viewpoint that was dominant in the discussions of embryo research in the 1980s and 1990s. We also show how this view of the pre-implantation embryo elucidates why donating embryos to research appears acceptable but donating to other infertile couples seems rather difficult. Before transfer to a woman’s uterus, the embryo exists in a liminality; it is not yet human life but a living cell with potential for both research and pregnancy. When an embryo is implanted and pregnancy is confirmed, human life activates; the embryo becomes potential kin, influencing couples’ struggles with donating embryos to other couples.

• Skilbred, Anette; Solbrække, Kari Nyheim & Thoresen, Lisbeth (2022). Begjær til besvær: en analyse av Solberg-regjeringens strategi for seksuell helse, «Snakk om det!». Norsk sosiologisk tidsskrift. 6(4), p. 1–16. doi: 10.18261/nost.6.4.2. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  I 2016 la daværende regjering fram en politisk strategi for hvordan Norges befolkning skal få bedre seksuell helse. I denne artikkelen undersøker vi hvilke normer omkring seksualitet og seksuell helse som konstrueres i strategien, og vi argumenterer for at den kan leses som en form for styring av befolkningen i helt bestemte retninger. Styringen er konstituert av to sentrale diskurser strategien fremmer: en grensediskurs og en opplysningsdiskurs. Begge diskursene viser seg å være nært knyttet til andre sosiale og kulturelle strømninger som helse i dag gjerne kobles til, der egenskaper som rasjonalitet og selvkontroll står fram som sentrale verdier, mens mer begjærlige sider av seksualiteten tones ned. Så til tross for at daværende helseminister Bent Høie innledningsvis i strategien påpeker at «Vi snakker fortsatt for lite og for sjelden om at seksualitet er en fantastisk kraft […]», viser vår analyse at strategien inneholder en iboende forståelse av seksualitet som noe borgerne kontinuerlig bør mestre, kontrollere og avgrense, slik at såkalte problemområder som hiv, klamydia, abort og smitte holdes på lang avstand. Dermed kan det virke som om selve intensjonen med strategien ifølge Høie, nemlig å hylle seksualitet som en fantastisk og helsebringende kraft, ender opp i en nokså rasjonell og regissert seksuell praksis.

• Solbrække, Kari Nyheim & Bondevik, Hilde (2021). Kreftoverlevelse på nye måter – om hvordan kreft erfares og omtales. In Botten, Grete Synøve (Eds.), Mangfold og engasjement i ti år. Institutt for helse og samfunn ved Universitetet i Oslo 2010-2020.. Norwegian Medical Society. ISSN 9788292871768. p. 157–165. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Stadig flere rammes av kreft. Samtidig er fremskrittene innen diagnostikk og behandling store og antall kreftoverlevere har økt betraktelig. Ved utgangen av 2020 hadde rundt 300 000 personer i Norge overlevd minst én kreftdiagnose. De omfattende behandlingene kreftpasienter gjennomgår innebærer at mange lever med senskader, traumatiske erfaringer og utfordringer. Med den betydelige veksten i antall kreftoverlevere som et utgangspunkt, er hovedmålet med vårt NFR-prosjekt Rethinking Cancer å problematisere kategorien «kreftoverlever» og dets helsepolitiske og kulturelle implikasjoner. Et annet mål er å utvikle ny kunnskap om hvordan overlevere etter gynekologisk kreft, prostatakreft og mage-tarm-kreft omtaler, nedtegner og billedlig sett representerer sine krefterfaringer, og i hvilken grad disse representasjonene henger sammen med mer etablerte og synlige diskurser om kreftoverlevelse. Et tredje mål er å bygge bro over denne kunnskapen til ulike pasientgrupper, helsemyndigheter og klinisk praksis, og dermed muliggjøre en kreftomsorg som er mer inkluderende og differensiert enn dagens. Samlet er målene i prosjektet sterkt fundert i behovet for å få bedre forståelse av hvordan menneskelig eksistens og teknologiske innovasjoner krysser hverandre, det vil si hvordan forholdet mellom medisinske innovasjoner og befolkningens forestillinger og praksiser knyttet til helse, sykdom, kropp og livskvalitet er flettet sammen i vår egen tid.

• Frank, Arthur W. & Solbrække, Kari Nyheim (2021). Becoming a Cancer Survivor: An Experiment in Dialogical Health Research. Health. ISSN 1363-4593. doi: 10.1177/13634593211005178. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  The article makes cancer survivorship the topic of an experiment in a form of writing we call dialogical response. First, in the style of autoethnography, each author presents an account of her or his long-term survivorship of cancer and the issues that involves. Less conventionally, we then respond each to the other’s story. The article seeks to contribute to an in-depth understanding of long-term cancer survivorship. More important, we offer it as an example of a form of writing rarely practiced in health research: speaking to those who participate in research, rather than speaking about those people. Among the multiple theoretical implications that could be explored, we consider Foucault’s concept of subjectification. Our argument is that recognising the discursive formulation of the subject can and should be complemented by recognition of the local, immediate dialogical formulation of subjects. Rather than presenting research findings about cancer survivors, we offer a performative enactment of survivorship as an ongoing process of dialogical exchange. We show ourselves, responding to each other, in the process of becoming the cancer survivors we are as a result of those responses.

• Blixt, Line; Solbrække, Kari Nyheim & Bjorbærkmo, Wenche Schrøder (2020). Becoming data. Patient perspectives on using an eTool in physiotherapy sessions. Physiotherapy Theory and Practice. ISSN 0959-3985. p. 1–16. doi: 10.1080/09593985.2020.1790071. Full text in Research Archive
• Gashaw, Bosena Tebeje; Schei, Berit; Solbrække, Kari Nyheim & Magnus, Jeanette H. (2020). Ethiopian Health Care Workers’ Insights into and Responses to Intimate Partner Violence in Pregnancy—A Qualitative Study. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (IJERPH). ISSN 1661-7827. doi: 10.3390/ijerph17103745. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Violence against women is a global pandemic, with the potential to spread through generations. Intimate partner violence has impacts on women’s sexual, reproductive, and psycho-social health. It can occur during pregnancy and adversely affect the health of both mother and child. Health care workers involved in antenatal care can have a unique role in identifying intimate partner violence and in intervening, preventing, and mitigating its consequences. In this study, the objective was to explore Ethiopian health care workers’ insights of and responses to intimate partner violence in pregnancy. Using an exploratory design, this qualitative study includes ten semi-structured interviews of health care workers representing different antenatal care centers in Jimma, Ethiopia. The content analyses of translated interview notes were conducted with Atlas.ti7 software, (Atlas.ti Scientific Software Development Gmbh, Berlin). The health care workers shared their insights of the consequences of intimate partner violence during pregnancy in addition to their experience with and responses to the victims. There was a limited understanding of the extent of the adverse impacts of intimate partner violence on pregnancy outcomes, as well as the potential long-term health implications. The informants described how they only gave medical treatment for obstetric complications or visible trauma during pregnancy. There was no formal referral to or linkages with other resources. Women’s empowerment and systemic changes in the health care, including training and capacity building, clear guidelines addressing management of intimate partner violence in pregnancy, and inclusion of intimate partner violence screening tools in the Ethiopian antenatal care chart/card, were recommended by the informants. The adverse impacts of intimate partner violence on pregnancy outcomes were poorly understood by the Ethiopian health care workers in this study. They offered limited assistance to the victims and recommended changes in the routine antenatal care (ANC) and health care systems. They identified various policy initiatives focusing on women’s empowerment to reduce intimate partner violence and its complications especially during pregnancy.

• Eik, Hedda; Kirkevold, Marit; Solbrække, Kari Nyheim & Mengshoel, Anne Marit (2020). Rebuilding a tolerable life: narratives of women recovered from fibromyalgia. Physiotherapy Theory and Practice. ISSN 0959-3985. p. 1–11. doi: 10.1080/09593985.2020.1830454. Full text in Research Archive
• Gripsrud, Birgitta Haga & Solbrække, Kari Nyheim (2019). Scientific supremacy as an obstacle to establishing and sustaining interdisciplinary dialogue across knowledge paradigms in health care and medicine. Medicine, Health care and Philosophy. ISSN 1386-7423. 22(4), p. 631–637. doi: 10.1007/s11019-019-09901-x. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This is a response to a short communication on our research presented in Solbrække et al. (Med Health Care Philos 20(1):89–103, 2017), which raises a series of serious allegations. Our article explored the rise of ‘the breast cancer gene’ as a field of medical, cultural and personal knowledge. We used the concept biological citizenship to elucidate representations of, and experiences with, hereditary breast cancer in a Norwegian context, addressing a research deficit. In our response to Møller and Hovig’s (Med Health Care Philos 21(2):239–242, 2018a) opinionated piece, we start by questioning on which scientific grounds they base their knowledge claims and situate their criticism in a pre-determined positivist script, which exposes their incompetency when it comes to establishing a useful critique of our research. We tie this to an attitude of scientific supremacy, which reduces the complexity and specificity of different knowledges into a clichéd divide between ‘hard evidence’ and ‘fiction’—presented in a predictable narrative which seeks to establish research protagonists and antagonists. We elaborate on the rationale of our qualitative approach to analyzing and interpreting situated and mediated aspects of BRCA 1/2. We counter claims that our research does harm to patients. We refer to a medical scandal emerging from Norway where 21 women were wrongfully diagnosed and surgically treated for a mis-interpreted cancer gene mutation. In conclusion, we stand by the integrity of our research as reported in the original paper. Scientific supremacy and pre-scripted criticism impose considerable obstacles for the possibility of establishing interdisciplinary dialogue across knowledge paradigms in health care and medicine. We therefore urge readers to reflect on how we can establish and sustain ethically careful and truthful dialogue—without doing violence to epistemological differences—to protect and advance the interdisciplinarity that constitutes the journal’s scope.

• Gashaw, Bosena Tebeje; Magnus, Jeanette H.; Schei, Berit & Solbrække, Kari Nyheim (2019). Community Stakeholders’ Perspectives on Intimate Partner Violence during Pregnancy—A Qualitative Study from Ethiopia. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (IJERPH). ISSN 1661-7827. 16(23), p. 1–13. doi: 10.3390/ijerph16234694. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Abstract:Intimate partner violence (IPV) in pregnancy adversely affects the health of womenand unborn children. To prevent this, the community responses, societal systems, and structuresto support victims of IPV in pregnancy are vital. Objectives: to explore community stakeholders’perspectives related to IPV in pregnancy in Jimma, Ethiopia, and if needed, create the knowledgebase for interventions.Methods: using an exploratory design, this qualitative study hada maximum-variation (multiple spectrum sources) sampling strategy with 16 semi-structuredinterviews of purposively selected key informants representing different community institutions.Guided by Connell’s theory of gender and power, a content analysis of the translated interviewswas conducted using Atlas.ti 7 software. Results: reconciliation between IPV victims and theirabusers was the solution promoted by almost all the respondents. There was limited awareness ofthe adverse impacts IPV in pregnancy has on the health of the woman and the foetus. Despite regularencounters with victims, there is no organized or structured operational response to supportIPV victims between the participating institutions. Conclusion: the potential danger of IPV forthe mother or the unborn child was not well understood by the members of the studied Ethiopiancommunity. Neither coordinated efforts to support IPV victims nor links among relevant agenciesexisted. The study demonstrated the dire need of coordinated practical action, changes in currentsocio-cultural norms, formal training and capacity building, awareness creation, clear interventionguidelines, and facilitation of support networks among relevant institutions in Ethiopian communities

• Sallinen, Merja Helena; Mengshoel, Anne Marit & Solbrække, Kari Nyheim (2019). “I can’t have it; I am a man. A young man!” – men, fibromyalgia and masculinity in a Nordic context. International Journal of Qualitative Studies on Health and Well-being. ISSN 1748-2623. 14(1), p. 1676974–1676974. doi: 10.1080/17482631.2019.1676974. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Purpose: Research shows that gender has a substantial impact on the health behaviour such as expression of physical symptoms like persistent pains and aches. However, there is yet little knowledge about the gendered aspect of pain by men who suffer from typical female diseases like fibromyalgia. The purpose of the study was to elucidate the interplay between illness and gender by exploring life-stories of men who suffer from fibromyalgia. Methods: The data were collected through life-story interviews of eight men suffering from fibromyalgia. A narrative methodology for analysis was applied to explore the storytelling and the linguistic and performative aspects of the life-stories. Results: The masculine identity of the participants was re-negotiated by comparisons to other men and life before symptom onset, and by discussing expectations and beliefs of how men should act in contemporary societies. The transition from experiencing a strong, active and reliable body to experiencing a painful, vulnerable and helpless body was perceived as fundamental. Conclusions: Self-management and rehabilitation of fibromyalgia it is not only about learning to manage the symptoms but also about the struggle to find coherence in life through re-constructing gender identity that is acceptable both for the individual and for the community.

• Solli, Karianne Oldertrøen; Boer, Marjolein Lotte De; Solbrække, Kari Nyheim & Thoresen, Lisbeth (2019). Male partners' experiences of caregiving for women with cervical cancer-a qualitative study. Journal of Clinical Nursing (JCN). ISSN 0962-1067. 28(5-6), p. 987–996. doi: 10.1111/jocn.14688. Full text in Research Archive
• Boer, Marjolein de; Archetti, Cristina & Solbrække, Kari Nyheim (2019). In/Fertile Monsters: The Emancipatory Significance of Representations of Women on Infertility Reality TV. Journal of Medical Humanities. ISSN 1041-3545. p. 1–16. doi: 10.1007/s10912-019-09555-z. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Reality TV is immensely popular, and various shows in this media genre involve a storyline of infertility and infertility treatment. Feminists argue that normative and constructed realities about infertility and infertility treatment, like those in reality TV, are central to the emancipation of women. Such realities are able to steer viewers' perceptions of the world. This article examines the emancipatory significance of representations of women on 'infertility reality TV shows'. While the women in these shows all have 'abnormal' qualities, we consider their portrayal as figurations of monstrosity. In the literature, monstrosity is understood as a way to challenge nonemancipatory norms by offering an alternative identity. Through a content analysis of seven reality TV shows, we identified four types of in/fertile monsters: the cyborg, the freak, the abject, and the childless. We show that these monsters are predominantly non-emancipatory as they all involve mechanisms of altering, excluding, or condemning infertility in relation to what is considered normal and acceptable womanhood. Therefore, at the end of this article, we make a plea for more diverse and emancipatory representations of infertile women in popular culture.

• Boer, Marjolein Lotte De; Bondevik, Hilde & Solbrække, Kari Nyheim (2019). Beyond pathology. Women’s lived experiences of melancholy and mourning in infertility treatment. Medical Humanities. ISSN 1468-215X. doi: 10.1136/medhum-2018-011586. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Throughout history, melancholy and mourning are predominantly understood within the tradition of psychopathology. Herein, melancholy is perceived as an ailing response to significant loss, and mourning as a healing experience. By taking the philosophies of Freud, Ricoeur and Kristeva together with relevant social scientific research as a theoretical framework and by drawing on women’s accounts of melancholy and mourning in infertility treatment, we offer an exploration of melancholy and mourning beyond this pathological ailing/healing logic. We do so by asking what it means for women to actually live with melancholy and mourning in infertility treatment. In answering this question, we show that women in infertility treatment may have different kinds of melancholic longings: they desire their lost time as a pregnant woman, lost love life and lost future. Within these longings, women derive their sense of self predominantly from their lost past: they understand themselves as the mothers or lovers they once were or could have been. We further reveal that some of these women attempt to escape this dwelling of identity and mourn their losses by (re)narrating their pasts or through performing rituals. While these results show how melancholy and mourning are coshaped in relation to these women’s embodied, temporal, sociocultural and material lived context, they also give insight into how melancholy and mourning may be understood beyond infertility treatment. We reveal how the binary dynamic between melancholy and mourning is inherently ambiguous: melancholy instigates a joyous painfulness, something that is or is not overcome through the agonising exertion of mourning. We show, moreover, that underlying this melancholy/mourning dynamic is a pressing and uncontrollable reality of not being able to make (sufficient) sense of oneself. At the end of this work, then, we argue that it follows out of these conclusions’ urgency to have context-sensitive compassionate patience with those who live with melancholy and mourning.

• Blixt, Line; Solbrække, Kari Nyheim & Bjorbærkmo, Wenche Schrøder (2019). Physiotherapists’ experiences of adopting an eTool in clinical practice: a post-phenomenological investigation. Physiotherapy Theory and Practice. ISSN 0959-3985. doi: 10.1080/09593985.2019.1681042. Full text in Research Archive
• Aasbø, Gunvor; Solbrække, Kari Nyheim; Waller, Jo; Trope, Ameli; Nygård, Mari & Hansen, Bo Terning (2019). Perspectives of non-attenders for cervical cancer screening in Norway: a qualitative focus group study. BMJ Open. 9(8). doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2019-029505. Full text in Research Archive
• Williams, Sean & Solbrække, Kari (2018). “Cancer Coiffures”: Embodied Storylines of Cancer Patienthood and Survivorship in the Consumerist Cultural Imaginary. Body & Society. ISSN 1357-034X. p. 1–26. doi: 10.1177/1357034X18781951. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Cancer patienthood and survivorship are often narrated as stories about hair and wigs. The following article examines cultural representations of cancer in mainstream memoirs, films, and on TV across Western European and American contexts. These representations are both the ideological substrate and a subtly subversive staging of a newly globalized cancer culture that expresses itself as an embodied discourse of individual experience. Wigs have become staples of an alternative story of especially women’s cancer experience, one that contrasts with the advertising slogans of what has been termed ‘Cancer Inc.’ But wigs are also a prop for consumerist self-(re)invention and can be appropriated stereotypically, with regard to stock gendered expectations – despite and alongside their subversive potential.

• Løvstad, Marianne; Solbrække, Kari Nyheim; Kirkevold, Marit; Geard, Anne; Hauger, Solveig Lægreid & Schanke, Anne-Kristine (2018). “It gets better. It can´t be worse than what we have been through.” Family accounts of the minimally conscious state. Brain Injury. ISSN 0269-9052. p. 1–11. doi: 10.1080/02699052.2018.1539244. Full text in Research Archive
• Aasbø, Gunvor; Kristvik, Ellen Elisabeth; Solbrække, Kari Nyheim & Werner, Anne (2018). Searching for ‘transformative moments’: a qualitative study of nurses’ work during home visits to COPD patients and their caregivers in Norway. Nursing Open. doi: 10.1002/nop2.209. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Aim The integration of families into healthcare services is being emphasized increasingly in healthcare polices. The aim of this study was to investigate how professionals during home visits support both patients and caregivers in accepting and accommodating to illness. Design An explorative qualitative design. Methods Participant observations from home visits (N = 20) of pulmonary ambulatory nurses to COPD patients in Norway, followed by interviews with these nurses. Results Our findings demonstrate the delicate nature of nurses’ work during home visits to COPD patients and their caregivers. They support both patients and caregivers in reconciling themselves with the negative consequences of illness, as well as giving legitimation to and potential room for, sustainable arrangements within the scope of the relationship. The nurses address significant issues, having transformative potential concerning attitudes and practices related to the management of illness and adjusting to a complex illness trajectory.

• Ahlsen, Birgitte & Solbrække, Kari Nyheim (2018). Using narrative perspectives in the clinical setting of physiotherapy. Why and how? In E, Barbara Gibson; Nicholls, David; Setchell, Jenny & Groven, Karen Synne (Ed.), Manipulating practices: a critical physiotherapy reader. Cappelen Damm Akademisk. ISSN 9788202550011. p. 356–377. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  The aim of this chapter is to show the potential of narrative approaches in the practice of critical physiotherapy. By combining a narrative approach with gender perspectives, we focus on the significance of social context and gender for how illness stories may develop in the clinical encounter. The empirical data are drawn from interviews with 10 men undergoing a rehabilitation program for chronic pain in Norway. The findings highlight how the men’s stories usually present pain in terms of a localized physical disruption caused by forces outside the men’s influence and control. Their stories adhere to a traditional norm of masculinity which highlights the importance of staying independent and in control. However, the men’s stories also refer to changes at work, worries about sick children, divorce and loss of contact with children: in other words, social disruptions and relational and emotional distress. In the men’s recovery stories, a traditional masculine emphasis on the importance of building muscle strength is intimately interwoven with a profound human need for relational support and help from others. By focusing on how the men’s stories are told, the chapter reveals how changes in family relations and working conditions enter into the men’s illness narratives through a process of ongoing negotiation between interviewer and participant. We argue that narrative perspectives are important to critical physiotherapy as a way of promoting individualized treatment and care that transcend traditional gender norms.

• Blixt, Line & Solbrække, Kari Nyheim (2017). The significance of social rules in group training sessions. Disability and Rehabilitation. ISSN 0963-8288. 39(24), p. 2477–2483. doi: 10.1080/09638288.2016.1236296. Full text in Research Archive
• Lippe, Charlotte von der; Frich, Jan C; Harris, Anna & Solbrække, Kari Nyheim (2017). “It was a lot tougher than I thought it would be”: A qualitative study on the changing nature of being a hemophilia carrier. Journal of Genetic Counseling. ISSN 1059-7700. 26(6), p. 1324–1332. doi: 10.1007/s10897-017-0112-9. Full text in Research Archive
• Bondevik, Hilde; Madsen, Ole Jacob & Solbrække, Kari Nyheim (2017). Snart er vi alle pasienter: Medikalisering i Norden fra vugge til grav. In Bondevik, Hilde; Madsen, Ole Jacob & Solbrække, Kari Nyheim (Ed.), Snart er vi alle pasienter. Medikalisering i Norden. Spartacus. ISSN 9788230401859. p. 7–23. Full text in Research Archive
• Dahl-Michelsen, Tone & Solbrække, Kari Nyheim (2017). Profesjonskvalifisering i et kritisk kjønnsperspektiv. In Mausethagen, Sølvi & Smeby, Jens-Christian (Ed.), Kvalifisering til profesjonell yrkesutøvelse. Universitetsforlaget. ISSN 9788215026459. p. 180–190. Full text in Research Archive
• Lerum, Sverre Vigeland; Solbrække, Kari Nyheim & Frich, Jan C (2017). Healthcare professionals’ accounts of challenges in managing motor neurone disease in primary health care: a qualitative study. Health and Social Care in the Community. ISSN 0966-0410. 25(4), p. 1355–1363. doi: 10.1111/hsc.12432. Full text in Research Archive
• Solbrække, Kari Nyheim; Søiland, Håvard; Lode, Kirsten & Gripsrud, Birgitta Haga (2017). Our genes, our selves: hereditary breast cancer and biological citizenship in Norway. Medicine, Health care and Philosophy. ISSN 1386-7423. 20(1), p. 89–103. doi: 10.1007/s11019-016-9737-y. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  In this paper we explore the rise of ‘the breast cancer gene’ as a field of medical, cultural and personal knowledge. We address its significance in the Norwegian public health care system in relation to so-called biological citizenship in this particular national context. One of our main findings is that, despite its claims as a measure for health and disease prevention, gaining access to medical knowledge of BRCA 1/2 breast cancer gene mutations can also produce severe instability in the individuals and families affected. That is, although gene testing provides modern subjects with an opportunity to foresee their biological destiny and thereby become patients in waiting, it undoubtedly also comes with difficult existential dilemmas and choices, with implications that resonate beyond the individual and into different family and love relations. By elaborating on this finding we address the question of whether the empowerment slogan, which continues to be advocated through various health, BRCA and breast cancer discourses, reinforces a naïve or an idealized notion of the actively responsible patient: resourceful enough to seek out medical expertise and gain sufficient knowledge, on which to base informed decisions, thereby reducing the future risk of developing disease. In contrast to this ideal, our Norwegian informants tell a different story, in which there is no apparent heroic mastery of genetic fates, but rather a pragmatic attitude to dealing with a dire situation over which they have little control, despite having complied with medical advice through national guidelines and follow-up procedures for BRCA 1/2 carriers. In conclusion we claim that the sense of safety that gene testing and its associated medical solutions allegedly promise to provide proved illusory. Although BRCA-testing offers the potential for protection from adverse DNA-heritage, administered through possibilities for self-monitoring and self-management of the body, the feeling of ‘being in good health’ has hardly been reinforced by the emergence of gene technology.

• Aasbø, Gunvor; Rugkåsa, Jorun; Solbrække, Kari Nyheim & Werner, Anne (2017). Negotiating the care-giving role: family members`experience during critical exacerbation of COPD in Norway. Health and Social Care in the Community. ISSN 0966-0410. 25(2), p. 612–620. doi: 10.1111/hsc.12350. Full text in Research Archive
• Gripsrud, Birgitta Haga & Solbrække, Kari Nyheim (2017). Gentestingens framvekst. Om arvelig brystkreft, førlevelse og overlevelse i en norsk kontekst. In Bondevik, Hilde; Madsen, Ole Jacob & Solbrække, Kari Nyheim (Ed.), Snart er vi alle pasienter. Medikalisering i Norden. Spartacus. ISSN 9788230401859. p. 223–262. Full text in Research Archive
• Grape, Hedda; Solbrække, Kari Nyheim; Kirkevold, Marit & Mengshoel, Anne Marit (2017). Tiredness and fatigue during processes of illness and recovery: A qualitative study of women recovered from fibromyalgia syndrome. Physiotherapy Theory and Practice. ISSN 0959-3985. 33(1), p. 31–40. doi: 10.1080/09593985.2016.1247933. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS), a chronic musculoskeletal pain condition, is often accompanied by fatigue. In this study, inspired by narrative approaches to health and illness, we explore how women who have regained their health after FMS describe tiredness along a storyline from before they fell ill, through their illness, recovery process, and present-day health. The data derive from qualitative interviews with eight Norwegian women who previously suffered from FMS but who no longer had the condition at the time of interview. We undertook a narrative analysis to understand the complexity of the stories about tiredness and fatigue and on this basis identified a storyline based on four sub-narratives: 1) Alarming but ignored tiredness (before illness); 2) paralyzing fatigue (during illness); 3) making sense of fatigue (recovery process); and 4) integrating tiredness into life (today). The findings highlight participants’ different understandings and meanings of tiredness and fatigue and the ways in which these link past, present, and future. Significantly, a clear distinction between tiredness and fatigue was not always found. Overall, the storyline that emerges from the narratives is about balancing tiredness/fatigue with everyday life, and how this unfolds in different ways across the span of FMS, from falling ill to recovering and regaining health.

• Lippe, Charlotte von der; Frich, Jan C; Harris, Anna & Solbrække, Kari Nyheim (2017). Treatment of hemophilia: A qualitative study of mothers’ perspectives. Pediatric Blood & Cancer. ISSN 1545-5009. 64, p. 121–127. doi: 10.1002/pbc.26167. Full text in Research Archive
• Solbrække, Kari Nyheim (2016). Gender, health and well-being. Perspectives, issues and future possibilities from the Norwegian context. In Warat, Anna; Krzaklewska, Ewa; Ratecka, Anna & Slany, Krystyna (Ed.), Gender Equality and Quality of Life: Perspectives from Poland and Norway. Peter Lang Publishing Group. ISSN 9783631675755. p. 173–194. Full text in Research Archive
• Solbrække, Kari Nyheim & Lorem, Geir F (2016). Breast-cancer-ization explored: Social experiences of gynaecological cancer in a Norwegian context. Sociology of Health and Illness. ISSN 0141-9889. 38(8), p. 1258–1271. doi: 10.1111/1467-9566.12459. Full text in Research Archive
• Thoresen, Lisbeth; Ahlzen, Rolf & Solbrække, Kari Nyheim (2016). Advance Care Planning in Norwegian nursing homes-Who is it for? Journal of Aging Studies. ISSN 0890-4065. 38, p. 16–26. doi: 10.1016/j.jaging.2016.04.003. Full text in Research Archive
• Aasbø, Gunvor; Solbrække, Kari Nyheim; Kristvik, Ellen Elisabeth & Werner, Anne (2016). Between disruption and continuity: challenges in maintaining the ‘biographical we’ when caring for a partner with a severe, chronic illness. Sociology of Health and Illness. ISSN 0141-9889. 38(5), p. 782–796. doi: 10.1111/1467-9566.12396. Full text in Research Archive
• Lippe, Charlotte von der; Frich, Jan C; Harris, Anna & Solbrække, Kari Nyheim (2016). Experiences of Being Heterozygous for Fabry Disease: a Qualitative Study. Journal of Genetic Counseling. ISSN 1059-7700. 25(5), p. 1085–1092. doi: 10.1007/s10897-016-9941-1. Full text in Research Archive
• Lerum, Sverre Vigeland; Solbrække, Kari Nyheim & Frich, Jan C (2016). Family caregivers’ accounts of caring for a family member with motor neurone disease in Norway: a qualitative study. BMC Palliative Care. 15(1). doi: 10.1186/s12904-016-0097-4. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Background Motor neurone disease (MND) is a progressive neurological disease causing muscle wasting, gradual paralysis, respiratory failure. MND care is demanding, complex and involves a variety of care tasks. Family members may experience significant and enduring strain. We conducted a qualitative study to understand more about family caregivers’ work and sense of responsibility, exploring family caregivers’ accounts of caring for a family member with MND. Methods We recruited and interviewed a total of 25 participants from Norway, including 17 current and eight bereaved family caregivers. Drawing on theories of care by Corbin and Strauss, we analysed the data by a theoretical reading of the material to identify different types of care work. Results We found that caregivers were engaged in five lines of care work that could be parallel or closely interconnected: i) immediate care work; ii) seeking information and clarity about the disease; iii) managing competing obligations; iv) maintaining normality; and v) managing external resources and assistance. Caregivers’ priorities were shaped by their interactions with the person with MND, available assistive devices, the development of the illness, and utilisation of paid care. Care work had a symbolic and moral meaning for caregivers, and was associated with self-worth and respect from others. Caregivers tried to balance their own expectations and others’ expectations without being overwhelmed by care work. Conclusions A changing and potentially chaotic situation for family caregivers may compromise their capacity to utilise supportive services. Using the lines of work as a framework to assess caregivers’ preferences and priorities, health professionals may tailor assistance and support to family members caring for persons with MND.

• Groven, Karen Synne; Galdas, Paul & Solbrække, Kari Nyheim (2015). Becoming a "normal" guy: Men making sense of long-term bodily changes following bariatric surgery. International Journal of Qualitative Studies on Health and Well-being. ISSN 1748-2623. 10:29923, p. 1–15. doi: 10.3402/qhw.v10.29923. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Background : To date, research on bodily changes following bariatri c surgery has focused predom inantly on women, leaving the long-term experience of men relatively unexplored. In th is paper, we draw on interviews with men who have undergone an irreversible gastric bypass procedure to explore their bodily changes more than 4 years post-surgery. We apply a phenomenological framework that draws on Leder’s perspectives on the ‘‘disappearing’ ’ and ‘‘dys-appearing’’ body, co mbined with a gender-sensitive lens that draws on Connell’s theory of hegemonic masculini ty and Robertson’s conception sofembodiedmasculinity. Findings : Our principal finding was that the men negotiated their bodily changes following bariatric surgery in profoundly ambivalent ways. Although they enthusiastically praised the surge ry for improving their health, self -esteem, and social functioning, they also emphasized their efforts to cope with post-surgical side eff ects and life-threatening complica tions. Our analysis elaborates on their efforts to adjust to and come to terms with these changes, focusing on episodes of hypoglycemia , severe pain and internal herniation ,and the significance of physical activity and exercise. Conclusions : Our findings point to the need to acknowledge men’s ways of making sense of profound and ongoing bodily changes following bariatric surgery and how these negotiations are closely intertwined with masculine ideals of embodiment and social value.

• Grape, Hedda; Solbrække, Kari Nyheim; Kirkevold, Marit & Mengshoel, Anne Marit (2015). Staying Healthy From Fibromyalgia Is Ongoing Hard Work. Qualitative Health Research. ISSN 1049-7323. 25(5), p. 679–688. doi: 10.1177/1049732314557333. Full text in Research Archive
• Lerum, Sverre Vigeland; Solbrække, Kari Nyheim; Holmøy, Trygve & Frich, Jan C (2015). Unstable terminality - negotiating the meaning of chronicity and terminality in motor neurone disease. Sociology of Health and Illness. ISSN 0141-9889. 37(1), p. 81–96. doi: 10.1111/1467-9566.12182. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This paper explores the meaning of chronicity and terminality in motor neurone disease (MND), also known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). There is no known cause or cure for MND, and expected survival is 2–5 years, but several interventions may improve or prolong life. This study draws on qualitative interview data with health professionals in hospitals and primary care, and family carers, in Norway. The actors emphasised chronic and terminal aspects in subtly different ways along the entire illness trajectory, also when recounting the trajectory in retrospect. As a consequence of improved health services and medical technology the distinction between chronicity and terminality has become more vague and sometimes ambiguous. We suggest the concept unstable terminality to describe this ambiguity. While MND is a fatal diagnosis; it may be contested, as contingencies and interventions create an indefinite time scope. The instability creates challenges for primary care which is dependent on prognostic information to organise their effort; hospitals tackle the instability by pre-scheduled consultations allowing for avoidance of an explicit prognosis. Some carers experienced what we understand as a disruption within the disruption, living with chronic and terminal illness simultaneously, which made the limbo phase more challenging to overcome.

• Solbrække, Kari Nyheim & Jordal, Maiken Marie (2015). Fra idealer til praksis. En Latour-inspirert studie av barnehageprosjektet ”Ergonomi og pedagogikk hånd i hånd – helse i hver bevegelse”. Nordisk barnehageforskning (NBF). 10(3). doi: 10.7577/nbf.1428. Full text in Research Archive
• Solbrække, Kari Nyheim & Bondevik, Hilde (2015). Absent organs – Present selves: Exploring embodiment and gender identity in young Norwegian women’s accounts of hysterectomy. International Journal of Qualitative Studies on Health and Well-being. ISSN 1748-2623. 10. doi: 10.3402/qhw.v10.26720. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  In this paper, we explore how younger women in Norway construct their embodiment and sense of self after hysterectomy. To do this, we conducted in-depth interviews with eight ethnic Norwegian women aged between 25 and 43 who had undergone hysterectomy. In line with a broad phenomenological approach to illness, the study was designed to explore the trajectories of the women’s illness with a specific focus on concrete human experience and identity claims from a subjective point of view. In analysing the stories, we encountered feelings of suffering due to the loss of the uterus as well as profound side-effects, such as menopause. However, we also found evidence of relief from being treated for heavy bleeding and serious illness. In order to accentuate the individual voices in these illness stories, we chose a case-oriented analysis in line with Radley and Chamberlain (2001) and Riessman (2008). From this, two main seemingly contradictory storylines stood out: They have removed what made me a woman versus Without a uterus, I feel more like a woman. We also identified heteronormativity as an unstated issue in both these storylines and in the research data as a whole. Acknowledging diversity in the way women experience hysterectomy is important for a better understanding of the ways in which hysterectomy may affect women as humans as well as for developing more cultural competent healthcare services for this group.

• Dahl-Michelsen, Tone & Solbrække, Kari Nyheim (2014). When bodies matters: significance of the body in gender constructions in physiotherapy education. Gender and Education. ISSN 0954-0253. 26(6), p. 672–687. doi: 10.1080/09540253.2014.946475. Full text in Research Archive
• Jordal, Kristin; Heggen, Kristin & Solbrække, Kari Nyheim (2014). Exploring the relationship between technology and care: A qualitative study of clinical practice for nursing students. Journal of Nursing Education and Practice (JNEP). ISSN 1925-4040. 5(2). doi: 10.5430/jnep.v5n2p58. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Background/Objective: The aim of this study is to explore the interaction between technology and care in the student-patient relationship during clinical practice training. In the traditional discourse on nursing, technology is seen as insignificant or secondary to the actual work of caring. Using new insights from the social sciences field on how to understand technology, this paper focuses on the important, but somehow underrated, relationship between technology and the human element in clinical practice. Methods: This article reports findings from a field study of Norwegian nursing students in hospital practice during second year training. Six women and three men participated in the study. The case-oriented analysis follows a cultural-analytical tradition in which the main objective is to investigate routines and ingrained conceptions in order to see familiar phenomenon and patterns in new ways. The main question was: How do Norwegian nursing students learn to handle technology and care in their education programme? Results: With a socio-cultural perspective on student learning and data from participant observation, the findings of this paper show various ways in which the presence of technology influences the interaction between students and patients. The study demonstrates how technology creates challenges for students in their interactional bedside work. However, technology is also revealed as offering new opportunities for contact and care. Conclusion: Technology and the human element are linked in complex ways in students’ bedside work. This aspect of bedside care has not yet been given sufficient attention in the nursing education programme. In our view, this is a matter of concern; we conclude that nursing education needs to include updated and more nuanced perspectives that will better address this complexity.

• Ahlsen, Birgitte; Bondevik, Hilde; Mengshoel, Anne Marit & Solbrække, Kari Nyheim (2014). (Un)doing gender in a rehabilitation context: A narrative analysis of gender and self in stories of chronic muscle pain. Disability and Rehabilitation. ISSN 0963-8288. 36(5), p. 359–366. doi: 10.3109/09638288.2013.793750. Full text in Research Archive

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• Dahl-Michelsen, Tone; Sekse, Ragnhild Johanne Tveit; Aasbø, Gunvor & Solbrække, Kari Nyheim (2025). Kjønn, helse og marginalisering. Cappelen Damm Akademisk. ISBN 9788202869090. 229 p. doi: 10.23865/cdf.249. Full text in Research Archive
• Solbrække, Kari Nyheim & Bondevik, Hilde (2024). Kreftoverlevelse på nye måter. Scandinavian Academic Press . ISBN 9788230403310. 253 p. doi: 10.62342/SAP.OA.2000. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  I dagens Norge er det mer enn 300 000 personer som har hatt kreft, eller som lever med kreftsykdom. Kunnskapen om de sosiale og personlige sidene ved det å overleve en kreftsykdom er likevel begrenset, noe denne boka tar opp i bred forstand. Vekker alle former for kreft, bivirkninger av behandlingen eller senvirkninger like mye empati? Hvilket språk er tilgjengelige for dem som rammes? Hvem setter dagsorden for hvordan sykdom generelt, og kreft spesielt, tas opp offentlig? Hvilke stemmer blir hørt? Og hvordan kan kreftoverlevere i større grad forstås og møtes på egne premisser? I denne antologien undersøker forskere med ulik fagbakgrunn hvordan det erfares å få kreft, og hvordan disse erfaringene er knyttet til storsamfunnets forestillinger om kreft og kreftoverlevelse. På film, i blogger og andre personlige beretninger beskrives ofte kreftoverleveren som en helt. På hvilken måte påvirker dette idealet om heroisme mennesker som lever med – og har levd med – kreft? Boka tar særlig for seg erfaringer med gynekologisk kreft, kolorektal kreft og lungekreft, kreftformer som har vært lite synlige i dagens kulturelle offentlighet. Den bygger på nyskapende forskning og vil være interessant for alle som er i berøring med kreft, også helsepersonell.

• Bondevik, Hilde; Madsen, Ole Jacob & Solbrække, Kari Nyheim (2017). Snart er vi alle pasienter. Medikalisering i Norden. Spartacus. ISBN 9788230401859. 385 p. Full text in Research Archive

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• Solbrække, Kari Nyheim (2024). "They push the talk about children up in your face". Fragments of reproductive citizenship in a Norwegian context. Full text in Research Archive
• Skilbrei, May-Len; Solbrække, Kari Nyheim & Holen, Mari (2024). Experience as Evidence: Patient organisations as knowledge agents. Full text in Research Archive
• Solbrække, Kari Nyheim & Bondevik, Hilde (2024). "Kreftoverlevelse på nye måter». Presentasjon av forskningsfunn og samtale. Full text in Research Archive
• Solbrække, Kari Nyheim (2024). Kreftoverlevelse i et sosio-kulturelt perspektiv; Noen hovedfunn knyttet til livet etter gynekologisk kreft. Full text in Research Archive
• Solbrække, Kari Nyheim (2024). Unpacking and contextualizing aspects of embodiment and gender in gynecological cancer survivorship. Full text in Research Archive
• Solbrække, Kari Nyheim & Bondevik, Hilde (2024). Kreftoverlevelse som tverrfaglig forskningsfelt. Full text in Research Archive
• Solbrække, Kari Nyheim (2024). Å gjøre stomien til en del av seg selv. Full text in Research Archive
• Solbrække, Kari Nyheim (2023). (Un)making the stoma as part of oneself. Full text in Research Archive
• Dahl-Michelsen, Tone; Sekse, Ragnhild Johanne Tveit; Aasbø, Gunvor & Solbrække, Kari Nyheim (2023). Hvor skarpt bør vi skille mellom kvinnehelse og mannshelse? Full text in Research Archive
• Solbrække, Kari Nyheim (2023). Unpacking Knowledge Translation; The negotiated medical fact and knowledge practices in cases of rape. Full text in Research Archive
• Solbrække, Kari Nyheim (2023). Why should lay epidemiology matter? Contesting public health ideas about ‘rational medical knowledge’ versus ‘citizens confused health beliefs? Full text in Research Archive
• Solbrække, Kari Nyheim (2023). Gjør sykdom oss sterkere? Mange syke får høre at motgangen vil gjøre dem sterkere. Men stemmer det. Fordøyelsen. Tidsskrift for landsforeningen mot fordøyelsessykdommer. Full text in Research Archive
• Solbrække, Kari Nyheim (2022). Å overleve kreft: Hvordan har vi det etterpå? Full text in Research Archive
• Solbrække, Kari Nyheim (2022). The negotiated medical fact and knowledge practices in cases of rape. Full text in Research Archive
• Solbrække, Kari Nyheim & Bondevik, Hilde (2021). Investigating narrative citizenship in the context of cancer. Full text in Research Archive
• Solbrække, Kari Nyheim & Bondevik, Hilde (2021). Rethinking cancer survivorship. Exploring the foundations of research on how humans experience and voice cancer in a Norwegian context. Full text in Research Archive
• Solbrække, Kari Nyheim (2021). Profesjoner, profesjonelle relasjoner og kjønn. Full text in Research Archive
• Solbrække, Kari Nyheim (2021). Om autoetnografisk metode. Eksempel frå egen forsking. Full text in Research Archive
• Solbrække, Kari Nyheim & Bondevik, Hilde (2020). Hva vil det si å erfare kreft? Full text in Research Archive
• Solbrække, Kari Nyheim (2020). Kjønnsperspektiver på sykdom og helse. Full text in Research Archive
• Aasbø, Gunvor & Solbrække, Kari Nyheim (2019). Rationalities of postponing screening: women’s interpretations of cancer risks and prevention. Full text in Research Archive
• Gripsrud, Birgitta Haga & Solbrække, Kari Nyheim (2019). Correction to: Scientific supremacy as an obstacle to establishing and sustaining interdisciplinary dialogue across knowledge paradigms in health and medicine (Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy, (2019), 22, 4, (631-637), 10.1007/s11019-019-09901-x). Medicine, Health care and Philosophy. ISSN 1386-7423. 22(4), p. 639–639. doi: 10.1007/s11019-019-09906-6. Full text in Research Archive
• Kvernflaten, Birgit & Solbrække, Kari Nyheim (2019). Derfor er eggdonasjon så kontroversielt. Full text in Research Archive
• Solbrække, Kari Nyheim & Gripsrud, Birgitta Haga (2018). Scientific supremacy as an obstacle to establishing and sustaining interdisciplinary dialogue across knowledge paradigms in health and medicine. Full text in Research Archive
• Solbrække, Kari Nyheim (2018). Hesitation as Disobedient Bio-Citizenship? Exploring non-compliance in the context of cervical cancer screening. Full text in Research Archive
• Eik, Hedda; Solbrække, Kari Nyheim; Kirkevold, Marit & Mengshoel, Anne Marit (2018). Å gjennvinne et akseptabelt liv- tilfriskningsprosesser fra fibromyalgi. Full text in Research Archive
• Solbrække, Kari Nyheim (2018). Concepts and experiences of fertility treatment. Full text in Research Archive
• Blixt, Line; Solbrække, Kari Nyheim & Bjorbærkmo, Wenche Schrøder (2017). The e-therapist: exploring electronic entries to patient-therapist relations. Full text in Research Archive
• Solbrække, Kari Nyheim (2016). (In)visible scars. Conceptualising bodily fluctuations and social uneasiness following hysterectomy. Full text in Research Archive
• Solbrække, Kari Nyheim (2016). Gendering Cancer. On the senses of being a secondary cancer survivor. Full text in Research Archive
• Solbrække, Kari Nyheim (2015). EnGendering Norwegian Policies on Health and Quality of Life. Why and How? Full text in Research Archive
• Solbrække, Kari Nyheim (2015). Breast-cancer-isation contested: Rethinking discourses of cancer-survivorship from a Nordic point of view. Full text in Research Archive
• Solbrække, Kari Nyheim (2015). Breast-cancer-isation explored: Social experiences of gyneacological cancer in a Norwegian context. Full text in Research Archive
• Solbrække, Kari Nyheim (2015). Intersectionality: Gender, class and ethnicity in Norway – examples and challenges from research on health and well-being. Full text in Research Archive
• Solbrække, Kari Nyheim & Thune, Henriette (2015). Walter Whites's (un)doings of heroic survivership. The value of addressing disregarded illness narratives by Bakhtin's concept of the aesthetic object. Full text in Research Archive
• Groven, Karen Synne & Solbrække, Kari Nyheim (2015). Negotiating bodily changes. Experiences of men four years after weight-loss surgery. Full text in Research Archive
• Lippe, Charlotte von der; Frich, Jan C; Anna, Harris & Solbrække, Kari Nyheim (2014). Experiences of being a carrier and mother of a child with hemophilia. European Journal of Human Genetics. ISSN 1018-4813. 22, p. 367–367. Full text in Research Archive
• Lippe, Charlotte von der; Solbrække, Kari Nyheim & Frich, Jan C (2018). Not just a carrier – A qualitative study of psychosocial aspects of women’s experiences of living with an X-linked disorder. Universitetet i Oslo. Full text in Research Archive
• Lerum, Sverre Vigeland; Frich, Jan C & Solbrække, Kari Nyheim (2017). Managing and caring for individuals with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis/motor neurone disease in Norway: a qualitative study. Universitetet i Oslo. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Amyotrofisk lateral sklerose (ALS) er en sykdom som fører til gradvis muskelsvinn. Forventet levetid varierer mellom 2 til 5 år, men enkelte kan leve betydelig lengre. Det er ingen kjent kur. Avhandlingen følger ALS gjennom norsk helsevesen – i hjemmet, kommunehelsetjenesten og på sykehus. Den er basert på 53 kvalitative intervjuer med tre grupper: personer med ALS og pårørende i hjemmet, helsepersonell i kommunehelsetjenesten og på sykehus. Omsorgsarbeidet i ALS er svært omfattende, og krever samarbeid mellom gruppene for at det hele ikke skal bryte sammen. Avhandlingen foreslår et nytt begrep, «ustabil terminalitet», som handler om en grunnleggende usikkerhet i ALS. Selv om en person med ALS blir stadig svakere og ikke blir frisk, er det i noen tilfeller mulig å forlenge forløpet nesten til ubestemt tid om en har arbeidskraft og teknologi tilgjengelig. De som er intervjuet kan veksle mellom å forstå ALS som et terminalt forløp hvor man forbereder seg på dø, eller et kronisk forløp hvor man er svært svak men forbereder seg på en hverdag. Å veksle mellom disse to tilnærmingene kan de gjøre gjennom hele forløpet, også når de ser tilbake i ettertid. Slik ustabil terminalitet utfordrer hva man skal gjøre i gjenopplivingssituasjoner, hva slags helsetjenester man skal ta i bruk (for eksempel hospice) og det kan bli konflikt mellom personer om noen i forløpet arbeider mot å forberede seg på døden, mens andre ikke gjør det. I avhandlingen presenteres forskjellige typer omsorgsarbeid i ALS fra pårørendeperspektiv. For eksempel hvordan pårørende jobber for å finne informasjon om sykdommen, håndtere andre forpliktelser, opprettholde normalitet eller tar i bruk helsepersonell hjemme. Pårørende må gjennom ALS-forløpet balansere egen kapasitet, behov og forventninger til seg selv og fra andre. Deltakerne i studien som arbeider i kommunehelsetjenesten forteller om store utfordringer. Personer med ALS bor stort sett hjemme hos seg selv. Oppgavene kommunehelsetjenesten skal utføre der er kompliserte og alvorlige – liv og død står på spill. Deltakerne fra kommunehelsetjenesten forteller om utfordringer med å sikre godt arbeidsmiljø til ansatte og å holde på personell over tid. I enkelte kommuner forteller deltakerne om store rekrutteringsproblemer, som i noen tilfeller baserer seg på rykter i området.

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