Snaebjorn Omar Gudjonsson, RN, MSc, is a psychiatric clinical nurse specialist (CNS) at Akureyri Hospital (SAk), Iceland. He is employed by the department of psychiatry which uses DNV-GL quality procedures and has received international accreditation for its operation. Snaebjorn has been a Quality liaison at the psychiatric ward in recent years, i.e., working on implementation and policymaking in therapeutics. The hospital provides specialized health care services in the northern and eastern part of Iceland and has adopted the Calgary Family Assessment and Intervention models to guide practice. Snaebjorn serves as the assistant coordinator of the implementation group. Research related to the implementation of family nursing at SAk is being led by the University of Akureyri. 

Snaebjorn is also one of the two implementation coordinators of Multifamily Group Therapy at the outpatient department of psychiatry at SAk. The project is a collaboration with Centre de Terapia Interfamiliar (Elche, Spain) and Centre Neuro Psychiatrique Saint Martin (Namur, Belgium). These institutions are among several in Europe that are participating in an Erasmus project: Digitalizing a network for peer collaboration and learning in family and community resources for workers in the social, educational, and mental health sectors. One of the main products will be the creation of a platform for sharing and learning about community and family resources.

Snaebjorn also serves on behalf of SAk in a collaboration with the National University Hospital, University of Akureyri, and the University of Iceland where data is being collected from participants with Serious Mental Illnesses (SMI). The results of this study will be used to evaluate the relationship of recovery and quality of life with services and treatment of individuals dealing with SMI in the mental health system in Iceland.

In his master’s thesis, Snaebjorn examined the recovery of patients with severe depression in inpatient rural psychiatry. The results were published in 2020 in the Nordic Journal of Psychiatry. Snaebjorn is also a co-author of a recent article (2020) focused on the impact of the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental-health services in Europe. 

For more information, contact IFNA member Snaebjorn Omar Gudjonsson.

Henny Hraunfjord is a doctoral candidate at the University of Iceland and a nursing manager at a respite and rehabilitation ward for children with chronic illnesses and/or disabilities at Landspitali the National Hospital of Iceland.  Henny is a member of an International Pediatric research group, FAMA – CI research group, led by Dr. Erla Kolbrun Svavarsdottir, which includes study participants from four countries and examines the adaptation and impact of pediatric chronic illness on family life from the Nordic and southern European perspective. Henny has also worked with Dr. Erla Kolbrun Svavarsdottir and Dr. Anna Olafia Sigurdardottir on studies focused on family nursing education and nurses’ attitudes towards family nursing and on the benefits of therapeutic conversations in pediatric nursing. In her dissertation, she will be addressing emotional support needs and the adaptation of families of children with chronic illnesses and nurses’ attitudes towards family nursing. IFNA member, Dr. Erla Kolbrun Svavarsdottir and Dr. Suzanne M. Thoyre are members of Henny’s dissertation committee. For more information, contact IFNA member Henny Hraunfjord.

Twitter: @HennyHraunfjord

LinkedIn:  www.linkedin.com/in/hennyh

Karyn Roberts PhD, MSN, RN, CHSE, is a Clinical Assistant Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, USA. Her research focuses on pediatric obesity, and specifically on children with severe obesity and the sequelae that result from their obesity. Her dissertation research was a qualitative study that examined the experiences of families with children that attended a clinic-based weight management program. In this study, Dr. Robert’s sought to understand the day-to-day experiences of families and children with severe obesity as they manage their disease and implement recommended medical and lifestyle treatments. Given what is known about pediatric obesity and limited progress in treating it, Dr. Roberts is now exploring what is missing in how health providers approach treatment interventions and how children and their families interact with health providers and manage their disease day-to-day. Most current research focuses on short-term program-based interventions; Dr. Roberts is committed to expanding knowledge about children with obesity who are being medically managed along with their families across time.

The theoretical framework that guides Karyn’s investigations is the Family Management Systems Framework. She used this framework to guide the analysis of her work with families of children with obesity. Now, she is using the framework to inform interventions with providers of obesity care.

Dr. Roberts has received many awards including the Daisy Faculty Award from the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) College of Nursing (2013), the Denise and Seth Rosen Research Award from the UIC College of Nursing (2019), the Sigma-Alpha Lambda Chapter Research Award in (2019), and the Sigma Small Grant award from Sigma Theta Tau International (2019). She is co-chair of the International Research Collaboration Subcommittee of the IFNA Research Committee.

For more information, contact  IFNA member Karyn Roberts.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/DrOakie22

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karyn-roberts-0a685765/

The 27th Annual Conference of the Japanese Association for Research in Family Nursing (JARFN) was a virtual conference held from September 1-28, 2020.

Despite initial planning by conference organizers to host the conference at a venue in Nagoya, Aichi, Japan, they hurriedly decided to shift to an online virtual platform at the end of April 2020 following the COVID-19 outbreak. This was a new experience for the planning committee members, requiring a trial and error approach. They gathered information from JARFN members who had previous experience with virtual conferences and solicited opinions about the new format JARFN was exploring.

The main theme of the conference was “Mirai wo Hiraku (Open the future),” with a desire to open the future to diverse families; the conference was also connected to the theme of the previous conference, “Kokoro wo Tsunagu (Connecting hearts).” A special lecture was offered by Dr. Takeshi Tamura, titled “Family narrative as a health care professional and a concerned party: Attachment and gender.” Two symposiums were held: “Connecting the 26^th, 27^th, and 28^thacademic conferences” and “Kazoku wo Hiraku, Kazoku ga Hiraku (Open the families and the family opens). A lecture open to the public was offered by Prof. Miho Matsunaga and focused on “The Story of Family Loss and Rebirth as Seen in Heidi.” In addition, 14 exchange meetings were organized by each standing committee of JARFN, and there were  30 oral and 40 poster presentations as well. Oral and poster presentations were organized by distributing slide videos in advance and subsequently conducting an online Q&A (via Zoom) or by chatting on the homepage so that presenters could exchange ideas with the participants.

A total of 573 people (306 members, 198 non-members, and 69 students) participated in the conference. We thank all the participants and academic societies for their warm support and cooperation at this annual conference.

For more information, contact IFNA member Dr. Midori Asano, Chairperson of the 27^th Annual Conference of JARFN.