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Attitudes towards Addressing Medical Absenteeism of Students: A Qualitative Study among Principals and Special Education Needs Coordinators in Dutch Secondary Schools

BACKGROUND: Reducing school absenteeism benefits the health and educational opportunities of young people. The Dutch intervention Medical Advice for Sick-reported Students (abbreviated as MASS) was developed to address school absenteeism due to sickness reporting, also called medical absenteeism. Th...

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Autores principales: Vanneste, Yvonne, van de Loo, Marlou, Feron, Frans, Rots – de Vries, Carin, van de Goor, Ien
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4742281/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26845688
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0148427
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author Vanneste, Yvonne
van de Loo, Marlou
Feron, Frans
Rots – de Vries, Carin
van de Goor, Ien
author_facet Vanneste, Yvonne
van de Loo, Marlou
Feron, Frans
Rots – de Vries, Carin
van de Goor, Ien
author_sort Vanneste, Yvonne
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Reducing school absenteeism benefits the health and educational opportunities of young people. The Dutch intervention Medical Advice for Sick-reported Students (abbreviated as MASS) was developed to address school absenteeism due to sickness reporting, also called medical absenteeism. This study is part of a research project on the effectiveness of MASS and explores factors that influence the implementation and dissemination of the intervention, from schools’ perspectives. The research questions include reasons schools have to implement MASS, their experiences in the implementation of MASS and their views on what is needed to ensure sustainable implementation. METHODS: A qualitative research method was used. Semi-structured interviews were held with nine principals and eight special education needs coordinators, working in nine secondary schools that apply MASS. Inductive content analysis was carried out. FINDINGS: The main reasons for schools to address medical absenteeism were their concerns about students’ well-being and future prospects and their wish to share these concerns with students’ parents. Participants also mentioned the wish to raise the threshold for reporting sick. According to the participants, MASS makes it easier for teachers to enter into conversation with students and their parents about medical absence. MASS prevents damage to the relationship with parents and medical problems being missed. In implementing MASS the main obstacles are teachers’ dialogue about medical absence with students and their parents, teachers’ follow-up of the feedback of the youth health care physicians (YHCPs), and correct registration. The participants were convinced that MASS also improves collaboration with parents regarding the optimization of care for students. CONCLUSIONS: MASS allows schools to identify students at risk of dropout at an early stage and to optimise guidance of these students. The intervention matches schools’ need to address medical absenteeism by providing a clear framework, an approach from concern rather than control, and socio-medical expertise through the collaboration with YHCPs. MASS can support schools to maximize the number of students graduating and to improve parental involvement in school. These outcomes may help to put the subject of addressing medical absenteeism on the agenda of all schools, and contribute to prioritization, support adoption and secure sustainable implementation and dissemination of MASS.
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spelling pubmed-47422812016-02-11 Attitudes towards Addressing Medical Absenteeism of Students: A Qualitative Study among Principals and Special Education Needs Coordinators in Dutch Secondary Schools Vanneste, Yvonne van de Loo, Marlou Feron, Frans Rots – de Vries, Carin van de Goor, Ien PLoS One Research Article BACKGROUND: Reducing school absenteeism benefits the health and educational opportunities of young people. The Dutch intervention Medical Advice for Sick-reported Students (abbreviated as MASS) was developed to address school absenteeism due to sickness reporting, also called medical absenteeism. This study is part of a research project on the effectiveness of MASS and explores factors that influence the implementation and dissemination of the intervention, from schools’ perspectives. The research questions include reasons schools have to implement MASS, their experiences in the implementation of MASS and their views on what is needed to ensure sustainable implementation. METHODS: A qualitative research method was used. Semi-structured interviews were held with nine principals and eight special education needs coordinators, working in nine secondary schools that apply MASS. Inductive content analysis was carried out. FINDINGS: The main reasons for schools to address medical absenteeism were their concerns about students’ well-being and future prospects and their wish to share these concerns with students’ parents. Participants also mentioned the wish to raise the threshold for reporting sick. According to the participants, MASS makes it easier for teachers to enter into conversation with students and their parents about medical absence. MASS prevents damage to the relationship with parents and medical problems being missed. In implementing MASS the main obstacles are teachers’ dialogue about medical absence with students and their parents, teachers’ follow-up of the feedback of the youth health care physicians (YHCPs), and correct registration. The participants were convinced that MASS also improves collaboration with parents regarding the optimization of care for students. CONCLUSIONS: MASS allows schools to identify students at risk of dropout at an early stage and to optimise guidance of these students. The intervention matches schools’ need to address medical absenteeism by providing a clear framework, an approach from concern rather than control, and socio-medical expertise through the collaboration with YHCPs. MASS can support schools to maximize the number of students graduating and to improve parental involvement in school. These outcomes may help to put the subject of addressing medical absenteeism on the agenda of all schools, and contribute to prioritization, support adoption and secure sustainable implementation and dissemination of MASS. Public Library of Science 2016-02-04 /pmc/articles/PMC4742281/ /pubmed/26845688 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0148427 Text en © 2016 Vanneste et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Vanneste, Yvonne
van de Loo, Marlou
Feron, Frans
Rots – de Vries, Carin
van de Goor, Ien
Attitudes towards Addressing Medical Absenteeism of Students: A Qualitative Study among Principals and Special Education Needs Coordinators in Dutch Secondary Schools
title Attitudes towards Addressing Medical Absenteeism of Students: A Qualitative Study among Principals and Special Education Needs Coordinators in Dutch Secondary Schools
title_full Attitudes towards Addressing Medical Absenteeism of Students: A Qualitative Study among Principals and Special Education Needs Coordinators in Dutch Secondary Schools
title_fullStr Attitudes towards Addressing Medical Absenteeism of Students: A Qualitative Study among Principals and Special Education Needs Coordinators in Dutch Secondary Schools
title_full_unstemmed Attitudes towards Addressing Medical Absenteeism of Students: A Qualitative Study among Principals and Special Education Needs Coordinators in Dutch Secondary Schools
title_short Attitudes towards Addressing Medical Absenteeism of Students: A Qualitative Study among Principals and Special Education Needs Coordinators in Dutch Secondary Schools
title_sort attitudes towards addressing medical absenteeism of students: a qualitative study among principals and special education needs coordinators in dutch secondary schools
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4742281/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26845688
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0148427
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