Könsstympning av flickor i Sverige : En intervjustudie om skolsköterskors resonemang kring sitt arbete med och för flickor som riskerar att bli eller redan är utsatta för könsstympning

Sammanfattning: Each year around 3.9 million girls around the world are victims to female genital mutilation/cutting. This custom is often a consequence of traditional, social and cultural norms within a society. In Sweden, female genital mutilation/cutting is illegal and punishable by law, and professionals have obligations to report if there is suspicion that a girl either is, or is at risk of being genitally mutilated/cut. School nurses who regularly interact with young girls as a part of their profession have the best prerequisite for discovering and aiding victims and potential victims of female genital mutilation. The purpose of this study was to examine how school nurses reason in order to aid girls who either are, or are at risk of being victims of genital mutilation/cutting. This study was based on four semi-structured interviews with four different school nurses, in which their own reasoning in regards to female genital mutilation/cutting have been highlighted. In conclusion, all of the school nurses interviewed considered building trust to be the key element to aiding victimized girls. Furthermore; the school nurses argued that female genital mutilation/cutting is a sensitive subject, and that they sometimes struggle with distancing themselves from their own feelings in regards to the subject. They asserted that competence-development is a good start toward helping professionals who are in touch with victims and potential victims of female mutilation/cutting at a regular basis to manage their own feelings and address the target group professionally. The school nurses also emphasized that while the medical perspective plays an important role in competence-building, so does the cultural and social perspective when it comes to preventing female genital mutilation/cutting.