Karl Hedman

I am Assistant Professor in Management and Organisation in Health and Social Care at the University of Borås. I have a PhD in Sociology from Lund University. My doctoral thesis is about medical emergency calls to the Stockholm emergency centre.

My research on older people focuses on the strengths of and support for vulnerable older people in the US state of Louisiana. The study is based on five years of ethnographic fieldwork with participant observation in municipal elder care with older African American women. The majority of the elderly participants experienced housing insecurity, and lack of continuity of home care and medication. Following the study, I was awarded the International Journal of Older People Nursing Award for Outstanding Methodological Innovation in Gerontological Nursing Research.

I am also researching inter-organisational collaboration around suicidal people. The study examines how fire and rescue services, ambulance, police, SOS Alarm and psychiatry respond to suicide alarms, work to prevent suicide and coordinate crisis support efforts to survivors and professionals after suicide.

I have conducted a study on newly arrived students' participation and barriers in classroom interaction in Swedish as a second language in an upper secondary school. The study is based on ethnographic fieldwork with participant observations in Swedish as a second language classes in the language introduction and care programmes at a Swedish upper secondary school, 2017-2024.

Publications (in selection)

Hedman, K. (2023) Interagency collaboration in suicide prevention. Traumatology. Advance online publication 

Hedman K. Strengths and support of older people affected by precarity in South Louisiana. (2019). Int J Older People Nurs. e12232 

Hedman, K. (2016). Managing Medical Emergency Calls. [Doctoral thesis]. Lund University