Student projects for health promotion in the primary health care sector ? the design process of a Self Care St

Health promotion is seen as an important part of health care in Finland. However, at the same time, limited resources hinder the possibilities to develop health promoting measures on the local level, in municipalities and in health centres offering primary health services for local residents. In this paper, an example is given of how a local university of applied sciences and its students can work as enablers of health promotion in collaboration with regional health service providers. When working in real-life development projects, the students gain experience at the same time as the health care sector and the local residents benefit from the end results, providing a win-win situation for all parties. A case in point is the development process of two Self-Care Stations in two municipalities in the western Uusimaa region in southern Finland, in the municipalities of Karkkila and Vihti. The Self-Care Stations are easy-access services for giving opportunities to monitor one?s health and get information by oneself, at a suitable time, in order to take more responsibility for the self-management of one? own health. At the same time, Self Care Stations relieve the nurses? time from blood pressure measurements to be devoted to life-style counselling. The Self Care Stations have proven to be an important part of the service palette of the health centres. According to the feedback, the Self Care Stations in Karkkila and Vihti have succeeded in raising the clients' awareness of their own health and their own possibilities to have an influence on it. The Self Care Station piloting presented in this paper has been transformed into an ongoing service.