The Faculty of Health Sciences at UiS organized the course “Simulation-based learning in nursing education” from April 17th to April 21th, where nursing students from Lithuania, Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Norway participated.
The gathering is named Norplus SimCamp, and is financially supported by Nordplus Kalmar Vårdunion. The venue for the course was SAFER (Stavanger Acute Medicine Foundation for Education and Research) in Stavanger. The students also spent one day at UiS and one day at HelseCampus Stavanger. The objective of the course is to strengthen the students’ competences through simulation in a multicultural and international team. Prior to the course, the participants had to read relevant literature related to theme of the scenarios. In addition to the simulation exercises the students also participated in a variety of social activities, for instance a visit to the Pulpit Rock.
Positive impression of the trip
One of the international students that went to Stavanger for this occasion is Timo Tervaskanto from South-Eastern Finland University of Applied Sciences. He thinks the concept is very beneficial for cooperating with nurses from other countries in the future, and learned a lot about differences between working cultures among the participators.
“I am considering working in Norway or Sweden in the future. Therefore it was interesting to learn how the nursing students in these countries handled the different simulation cases. The biggest difference I see compared to Finland is that we have more room for making decisions ourselves at work than they do,” says Tervaskanto.
He thinks that Stavanger is a very beautiful city. During the hike to the Pulpit Rock Tervaskanto told the other nursing students that he had not laughed this loud since last year’s simulation camp.
Excited about simulation exercises
His fascination is also shared with Anna Garde, who is studying at University College of Northern Denmark. She says that it has been super exciting to simulate with other nationalities, and she thinks that simulation is the best way to learn.
Why would you recommend others to participate in future simulation camps?
“It’s a great way to challenge your own limits and finding out that it’s not that dangerous to try new things. I also believe it’s exciting to simulate in english and try to be comfortable with using the language at work. You also get to meet a lot of other nursing students from different countries,” answers Garde.
Even though most of the nursing students that participated during the simulation camp were from other universities, five of them are studying at UiS. One of them is Desirée Wennerlund. She wanted to participate because she believes that it’s a great opportunity to meet students from other countries.
“I have learned that the countries gathered here have different ways of solving simulation scenarios. At the same time I am impressed about the group discussions and reflections about these differences. On some occasions I also learned that the other countries may have a better knowledge of simulation,” concludes Wennerlund.
Text: Eigil Kloster Osmundsen
| External participants | University |
|---|---|
| Lithuania | Kaunas University of Applied Sciences |
| Sweden | Linnaeus University |
| Finland | Savonia University of Applied Sciences |
| Finland | South-Eastern Finland University of Applied Sciences |
| Denmark | University College of Northern Denmark |
| Norway | Western Norway University of Applied Sciences (HVL) |