Higher education student and staff mobility projec..
Higher education student and staff mobility project
Start date: Jun 1, 2014,
End date: May 31, 2016
PROJECT
FINISHED
The Swedish Red Cross University College (SRCUC) is run by the non-profit foundation Röda Korshemmet which belongs to the Swedish Red Cross organisation. The main area of education at the SRCUC is nursing at both first and second cycle. Because of its relation with the world wide Red Cross movement, internationalisation is a natural and integrated part of the university college. Mobilities for students, faculty and staff are important activities within the internationalization strategy of SRCUC. One main objective of the mobilities enabled through the Erasmus+ projects is to give students, faculty and staff the possibility to widen and deepen the knowledge of relevant subject areas, such as nursing, public health and medicine. Other major objectives are the development of intercultural perspectives on health care, nursing and pedagogical methods among faculty as well as students.
Within this project ten students, studying their sixth and last semester at the bachelor programme in nursing have studied three months of both theoretical and clinical education at our partner universities. Three faculty members have joined the staff mobility at nursing departments of the partner universities. Two of these faculty members participated in staff mobility for training with the purpose of getting insight in the organisation and combination of clinical and theoretical education within primary health care. The third faculty member joined the staff mobility for teaching with the objective of teaching gender issues and cultural diversity. An additional focus of this exchange period was to elaborate upon development of new pedagogical methods for student centered learning together with students and faculty members of the nursing department.
The international coordinator from the international office at the SRCUC took part in the staff mobility for training by visiting the central international office at one of the partner universities. The aim was to understand the organisation and working methods of the office as well as of the collaboration between the central international office and the Erasmus coordinator at the nursing department.
The main result of the student mobilites, for the individual participants, include a deeper cultural understanding in general and in relation to health care contexts and health care systems in specific, improved language skills, a wider understanding of the subject of nursing, the pedagogical methods in nursing education and of the roles and responsibilities of nurses both in theory and in the clinical practice. The students who participate in the Erasmus+ programme are in the final stage of their nursing education, meaning that they will bring these new perspectives and insights with them when they start their professional career as nurses. The experiences gained from the programme can also be an encouragement to take the step to pursue an international career as a nurse.
The result of the faculty members’ participation in staff mobility have also widened the individual teachers' perspectives on their respective teaching area as well as on the forms of teaching and pedagogical methods applied in the nursing education. The mobility has also had a positive impact on their confidence in using the English language in the teaching. By the exposure to other nursing education systems they have also increased their understanding of the educational background of the incoming Erasmus students at the SRCUC. All these impacts of the mobilities have both short- and long term effects on the teaching activities of the faculty members, leading to reflections and maybe changes of their own teaching.
The benefits of the international coordinator after taking part in the mobility are many, one being facilitation of the collaboration with other international offices, another is getting inspiration for development of the international work at home.
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