PROJECT ANNOTATION

Clinical practice presents an integral part of education of healthcare workers. Part of the practice can be fulfilled in healthcare facilities abroad where students work under supervision of foreign mentors for 2 – 4 months during one semester. A nurse mentors becomes a key person as she/he guides the student through „foreign/different“ environment, supervises the student and evaluates the proces of clinical learning. The foreign clinical mentor thus plays an important role in professional development of the students as well as nursing practice within the wider geographical and cultural concept.

The goal of the project is to identify the needs of the international students as well as their clinical mentors. Current courses for clinical mentors do not pay special attention to the needs of students and mentors who are from different countries and might be evaluated by different cultural and professional practice backgrounds. Therefore, we aim to develop a MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) focused on development of cultural knowledge and skills of European mentors.

Our project partner is Western Norway University of Applied Sciences (HVL), Faculty of Health and Social Sciences, Bergen, Norway. We have been cooperating with this institution for more than 10 years within the Erasmus + programme involving the baccalaureate nursing students. As Third Faculty of Medicine is currently offering a new master’s degree programme in Intensive nursing care we plan to offer the chance of clinical studies abroad to those students as well.

Working meeting at Western Norway University

We visited our partner institution Western Norway University of Applied Sciences from 18. to 21. October, 2021. The Institution has schools in Haugesund and Bergen and it was our intent to see the environment and meet the colleagues in both cities. The goal of the visit was to work on the form and content of the intellectual outcome of the project, which is a MOOC for international mentors in healthcare.

Together with Ingrid Gilje Heiberg and Kristin Adnoy Eriksen we worked on the chapters of the course, defined the best suitable platform for our purpose – Canvas, and visited MediaLab Studio in Bergen which will have an important role in development of the MOOC. Since the experience and the needs of mentors in nursing are an integral part of the MOOC, they were also involved in the meetings within their peer learning activities. Bc. Kateřina Kohoutová from Clinic of Surgery of FNKV and Mgr. Jaroslava Saxlová from Department of Neonatology of FNB have been cooperating with our Department of Nursing for a long time. Their goal was to meet the teachers and mentors of the partner institution, share experiences and discuss the needs of the international students. Kateřina and Jaroslava very much appreciated being able to see the simulation labs and clinical environment, where the nursing education takes place.

Working meeting at Third Faculty of Medicine

16th to 18th February 2022 was the period of other planned activities within the project. We welcomed in our colleagues Ingrid Gilje Heiberg, Kristin Adnoy Eriksen and Lotte Pannenkoeke from Western Norway University. We also were happy to be able to host Liv Marie Aursland and Kamilla Gronlin, the mentors from the partner hospital in Haugesund. The aim of the visit was to define the structure of the chapters of MOOC, and working with the Canvas using the support of IT technologies.

Mentors from Haugesund as well as Prague were involved in the discussion and concrete planning of the chapters of the course and we value their input. The main goal for Liv Marie and Kamilla was to get acquainted with the content of the nursing programme and the school and clinical environment where our students prepare for the profession of general nurse. We all visited simulation labs in the buildings of the 3rd FM and hospital departments. Our nurse mentor Bc. Katerina Kohoutova showed us Surgical ICU of FNKV where she works and mentors international nursing students. The we moved on to the Hospital Bulovka to visit Mgr. Jaroslava Saxlova who is also very active colleague and mentor cooperating with us on the project. Jaroslava has good experience with mentoring international students at the Department of Neonatology. All colleagues from Haugesund were pleased with the positive attitude of the nurses and nurse managers who support our mentors and international students. They also highly value the fact that the international students are involved in direct care of the patients and gain many new knoeldge and skills.