News
(16.3.2020)
Our faculty’s experience with the education of transcultural nursing has inspired the representatives of the international BENEFITS project
From Thursday, February 27 to Friday, February 28, representatives of the project ‘Better & Effective Nursing Education for Improving Transcultural Nursing Skills (BENEFITS)’ – of which our faculty is the only representative from the Czech Republic, gathered in České Budějovice. The project connects six European faculties. As well as those from FHSS USB, professionals from Turkey, Belgium, Slovenia, Hungary and Spain are also involved in the project. Their shared goal is to prepare a new curriculum for the education of transcultural nursing based on the results of analyses of the existing curriculum and the cultural competence of students - so that education in this area becomes more effective. Currently this is an important topic: we live in a globalized world, and nurses (as well as other medical staff) frequently meet people from other cultures and are required to provide care with respect to these people’s cultural habits, needs and expectations.
The first meeting was in Istanbul, Turkey, last year. This initiative arose from Hasan Kalyoncu University in Gaziantep, Turkey. Our faculty has become a significant partner because the Institute of Nursing, Midwifery and Emergency Care FHSS USB contains a group of professionals who have dealt with transcultural nursing for a long time. “We gained the project within the programme ERASMUS+ KA203 Strategic Partnerships for higher education,” stated the Vice-Dean for Science and Research and the Director of the Institute of Nursing, Midwifery and Emergency Care prof. PhDr. Valérie Tóthová, Ph.D., who is also the project solver for the FHSS USB. She involved the entire team of academic workers that deal with transcultural nursing in the project. During the meeting in České Budějovice, prof. Tóthová helped the guests from foreign universities to get acquainted with the way this topic is taught at our faculty. She also explained the content of lectures in both programmes. Bachelor degree students of the Nursing study branch take the subject ‘Multicultural Nursing’ in the 3rd year. They then take the subject of ‘Problems of Minorities in Nursing Care’ in the 2nd year of their Master’s studies. These subjects are compulsory, which differs to other countries where they are mostly offered as optional courses—and sometimes Multicultural Nursing is only a part of another subject.
After this, Dr. Olišarová from the Institute of Nursing, Midwifery and Emergency Care (UOP) introduced the foreign guests to the precise content of seminars in which they deal with these problems in a practical way. Thanks to the involvement of the academic staff in the research projects, they have already been in contact with various minorities and this experience is very useful for their seminars with students. Prof. Tóthová said: “The representatives of the BENEFITS project were very surprised at how much we deal with this topic. Concerning research, our faculty is the best because we already have the results of five research projects—including publications about them.”
In these projects, FHSS USB focused on national minorities living in our country: Romany, Vietnamese, Chinese, Mongolian, Ukrainian and Russian. The project also deals with subcultures and religious minorities (Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, Judaism, Jehovah's Witness, Mormons, scientology). The knowledge our faculty has collected really impressed the participants in the project. As a result, a brisk discussion took place about the option of choosing this subject, as well as about which school year is the best time to teach it. Prof. Tóthová said:”I believe that our curriculum is really very good. In some places they teach it in the first year, but according to our experience it will be better understood by older and mature students who already know the context and can better interconnect their knowledge”. The participants were also acquainted with the curriculum analysis in Slovenia, and divided the tasks for the next meeting that will be held in Barcelona in October. Prof. Dr. Ayla Yava, Directress of the Institute of Health Sciences, Hasan Kalyoncu University, Turkey, was very satisfied with the the meeting in České Budějovice. “We have fulfilled the planned agenda, the representatives from Czech and Slovenian parties completed their presentations very responsibly, and the entire event has been inspirational,” she said.
The BENEFITS project is a three-year project, and next May a pilot verification of the created programme will take place in Belgium, which will include the participation of students and the solver's team from the particular states. At the end, a publication will be produced in which the results and recommendations for improvement of the education in transcultural nursing will be summarized.
The UOP members, in particular doc. Trešlová, Dr. Olišarová and Mgr. Franková actively participated in both the preparation and implementation of the České Budějovice meeting. The administrative part was completed by prof. Tóthová and Ing. Ředinová, coordinator of foreign cooperations. Prof Tóthová said:”I would like to thank all of the colleagues for their perfect cooperation and I am convinced that we will continue to work together in this project with the same enthusiasm." Finally, the foreign guests visited the Simulation Centre for Health Study Programmes—which has just been created at our faculty and is already equipped with health equipment and beds for high fidelity simulators. They were excited by this modern education method and observed the spaces as well as the equipment with great interest. In their opinion, the way the simulation centre focuses on the non-medical professions is very useful and unique. Some of them have seen similar centres elsewhere in the world, but those serve more for the education of doctors.
