MANAGEMENT ROLE. Kristina Falk has passed the torch to Carina Sparud Lundin who is now the new Deputy Head of the Institute of Health and Care Sciences. They both have a broad commitment to educational issues, which remain the main focus area of the Deputy Head at the institute.
Carina Sparud Lundin has a background as a pediatric nurse and is now an associate professor at the Institute of Health and Care Sciences. Her research relates, among other subjects, to children and young people with chronic illnesses for example in terms of how they can better handle the transition from pediatric care to adult care. Just like her predecessor Kristin Falk, she has a strong interest in education and pedagogy.
“As the Deputy Head and Education Coordinator at the institute, my work takes place at several levels. I am committed to a wide range of educational issues both at the faculty and university level, as well as student rights issues pertaining to individual students,” says Carina.
Being the newly appointed Deputy Head, she now devotes a lot of time to getting acquainted with the current issues, but as she has been Head of Section at the institute for several years, she has been able to follow Kristina’s work and is fairly well-informed about the department’s educational matters:
“Collaboration with other departments within the Sahlgrenska Academy and interprofessional learning are some of the important questions for the institute when it comes to the the educational area,” says Carina.
Strong expansion
The Institute of Health and Care Sciences is currently growing in leaps and bounds. The educational assignment has been greatly expanded and will continue to grow over the next few years. In 2018, the nursing program in Gothenburg will have 732 full-year students, which is an increase of more than 35 per cent since 2012.
This means that recruitment is currently one of the department’s greatest challenges.
“We have a great need for teachers but have been unable to recruit them fast enough. At the same time, we are facing major retirements,” says Carina, adding:
“We are not alone in seeing our programs grow, and we are competing for teachers with other universities in the region who also need more teachers. But I think that we are an attractive employer since we are part of a university that allows us to offer combined positions and fully integrated education and research environments for new senior lecturers. The Centre for Person-centred Care (GPCC) is an example of such an environment, which is important to the development towards person-centred care throughout the country.
She notes that there are other departments in western Sweden who have a significantly harder time recruiting the teachers they need:
“One of our greatest strengths lies in having such a solid educational expertise among our teachers. Now, we are primarily hiring senior lecturers in order to fulfil our educational mission, but also a smaller number of lecturers.
This summer, five or six new teachers will start working at the department, and another one is starting in the autumn.”
Institute with educational expertise
The Institute of Health and Care Sciences has invested a lot in its educational expertise, which became apparent for example after the first round of the Excellent Teacher award. At the time, the small institute was the only one at the University of Gothenburg to get two awards (Annica Lagström och Helle Wijk).
The teachers that the institute is now hiring are to a greater extent than previously active researchers and they often have less experience teaching, which means that they need more of an introduction to the teaching profession. The institute is doing educational breakfasts and development days to maintain its high level of educational ambition. There are also other educational projects underway at the institute, such as the testing of new forms of activity-integrated learning.
Educating more midwives
Even if the nursing program will grow the most in terms of the number of places, the midwife program is also being expanded. Next year, the program will be nearly twice the size as before. At that time, the number of places will increase, while the program will also accept students in the spring term. The institute has introduced a Master’s progam specialising in reproductive and perinatal health, the first of its kind in Sweden.
“We already have many teachers with a high level of expertise when it comes to reproductive and perinatal health, so we can manage the expansion of the midwifery program,” says Carina.
As the expansion continues, the institute will soon outgrow its premises. Discussions are underway with the Institute of Neuroscience and Physiology, which has several units in the premises at Hälsovetarbacken. But it is not only teacher rooms that have become scarce – there is also a lack of large teaching premises.
“The altered pedagogy also needs other types of premises than the ones we have. I hope that the plans for different and more flexible teaching premises will soon become a reality,” says Kristin.
New agreement with the region
The institute is currently in the final phase of the work to produce a new collaboration agreement with the Västra Götaland region regarding the clinical training. Operating a university program in collaboration with the region means that the university must relate to various requirements and needs.
“The Higher Education Ordinance sets out the national objectives for the programs and the Swedish Higher Education Authority makes sure we live up to them. But at the same time, the region has a great need for expertise, and they want to see the students finish as quickly as possible,” says Carina, and Kristin adds:
“There is a great shortage of nurses in the region, and the healthcare sector is in great need of professionals who can start working right away, but an academic education also contains other parts, like the scientific approach and an understanding of how to base your daily work on empirical evidence.
Since the access to good environments for clinical training is decisive to the quality, this is an important forum for collaboration and dialogue between universities and the various operations of the region.” The collaboration bodies of Vård-SAM and Kom-SAM are important parts of the efforts to reach a consensus and an understanding of each operation’s various points of departure when it comes to the training of nurses, midwives, x-ray nurses and specialist nurses.
Kristin Falk, associate professor of health and care sciences, has been the institute’s Deputy Head for four years. She has now been assigned to a new management post and will be part of the faculty’s operative project group for quality assurance, which is to build the foundation for the extensive follow-up and development efforts within the Sahlgrenska Academy. Kristin is also a part of the project group that, commissioned by the Education Council, is working to draft a proposal for a new faculty-wide Master’s program within health sciences.
“If we were to make this happen, it would be an excellent source for educational collaboration between the different institutes at the Sahlgrenska Academy.”
TEXT AND PHOTO BY: ELIN LINDSTRÖM CLAESSEN
