A new agenda for nurse educator education in Europe Erasmus Project

Project Title

A new agenda for nurse educator education in Europe

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for higher education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Research and innovation; Reaching the policy level/dialogue with decision makers; Quality and Relevance of Higher Education in Partner Countries

Project Summary

The aim of this project is to harmonize and optimize the nurse educator education in Europe by developing and testing a programme for nurse educator education: “Empowering the nurse educators in the changing world”, in total 30 ECTS. At this moment there is no consensus about the qualification requirements or education of nurse educators in Europe even the nurse education is very highly regulated. The world is changing, and prevalence of current health issues is estimated to increase due to population aging and emerging new health issues such as the COVID-19 pandemic are inevitable. Nurse educators need knowledge and skills to apply the new subjects in nurse education curricula. Moreover, the digi-pedagogical competence is becoming more and more necessity. Our project aims to answer to those requirements of nurse educators. The overall aim of this project is to set recommendations for common nurse educator education in Europe.

This project is conducted with seven universities from six European countries: Finland (two universities), Germany, Malta, Scotland, Slovakia and Spain. University of Turku, Department of Nursing Science is the coordinating university. The partners represent different parts of Europe and all are very keen on developing the evidence-based nurse educator education. This project also builds up knowledge about the current situation of nurse educator education, competence of nurse educators and their continuing education needs.

The project consists of three work packages: WP1 Current situation of Nurse Educators’ competence and education, WP2 Future Health Care Issues and Pedagogical Solutions, and WP3 Recommendations for a New Agenda for Nurse Educator Education in Europe.

In the WP1, the aim is to map and analyze the current situation of the nurse educator education and training and scope the current role, tasks and working environments of nurse educators and evaluate the competence of the nurse educators in Europe. The data will be collected via the exciting documents, with surveys and interviewing the educators and administrators. This WP is a basis for the whole project.

In the WP2, the aim is to scope the continuous education needs of nurse educators, develop and conduct the education and training program to nurse educators and educator candidates named: Empowering the nurse educators in the changing world. The programme is divided in 5 different study units, 5-10 ECTS each. The topics of the study units are 1) digi-pedagogy and social media in nursing education, 2) global health issues, 3) future nurse education, 4) ethics in nurse educators’ work, and 5) evidence-based teaching in nursing education. The used teaching and learning strategy during the education program is blended learning. Study units 2-4 consist of distance learning methods and environments (e.g. webinars, Moocs, online lessons, social media applications). Contact learning, including intensive week and teacher training is arranged in modules 1 and 5. The total number of students participating the programme is 30, 3-10 from each partner university. The outcomes of the programme will be evaluated after every study unit and in the end of the whole progamme. In addition, the usability of the program will be evaluated. Different validated instruments will be used in evaluations.

In the WP3, the aim is to suggest common guidelines for nurse educator education in Europe based on the results of the project and current research on nursing and education and second, to produce a “Handbook for nurse educators” which can be used in educator education and in the work of educators. The handbook will be published as an e-book and be available free for all.

Every partner university has certain responsibilities to conduct certain tasks. Management board is set to guide and follow the project process and funding. The results of this project will be disseminated as articles in scientific and professional journals, presentations in international and national conferences and seminars. In the end of the project an international assembly: “New agenda in nurse educator education in Europe” assembly will be organized and the recommendations for nurse educator competence and education requirements are presented.

This project promotes educators’ knowledge and competence about current and future health issues, evidence-based teaching methods, ethical competence, utilizing technological and digital teaching methods in modern learning environments to enhance students learning outcomes. This promotes educators’ ability to respond to the rapid changes within society, health care and emerging health problems. After the education participants will be ready to integrate evidence based good practices and new teaching and learning methods into their daily work. This project increases educators’ opportunities for professional development, and the cooperation with individual educators, universities and countries

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 379733 Eur

Project Coordinator

TURUN YLIOPISTO & Country: FI

Project Partners

• UNIVERSITA TA MALTA
• UNIVERZITA KONSTANTINA FILOZOFA VNITRE
• UNIVERSITAT INTERNACIONAL DE CATALUNYA
• ITA-SUOMEN YLIOPISTO
• HUMBOLDT-UNIVERSITAET ZU BERLIN
• THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH