Hospitopia – nursing in the 21st century Erasmus Project

Project Title

Hospitopia – nursing in the 21st century

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 : School Exchange Partnerships

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2018

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Intercultural/intergenerational education and (lifelong)learning; International cooperation, international relations, development cooperation; Teaching and learning of foreign languages

Project Summary

“Hospitopia – The hopital of the 21st century” was a two and a half-year bilateral school partnership between a Belgian and a Hungarian secondary school.

Although our schools are in different parts of Europe, we both faced the same problems: despite a global shortage of nurses, doctors and health care workers in general, not so many of our students of the study field of Health, Welfare and Science (B) or Nursing (H) chose a health-oriented study field in high school or at university, nor a job in the health sector after secondary school. We wanted us – teachers – to be better prepared on teaching future health care workers by getting new inspiration on how to train skills for new and modern technologies and on how to teach medical English. We also wanted to awaken more interest in the future of health care by discussing what the hospital of the 21st century could be like.
In both schools about 5 teachers and 25 students took part in the project. All of them are teaching or studying in the study fields of Nursing or Health, Welfare and Science. The students are in the last 2 years of their secondary education. Both schools have a population of students who come from less affluent families.

The project had a good start in november ’18. The teachers prepared several small online projects. Thus the students got to know each other already a little bit before the first LTT in Belgium in februari ’19. At the very beginning, the students were stressed to communicate, but during the first LTT both groups bonded.
Also the teachers had a good contact. All of the Belgian teachers spoke enough English for communication, and the Hungarian English teachers were interpreters for the Hungarian teachers of health and science. The difficulties we had, were mostly organisational: internetconnection, how to find available computer rooms at the same time in Belgium and Hungary, and how to make time for the project in an already very full curriculum.

During the 1st LTT (in Belgium) the teachers shared good examples of their lessons and after the LTT, the Hungarian teachers implemented these examples their own lessons. The topics health care in Belgium and health care in history were explored. We visited the Guislain-museum in Ghent and had a guided tour in Bruges with specific attention for the history of health care. Also we visited several nowadays health institutes (Red cross blood transfusion center, Henri Serruys maternity for underwater birth, Vives school for nursing and Zorabots). We had a group discussion about the past and the future of health care.

After the 1st LTT, we continued having smaller online projects and a 2nd LTT was planned from march 16th 2020, till march 23rd 2020. This meeting had to be cancelled due to covid restrictions. We could not continue our project from march till june ’20, since we were in lockdown. It was difficult to reach the students during lockdown, and they graduated in june ’20. Therefore we were unable to complete the project, and some of the planned goals and achievements could no longer be reached. It was f.e. planned to compare health care in Belgium with health care in Hungary and to bring it together in our “Hospitopia, health care of the future”, but all of the students who were part of the project during LTT in Belgium, left the schools in june ’20. Therefore, their experiences disappeared as well before we could reach a final result.

In juli 1 of the Belgian teachers met the Hungarian team, and plans for the next school year were made: we planned to let our “new” classes of students meet each other online, and to make different smaller online projects together. However, we were overtaken by reality: covid numbers were rising in Szentes and in October ’20 the school had a new lockdown. Again, it was not easy to reach the students. From November on, the situation in Belgian schools also evolved to parttime lessons in school and parttime distance learning. In addition, it was still impossible to visit health institutions – the students were only allowed to their internships in March ’21.

We decided that we would try to still make the best possible of the project, and to focuss on teaching medical English. From november ’20 till februari ’21 we had some smaller projects. It was no longer possible to have a direct online contact between the students, so we merely focussed on a contact between the teachers. Even this was also not evident due to various covid infections, but when possible, we inspired each other with good examples for online teaching.

The project did not turn out as we had planned in advance. Nevertheless, we feel that we have found a good partner in each other’s school. Despite the difficult situation we could still inspire each other. We hope we will once be able to continue our project, as we clearly felt that this was a very useful project for both the students and the teachers.

Project Website

http://hospitopia.jouwweb.be/

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 65441 Eur

Project Coordinator

Sint-Jozef Petrus & Paulus & Country: BE

Project Partners

• Hodmezovasarhelyi Szakkepzesi Centrum Szentesi Boros Samuel Technikum