Identifying Biomedical and Health Informatics Competencies in Higher Education Curricula.

This study describes the knowledge, skills and competencies found in bachelor's degree curricula for health and social care, engineering and business. The International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA) biomedicine and health information (BMHI) management recommendations was used as a framework to analyse bachelor's degree curricula (n=14). The results showed that the curricula contained a variety of subjects related to competencies in the IMIA's BMHI. The information technology (IT) engineering curriculum included the highest number of competencies and the business curricula the fewest. The nursing curricula included more competencies than any other health care curricula. When educating students in various professions, their diverse backgrounds and expertise must be considered. As future eHealth developers, students will learn to work as multidisciplinary teams.

Developing Digital Health and Welfare Services in an International Multidisciplinary Student Team.

The rapid growth of digital health and welfare services demands new competences for health and social care, information technology, and business professionals. This study aims to describe the competences that students have before their studies and those they expect to gain from the study module "Developing Digital Health and Welfare Services" in multiprofessional groups during their bachelor studies. This study reports open-ended questions about students' knowledge concerning digital health prior to the study units. The results, analyzed by QSR NVivo 10 for Windows, show that students are keen to learn about developing digital health and welfare services, and they see that multiprofessional work requires a communicative environment and respect for every profession. Students also believe that they have competences to bring to the multiprofessional group. A successful multidisciplinary development of digital health and welfare services requires changes and cooperation in education between various professions.

Evidence of clinical competence by simulation, a hermeneutical observational study.

Making the transition from theory to practise easier in nursing education through simulation is widely implemented all over the world, and there is research evidence of the positive effects of simulation. The pre-understanding for this study is based on a definition of clinical competence as encountering, knowing, performing, maturing and developing, and the hypothesis is that these categories should appear in simulated situations. The aim of the study was to explore the forms and expressions of clinical competence in simulated situations and furthermore to explore if and how clinical competence could be developed by simulation. An observational hermeneutic study with a hypothetic-deductive approach was used in 18 simulated situations with 39 bachelor degree nursing students. In the situations, the scenarios, the actors and the plots were described. The story told was "the way from suffering to health" in which three main plots emerged. The first was, doing as performing and knowing, which took the shape of knowing what to do, acting responsibly, using evidence and equipment, appearing confident and feeling comfortable, and sharing work and information with others. The second was, being as encountering the patient, which took the shape of being there for him/her and confirming by listening and answering. The third plot was becoming as maturing and developing which took the shape of learning in co-operation with other students. All the deductive categories, shapes and expressions appeared as dialectic patterns having their negative counterparts. The study showed that clinical competence can be made evident and developed by simulation and that the challenge is in encountering the patient and his/her suffering.

Evaluating clinical competence during nursing education: A comprehensive integrative literature review.

This paper explored concepts, definitions and theoretical perspectives evaluating clinical competence during nursing education. The questions were: (i) How is clinical competence evaluated? and (ii) What is evaluated? An integrative review of 19 original research articles from 2009 to 2013 was performed. Results showed that evaluation tools were used in 14, observations in 2 and reflecting writing in 3 studies. The students participated in all but one evaluation alone or together with peers, faculty members or preceptors. Three themes were found: (i) professional practice with a caring perspective; (ii) clinical skills and reflective practice; and (iii) cognitive, affective and psychomotor skills both with a nursing perspective. This review shows an emphasis on structured methods with a risk reducing nursing to tasks and skills why combinations with qualitative evaluations are recommended. A holistic view of competence dominated and in designing evaluations, explicit perspectives and operationalized definitions of clinical competence became evident.

Taking part in Nordic collaboration; nursing students' experiences and perceptions from a learning perspective: A qualitative study.

BACKGROUND: Nordic networking of different kinds has a long tradition aiming to increase collaboration and understanding between citizens in different countries. Cultural competence in relation to health care and nursing is important for clinical nurses and is a central issue in nurse education. OBJECTIVE: To gain an understanding of what nurse students experienced and learned during an intensive course in diabetes together with students and nurse educators from Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and the Faroe Islands. METHODS: In 2012, an intensive course within the Nordic network, Nordkvist, was conducted in Faroe Islands with the theme "Nursing - to live a good life with diabetes". To answer the objective of the study, 26 students conducted written reflections based on two questions. The data was analyzed using qualitative content analysis. RESULTS: Through meetings with nurse students and educators from the Nordic countries the intensive course strengthened the students' identification with the nursing profession. The students gained new perspectives on diabetes, such as how complex it can be to live with a chronic illness. Because of the difficulties in understanding one another and because of different mother tongues, the students gained a better understanding of patients' vulnerability in relation to hospital jargon and how it felt to be in an unfamiliar place. CONCLUSIONS: The intensive course increased the students' personal and professional growth, cross-cultural competence, and their identification with nursing. Students' understanding of health care in the Nordic countries improved as similarities and differences were recognized.

Evidence of clinical competence.

This cross-sectional research used a qualitative questionnaire to explore clinical competence in nursing. The aim was to look for evidence of how clinical competence showed itself in practice. In the research, the views from both education and working life are combined to broadly explore and describe clinical competence from the perspective of students, clinical preceptors and teachers. The questions were formulated on how clinical competence is characterised and experienced, what contributes to it and how it is maintained, and on the relation between clinical competence and evidence-based care. The answers were analysed by inductive content analysis. The results showed that clinical competence in practice is encountering, knowing, performing, maturing and improving. Clinical competence is an ongoing process, rather than a state and manifests itself in an ontological and a contextual dimension.