NORPART - Norway and Palestine
Enhancing Education and Clinical Practice in Care for patients with chronic diseases through academic network and mobility – VID, Bethlehem university, Al-Algsa University, and Augusta Victoria hospital (ECPR).
VIDs role: Project owner
Project leader: Amin Amro
Project period: 2025 - 2028
Funding: Ministry of Education and Research and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Administered by the Norwegian Directorate for Higher Education and Skills.
About the project
This project builds on previous and ongoing collaborations. It brings together the Faculty of Health Sciences at VID (VID), the Faculty of Nursing and Health Sciences at Bethlehem University (BU), Augusta Victoria Hospital (AVH) in Jerusalem, and Department of Nursing at Al-Aqsa University (AQU) in Gaza. The project aims to increase intercultural competence, enhance education, clinical practice and research for all involved through academic network and mobility, with a particular focus on care for patients with serious chronic diseases.
Project goals:
- To increase students and staff intercultural competence by virtual and physical mobility, meetings and education.
- To enhance teaching by sharing knowledge in pedagogical methods and implementing VR technology.
- Learning students' systematic physical examination and health assessment, early symptom detection and management in order to improve care for patients with chronic diseases.
- To innovate and improve clinical practice by implementing virtual and physical student mobility.
- To initiate a collaborative research project on chronic disease care and to encourage crossinstitutional mentorship for master’s students and PhD candidates.
- To strengthen academic networks and facilitate continuous exchange of knowledge leading to best practices in care for patients with chronic diseases.
The partner institutions have programs focusing on improving care for patients with chronic illness. In 2020 VID started a master’s degree in clinical nursing including different specialties, oncology, palliative care, emergency nursing and nephrology. Simultaneously, BU launched its own master’s program in oncology nursing and palliative care. AVH has a continual education program and AQU are working on developing a clinical master.
Through collaboration we take advantage of our experiences from different contexts that will broaden our perspective and provide increased professional and cultural competence. Integrating innovative VR technology as an educational tool, aims to enhance the capacity of partner institutions to educate qualified health care workers.
The project will include physical mobility of 24 master's students. By offering the partner institutions the possibility for one or two candidates to follow the PhD program at VID. A PhD degree is essential to run a master program. Now BU relies heavily on external qualified staff to teach in its master’s programs.
The project aims to achieve long-lasting positive outcomes through international collaboration to
improve clinical practice related to the care of patients with chronic diseases in both countries.
Partners
- Bethlehem University (BU)
- Augusta Victoria Hospital (AVH) in Jerusalem
- Department of Nursing at Al-Aqsa University (AQU) in Gaza.