Programme description Sykepleie

The bachelor programme is a three-year professional education that qualifies the graduate to apply for authorisation as a nurse. Nursing is a practical, academic and relational profession. This means that a nurse uses different forms of knowledge, skills and qualities in the practice of their profession. A nurse’s area of responsibility ranges from the physically close and existential, via an understanding of technology and digital competence, and to administrative duties, professional management, organisation and innovation.

The nursing education at VID is in accordance with the Norwegian qualifications framework for lifelong learning, Norwegian Regulations relating to a common framework plan for health and social care educations and Norwegian Regulations relating to national guidelines for nursing education. The guidelines determine the competence requirements for the study programme in the following areas:

• Health, disease and nursing
• The nursing profession, ethics, communication and cooperation
• Scientific theories and research methods
• Professional management, quality and patient safety
• Service development and innovation
• Technology and digital competence

The competence areas are operationalised in learning outcomes presented in the study programme’s course descriptions. The structure of the study programme ensures progression from the basic to the more complex and integrates theory and practice to support the descriptions of learning outcomes.

The national guidelines for nursing education highlight certain topics that must be included in the nursing education, which are ethics, patient safety, communication, cooperation and professional management. In addition to these five topics, VID has chosen to include person-centred nursing and academic formation as areas of focus throughout the nursing education.

VID seeks to educate nurses whose work will be based on person-centred care. This philosophy of care shows respect for the personality of the person receiving nursing care, and for their values and beliefs, life experience, wishes and priorities. Both healthcare personnel and organisations in health and care services are responsible for ensuring the practice of people-centred care (World Health Organization, 2021).

Nursing as a field of knowledge and practice is undergoing change and is shifting between various perspectives, requirements and expectations. Collaboration and cooperation across disciplines and professions is essential for offering person-centred care and coordinated services. The nursing education at VID will help ensure that students and future nurses are able to critically reflect on the practice, healthcare system and society they are a part of. As future nurses, they will view their role as contributors to the development of a healthcare system that will safeguard and ensure good living conditions for individuals, while also ensuring sustainable communities in the future.

Nursing involves assisting people by ensuring their basic needs, promoting health, preventing and treating disease, alleviating suffering and eventually ensuring a dignified death. Nursing is practised through cooperation with people of all ages. The nursing profession is built on humanistic and democratic values.

During the course of the study programme, students are trained in conducting independent observations and making clinical assessments, prioritisations and decisions that require the implementation of relevant measures and evaluating the effect of nursing care and treatment. Quality and improvement work with a focus on patient safety is emphasised as a key competence through the entire study programme. The basis for caring and professionally sound nursing is up-to-date knowledge, suitability for the profession and respect for people’s participation and co-determination. Nurses who have completed their education at VID will be well-equipped to orient themselves in the knowledge community, familiar with research, and will be able to find relevant knowledge and critically assess different sources of knowledge. This study programme seeks to encourage students to ask questions and actively search for answers.

VID will help ensure that nurses completing their education here will have the basic knowledge, skills, attitudes, values and qualities that equip each individual to independently practice high-quality nursing. This involves educating and forming a candidate into a clear and sustainable identity founded in a basic understanding of what nursing is, with ownership of the nursing profession’s fundamental values.

This study programme will facilitate the education of knowledgeable, reflective and confident nurses with the ability to utilise new knowledge, and who are equipped to manage current and future challenges. VID seeks to have a culture among students and staff members that promotes critical thinking, an awareness of one’s own values, as well as a respect for and solidarity with different cultures, belief systems and values. This can be summarised in VID’s values, which are:

• Respectful

• Solidarity

• Critically reflective

These values are reflected in VID’s motto: Committed to humanity – locally and globally. This engagement involves active participation, solidarity, and the willingness and knowledge to become engaged in patients, family members, the working environment and society. It involves curiosity and the wish to understand contexts. The study programme facilitates activity and engagement in learning activities and participation in the student environment.

VID is part of a diaconal tradition anchored in values that include engagement in justice, mercy, solidarity and care for our fellow humans.

Job, occupation and study opportunities after completing the education

Nurses are in demand as an employment resource with broad and versatile competence. This offers opportunities for employment within a wide range of health and care services. Nurses are particularly sought after in various areas of municipal health and care services, as well as in specialist health services.

The bachelor programme in nursing provides a foundation for further studies at the master’s level, as well as several continuing education programmes.

Target group

This study is aimed at everyone who hopes to become a nurse.

The learning outcome descriptions correspond to the first cycle in line with the Norwegian Qualification Framework for Higher Education. Upon completion of the study programme, candidates will have achieved the following learning outcomes, categorised by knowledge, skills and general competencies.

Knowledge

Candidates will:

• have broad knowledge of basic human needs
• have broad knowledge of the most common symptoms, diseases, disease trajectories and treatment
• have broad knowledge of a nurse’s function in areas of health promotion, prevention, treatment, rehabilitation and alleviation
• have broad knowledge of central topics, theories, models and issues within the nursing profession
• have broad knowledge of nursing functions and areas of responsibility
• have knowledge of the management and organisation of healthcare services, new thinking and innovation processes
• have knowledge of quality work, risk factors and patient safety in healthcare services, as well as principles and measures for reducing patient injuries
• have knowledge of the history, values, traditions and distinctive character of the nursing profession and diaconia
• have knowledge of the importance of belief systems, values and cultural and linguistic backgrounds for the understanding of disease and equal services
• have knowledge of priorities and the importance of policy frameworks for the health and welfare system
• have knowledge of scientific theories and research methods with relevance for nursing practice
• be familiar with how digitalisation and technology can contribute to innovation and quality improvement in health and care services.

Skills

Candidates will:

• be able to make independent and systematic clinical observations and assessments as a basis for prioritising, implementing, documenting and evaluating nursing care and treatment
• be able to apply relevant knowledge from research and development work, combined with experience and professional judgment in the practice of care and professionally sound nursing
• be able to identify risk factors and plan and implement preventive measures based on knowledge of patient safety
• be able to cooperate across professions and sectors to ensure coordinated, holistic and coherent services and patient trajectories across enterprises and levels
• be able to inform, teach and counsel patients and family members, and promote learning processes that contribute to coping skills for individual patients and patient groups
• be able to identify and critically reflect on ethical challenges and dilemmas in the practice of the profession
• be able to use instruments to promote patient safety, quality and innovation in health and care services

General competence

Candidates will:

• be able to plan and implement professionally sound nursing care for patients with acute and chronic illness and patients with complex needs in primary and specialist health services
• be able to contribute to reflections on and highlight professional and ethical norms and dilemmas in health policy debates
• be able to find, assess, apply and disseminate professional literature in a thoughtful and critical manner, both orally and in writing, and present professional arguments in communication with colleagues and partners
• be able to show the capacity and willingness for lifelong learning and contribute to innovation and continuous improvement in health and care services
• be able to see opportunities, limitations and ethical and legal aspects of the application of various technologies in health and care services
• be able to plan and ensure communication and cooperation with patients and family members based on respect, co-determination and integrity
• have insight into social and health-related challenges, including neglect, violence, abuse, addiction and socioeconomic problems, and have the ability to identify and follow up people with such challenges, as well as implement measures and/or treatment or refer patients elsewhere
• have insight into global health challenges and the practice of nursing in an international perspective

The nursing profession is based on different forms of knowledge, and because the nurse works within a context of complex health and care problems, students are required to apply different forms of knowledge during their study programme. Research is a key source of quality assured practice of the profession, along with other academic and professional knowledge and experience-based knowledge, including user knowledge.

The nursing programme is a professional education with a structure that ensures progression from basic to more complex knowledge until the student has completed their education. The study programme alternates between theoretical and practical courses. Starting a higher education in nursing can for many students be a major transition. Students must learn through the use of different work and teaching methods through interactions with teachers and fellow students. It is emphasised that students are expected to take responsibility for their own learning process.

This education is based on a sociocultural learning perspective from the standpoint that learning is an active and complex process occurring through interactions between teachers and students and what they bring into the learning and teaching situation. Active learning methods for students are utilised to a large extent, such as dialogue-based learning and group seminars, flipped classroom, study groups, student peer assessments and guidance, skills training, simulations and practical training, in addition to lectures. Learning activities will vary among the different courses and will supplement independent study.

When knowledge is difficult to acquire through independent study, or when the study programme requires obligations to fellow students, compulsory attendance will be part of a compulsory activity. This primarily applies to practical training, skills training, seminars and simulations. There may also be compulsory attendance for learning activities, where student participation and engagement is a significant prerequisite for learning and development.

The following forms of assessment are used for the study programme:

• Individual written home exam
• Individual written school exam
• Drug calculation exam
• Assessment of practical training
• Home group exam
• Practical exam
• Written bachelor thesis Individual or group

Each course has specified compulsory activities that must be approved before the student can sit for the exam and/or pass the course. Details regarding compensation for compulsory activities are specified in the relevant course description. Both summative and formative assessment methods are used during the course of study.

The exams are regulated by the Regulations relating to Admissions, Studies, Examinations and Degrees at VID Specialized University.

Nursing students at VID have the opportunity to take parts of their study programme abroad. Exchange programmes will be facilitated in the fourth, fifth and sixth semesters. Students may travel for exchange programmes for a minimum of three months, or they may take an entire semester at an educational institution abroad. The nursing education at VID is structured such that students have the opportunity to participate in international exchange programmes in the Nordic region and Europe (through the NORPLUS and ERASMUS+ programmes). The university also has bilateral agreements with educational institutions in many countries outside Europe.

Arrangements are made to enable nursing students from educational institutions abroad, with which the university has agreements, to take individual theoretical or practical subjects or complete an entire exchange semester at VID. Certain courses will therefore involve teaching and syllabuses in English.

The university’s research staff members actively participate in international research networks, and many have developed close relationships with cooperating institutions and practice fields in countries within and outside Europe. Students who do not travel on exchange programmes during their studies will therefore encounter topics where international perspectives and development areas are relevant for teaching on campus. During practical training, Norwegian students will meet visiting exchange students they will be working with. Students who work together with visiting exchange students will have the opportunity to develop knowledge of and experience with different cultures and contexts of significance for the future practice of their profession. Large parts of healthcare services currently have employees with various cultural backgrounds. International experience, where different views of key topics related to heath, disease, patient and service user participation and co-determination, as well as ethical issues are discussed, which will give students importance skills for future employment.

Scope of practical training: 2,300 hours

Description of practical training: Practical training makes up 50% of the nursing education in accordance with professional qualification guidelines (Directive 2005/36/EC and the amending Directive 2013/55/EU). Practical training involves learning through participation in patient situations in different parts of the healthcare service system. The university expects students to gradually develop independence as a nurse through the acquisition of knowledge, practice of skills and experience with different areas of practice. VID uses learning and assessment tools for practical training with an emphasis on supporting students in making active use of available resources. Through this, they will develop the competence and skills needed to engage in lifelong learning.

Different work requirements, practical seminars and supervision are all linked to the practical training placements. In addition to clinical work, these are mandatory activities that are part of the assessment basis for passing practical training.

VID has entered into partnership agreements with workplaces offering practical training, cf. https://lovdata.no/dokument/SF/forskrift/2017-09-06-1353, relating to the common framework plan for health and social care educations These include the planning of practical training and collaboration on supervision and research. Practical training is primarily carried out in the vicinity of VID campuses. However, students must expect to complete their practical training in other places. The university obtains practical training placements and students must accept the placements offered to them.

There is a 100% compulsory attendance for practical training. Absence due to illness is approved for up to 10% of the practical training period. For absences from 10 to 20% of the period, the student must retake the practical training period. Absences up to 20% of the period can be retaken upon agreement with the practical training site. Absences of more than 20% of the period will extend the length of the course of study.

Admission to the study programme is determined on the basis of a Higher Education Entrance Qualification.

Applicants who do not meet the criteria of a Higher Education Entrance Qualification may, based on established criteria, apply for admission on the basis of prior learning and work experience.

Applicants with foreign educations must document that they meet the requirements for Norwegian and English language skills in accordance with the Regulation of 6 January 2017, no. 13, relating to admissions to higher education.

Applicants must present a certificate of good conduct from the police when starting the study programme.