Renewing Ergonomic Education for Health Care Students in European HEIs
Summary
RENE-project is set to improve and unify the patient handling education in health care sector. At the moment in Europe the patient handling skills are included into students’ curricula in various other topics which may cause poor quality and inefficient learning outcomes. The workplace safety issues and the use of risk management tools, the proper communication with the patient and the knowhow and skills on right handling techniques are central in managing patient handling in changing environments and situations. According to national and international statistics, the healthcare staff have a very high risk of musculoskeletal disorders, derived mainly from poor manual patient handling practices. Most back injuries of health care workers happened during manual patient handling. This highlights the need for proper focus on patient handling already in Bachelor level studies.
RENE-project develops 5 ECT international course of patient handling in safe and rehabilitating way for health care students in European HEIs participating RENE. The European project consortium, altogether with seven higher education institutions (HEI’s) and two institutions of expertise on this field, the The Finnish Institute of Occupational Health (FIOH) and Ergosolutions Ltd. aim at increasing patient handling skills in safe and rehabilitating way of HEI staff and health care students in all participating countries.
Project aims to develop and standardize an international course on patient handling and promotes internationalization of health care students. One of the aims is also to raise awareness of patient handling in safe and rehabilitating way in field of health care. The RENE project is based on three phases which form three Intellectual Outputs (IO). The first phase, “Analysing the conditions”, IO 1, will work as a basis for the second phase “Developing the SAPHA-course" (SAPHA-Patient handling in safe and rehabilitating way), IO 2. The third phase is the “Handbook”, IO3, which will be designed to support the practical implementation of the developed course and is directed to teachers. The Handbook (printed and especially e-version) will act as a tool for sustainability ensuring that the project’s results remain available after the project has ended.
The project will strengthen the skills and knowledge of the students and HEI staff in the field of ergonomics and increase the skills in patient handling in safe and rehabilitating way by workshops, intensive weeks for students and teachers as well as in work-life projects. It will raise the quality of patient handling and ergonomics education in health care and introduce novel pedagogic solutions to the health care education.
ESS Contact Person
Aldina Lucena e Teresa Mimoso, Physiotherapy Departament
Timeline
September 2019 to August 2022
Partners:
- Turun ammattikorkeakoulu oy, Finland
- Alma Mater Europaea- Evropski Center, Slovenia
- Instituto Politecnico de Setubal, Portugal
- Ergosolutions bc oy ab, Finland
- Lietuvos Sporto Universitetas, Lithuania
- Fundacio Universitaria Balmes, Spain
- Tartu ulikool, Estonia