Patientsäkerhet och vårdandets etik

Background: An international collaborative project has been ongoing since 2009 between the Ambulance training program in Nursing at the University of Halmstad and the program in Emergency Care at Arcada University of Applied Sciences. The purpose is to jointly develop knowledge about patient safety and caring ethics, through participation in experiential skills development in innovative environments. The focus areas of collaboration are: 1) To learn safety by preventing and creating resistance to human errors and malpractices in health care 2) To become aware of the outer and inner ethics, as a basis of use of the self 3) To create conditions for inner leadership and personal responsibility in health care. The course content planning is guided by an integrative pedagogy, which contains an active simulation exercise.Methods: Simulation exercises are given to interdisciplinary student teams at a one week exchange program in Helsinki in spring and in Halmstad in autumn. The assessment is a written work, and the student deepens understanding in evidence-based research.Results: Simulation has given students opportunities for an active and motivational approach to learning, where a high degree of knowledge, creativity and reflection co-exist. Students have expressed that they have learned to think and act in terms of patient safety and ethics. The concepts have been concrete and visibly demonstrated by simulating everyday prehospital emergency situations: e.g. a situation in which the patient refuses to be transported. The simulation exercises have explained theory and built bridges to practice.Conclusions: The discussions of reflection in interdisciplinary groups and after the simulations have been fruitful, due to students´ different experiences, but also because of awareness of cultural similarities and differences. Students have adopted permanent values of concrete models for how to act safely and ethically at the individual, community and organizational level.