EDUCATION. A career opportunity and a way to meet future cardiac care needs. That’s the way the project team describes the new specialist nursing program beginning this autumn at the University of Gothenburg.
“It’s fantastic! Like finally giving birth after hours of labor.”
This is the response of Annika Odell, Cardiology Operations Developer at Sahlgrenska University Hospital, when asked how it feels now that the program will be launched at the university. In 2015, she was officially tasked by the hospital to work towards a specialist nursing program focused on cardiac care. The idea has been floating in the air for quite a while.
“My colleagues and I have been talking about the need for this for several years. It feels great that it’s finally becoming a reality.”
The team was in great spirits when they meet at the Cardiology Development Center shortly after the academy board decided to launch the program. From the beginning, it was Annika Odell and two of her colleagues in Cardiology and Thorax who were working to pave the way for the new program, but the team grew when the partnership with the university was established.
“The program came to fruition through a unique collaboration,” says Carina Sparud Lundin, Vice Head of Institute and Program Director at the Institute of Health and Care Services. She continues:
“In part, it is a collaboration between two institutes at the university, namely the Institute of Medicine, which is responsible for the courses in medicine, and the Institute of Health and Care Services, which is responsible for the core subject of nursing. It is also a collaboration between the university and the Cardiology and Thorax specialties at Sahlgrenska University Hospital. This gives the nurses the opportunity to both earn a Master’s degree and obtain professional qualification, while enabling us to meet the need for skills in the highly-specialized area of cardiac care.”
Annika Odell agrees.
“There are already specialist programs in surgery and medicine, but they are a little too broad for cardiac care, which is both specialized and very broad at the same time. Patient care involves several different disciplines in both primary and specialist care, so nurses must understand the whole and know what is happening with the patient within different specialties,” she states.
Since cardiovascular diseases constitute a major public health problem, Annika Odell thinks that the new specialist nurses will be highly appreciated once they graduate after four semesters of part-time study. They will work at the Thorax and Cardiology departments of hospitals, at medical care centers, and at clinics for patients with heart failure. Annika Odell believes that a number will also be district nurses who obtain dual specialist qualification.
“The program is also intended to address the problem of experienced and skilled nurses leaving cardiac care when they want to move on in their careers and become specialist nurses. Now, they have the opportunity to advance within their own area.”
Åsa Axelsson, who has a combined position as senior lecturer at the Institute of Health and Care Sciences at the University of Gothenburg and a Cardiology nurse at Sahlgrenska University Hospital, points out that many nurses currently working in cardiac care are already well educated as they have already completed independent courses and contracted education courses at an advanced level.
“They have the knowledge, but no formal degree that serves as an academic qualification and can affect their salary. The aim is for this group to now get credit for the courses if they want to study the specialist program,” she says.
In addition to the new specialist nursing program meeting the needs of the patients, healthcare professionals and the healthcare system, more nurses with professional and academic competence are needed to enable new students to get guidance from specialist nurses, according to Program Director Carina Sparud Lundin.
“The program can also contribute to the development of cardiac care research by training more nurses in a scientific approach. In order to develop healthcare, there must be medical and nursing science research as well as close collaboration between healthcare and academia.”
The first nurses will start their program in the autumn. Anyone wanting to get one of the ten spots must apply between 15 February and 15 March.
TEXT AND PHOTO: MALIN AVENIUS/FREELANCE JOURNALIST
