The first milestones of RENE-project
It was nearly two years ago when we had our preliminary thoughts and dreams of an international project aiming at increasing ergonomic competences of health care students. None of us could not imagine in what kind of circumstances we would be developing the SAPHA-course in spring 2020, but the time for describing our strategy to overcome the challenges of corona time is later. As our RENE-project has been now implemented for eight months, it is time to look back and reflect the starting phase of co-operation in this consortium.
The period from the initial idea into the sharp, well-defined and relevant project plan is a story itself. I started first to develop the idea with my dear colleagues in TUAS (Turku University of Applied Sciences) and then expanding the consortium with national experts and complementing the knowledge and skills of the consortium with fellows from Slovenia, Portugal, Spain, Lithuania and Estonia. Already by then, the suitability of online working and engagement of the members for this topic was foreseen. Having a strong, innovative and active consortium was exciting, and in a way, peaceful to wait for the proposal evaluation.
As the results of hard preparation work were released, the joy and gratitude of the approval of RENE-project was obvious. Everybody waited the official kick-off meeting with expectation – the consortium as a whole was new for actual development work, even though the preparation phase had rubbed our shoulders. The venue for this first face-to-face event was Turku, the premises of TUAS. The operational aim of the kick-off meeting is to officially start the tasks leading to project results, but at least as important is the initial attempts to create group spirit and engage the team members into the project at hand. The feelings after the two intensive days of starting RENE in the dark and misty October were promising – this group of experts will definitely tackle the challenge of creating an international patient handling course!
These blog posts in RENE web pages will introduce you to the development process of the SAPHA course, our experiences on working with international teams, our joys and the challenges we are facing. Hope you all enjoy the journey with us!
Marion Karppi, The leader of RENE-project