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A Master student bringing work life perspective to RENE
The Master student Minna Lahti has been working with the RENE team for two years. She has a long history of teaching patient handling to health care workers in public sector. The RENE team is lucky to have Minna on board. Here in this text are some reflections from the project work.
Studying in the RENE project has taught me a lot. The project work has been divided into smaller groups and I have been able to join the specific groups to practice training issues. The project has given me great opportunities for international networking. English as a working language has become easier for me during the project lifespan, which is great! I have also learned new pedagogical approaches like simulation learning, which has evolved ideas to develop my work with health care units. We have experienced the differences in evaluation culture in Europe/European HEIs; however, we managed to form shared understanding of the SAPHA course evaluation.
Working in an international project as a student has been interesting and I have learned a lot, for example about producing new learning material, piloting the new course, teaching, and writing a Handbook. The most memorable experience for me was in the international course where I taught the international student groups and worked face-to-face with international partners. It has been great to notice how smart and insightful health care students are!
In my work as a physiotherapist in occupational health care, I meet nursing professionals with musculoskeletal disorders, and I often ask if they have been trained in patient handling and working ergonomics. The professionals have been qualified from different educational institutions and have diverse knowledge and skills in patient handling, but educational institutions do not have a uniform education policy regarding patient handling education. The employers usually assume that patient handling skills are covered in the basic training. RENE strengthened my previous knowledge, that the education is diverse and there are still lots of things to do in this area. At work I have noticed that an increasing number of young nurses and nurse assistants have lower back symptoms. The study material for this project was piloted by students by students from various health care degree programs, which is also a strength of the RENE.
My suggestion according to my work experience and this project is that the patient handling contents should be included in every health care institution curriculum. Patient handling training needs more specific frameworks and guidelines to protect health care workers in handling heavy loads. The guidelines should also be applied to working in health care units. In the future, all nurses and caregivers will be the workers worth of gold, so we need to take care of their well-being and safety at work. I feel privileged to have participated in the RENE project, had a chance to deepen my knowledge and to learn new perspectives and collaborate with professionals in the field.
Source:
PATIENT HANDLING EDUCATION IN EUROPE – CRITICAL POINTS FOR DEVELOPMENT: Karppi et. al. https://rene.ut.ee/iea-2021-conference
SAFE PATIENT HANDLING EDUCATION: ANALYSIS FROM EUROPEAN HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS Karppi 2022 et al. Submitted to International Journal of Occupational Medicine and Environmental Health
Minna Lahti, Occupational Physiotherapist, Master School student
Marion Karppi, Turku University of Applied Sciences
25.5.2022