The future of care in the hands of children
How does it feel to take blood pressure and listen to the heart of a doll breathing, blinking, and talking? The students in year 5 from Tavelsbäcksskolan in Östersund discovered this for themselves when they visited the clinical training department at Mid Sweden University.
On a Friday in May, 22 expectant students stepped through the doors of KTA – Clinical Training Facility at Mid Sweden University's nursing education in Östersund. A world filled with stethoscopes, skeletons, and patient simulators awaited them. It was time for another visit in the Children's University series, arranged in collaboration with the Chamber of Commerce's Competence Compass initiative.
The visit began with a tour and a brief introduction to the nursing profession. Then the class was divided into two groups that rotated between three different stations. At one of the stations, the children met a registered nurse from the Ripan Health Centre. There they got a personal insight into what it's like to work in healthcare, with stories from everyday life and room for questions.
"I didn't know that nurses had to know so much! said one of the students impressed.
At the next station, there was the opportunity to feel realistic models of the body's organs and skeleton. Stethoscopes and saturation meters were used extensively, and in the medicine cabinet there were many exciting things to look at. It was a concrete insight into the nurse's work tools and into the mysteries of the human body.
But perhaps it was the third station that aroused the most wonder: the patient simulator. A full-body doll that both breathes, blinks, talks, and actually seems to feel things. With gentle guidance, the children were allowed to help make the patient more comfortable. They put on blankets, puffed pillows, and had a careful conversation with the sick doll. All while the teacher from the nursing program discreetly controlled the doll's reactions from another room.
"He said he was freezing! Then we got him a blanket," a child said afterwards.
The four central concepts from nursing theory: human beings, health, environment and nursing actions, ran like a red thread through all the elements of the day.
"We want the children to get an overall picture of what the nursing profession entails. And maybe awaken a future dream," said Petra Agnholm Sergel from Mid Sweden University, one of today's guides.
Pictures from the visit
Mathias Larsson, coordinator Children's University at Mid Sweden University.
