Project Details

Initial situation

To date, training in (paediatric) nursing and geriatric nursing has been carried out autonomously at the Institute for Vocational Education and Training, i.e. there are three teams of teachers who each design the learning opportunities for their respective areas. There are hardly any links between the training programs. The degree of concretization of the curricula can be described as semi-open. With a view to the upcoming further development of the professional laws for (paediatric) nursing and geriatric nursing towards a generalist training, possibly with a specialization, a generalist curriculum is to be developed at the institute, in which the contents of the three previously separate training courses are combined, following the principle of exemplary learning. In addition, a higher degree of specification is desired in order to make it easier for colleagues to prepare lessons and to achieve a higher degree of standardization, commitment and predictability. In addition, a curriculum is to be developed for the two-year social assistant training that allows the training to be credited towards the first year of the generalist specialist training. This design is intended to enable permeability between the various training courses.

Aims of the project

The aim is the participatory development of a modularized curriculum for generalist nurse training at the Institute for Vocational Training in Healthcare at Vivantes Netzwerk für Gesundheit GmbH, which is based on a didactic model of nursing based on educational theory. A curriculum for social assistance is also to be developed in line with this curriculum. In detail, this means

Learning field orientation: The framework structure of the curriculum is determined by professional tasks. The former subjects and content from nursing science and related sciences are brought together under this umbrella. Learning field-oriented curricula are therefore subject-integrative. In addition to situation-oriented learning units, which are based on authentic professional situations, there are also learning units structured according to scientific systems within a learning field. The aim of this form of curricular structuring is to promote theory-practice transfer and action-oriented learning (Dubs 2000). The learning fields or modules to be formed are conceived as chronologically coherent units, and the content taught and skills to be developed should build on each other over the course of the three years of training.

Didactic model based on educational theory: Curriculum development is based on the model of interactionist nursing didactics developed at the IPP (Darmann-Finck 2010; Darmann-Finck/Muths 2009). With the nursing didactic heuristics, interactionist nursing didactics provides a set of criteria that can be used to identify, legitimize and evaluate educational goals and content and to prepare nursing didactic decisions. The concept of “learning islands” (Muths 2013) is used to develop teaching units that have a particularly high educational potential.

Generalist curriculum: In view of the “key points paper” of the federal-state working group “Further development of the nursing professions” (2012), which aims to merge the previously separate training courses in healthcare and nursing, healthcare and pediatric nursing and geriatric nursing into a joint training course with a focus, a joint curricular basis for the three training courses is to be developed at the Institute for Vocational Education and Training in Healthcare at Vivantes Netzwerk für Gesundheit GmbH.

Participation: In the preliminary discussion, the management team emphasized that the involvement of all colleagues in the development process is considered absolutely necessary. Such a participatory approach also corresponds to the results of studies, according to which curricular innovations are often only adopted selectively because the implementation is often insufficiently prepared and accompanied (Altrichter / Wiesinger n.d.). Approaches in which teachers themselves are involved in the construction of an innovative curriculum based on a critical examination of their own professional practice are more sustainable. External moderation is extremely helpful in order to give all those involved the opportunity to contribute their ideas and values to the internal school negotiation processes that take place.

Methodological approach

The project makes use of preliminary work with other schools and networks that have also been developed in collaboration with the IPP (e.g. pilot project for generalist nursing training with integrated entrance qualification for universities of applied sciences STK Munich, concept for the pilot project “Generalist nursing training with a vocational focus” in Bavaria, network for curriculum development at nursing schools in Bavaria, curriculum for geriatric nursing training at the IBAF, Rendsburg, curriculum of the Bremen nursing school of the non-profit hospitals, BKS). Following the introduction of the entire teaching staff to the didactic model and the planned procedure in the curriculum development process, the framework structure for the curriculum was initially developed in the first project phase in a small working group made up of all four training courses. Subsequently, heterogeneous small groups were formed for each module to further develop it, making any necessary corrections to the objectives and content selection and embedding existing successful learning situations or developing new learning situations.

The tasks of the IPP consist of

• to structure the overall process,
•  keeping an eye on the overall curriculum and drawing attention to both redundancies and elementary gaps,
• maintaining contact with the central planning unit and proposing solutions for the overall
• to develop solutions for the overall planning process or to moderate conflicts,
•  to develop a proposal as a basis for discussion for the learning field work.
• to moderate the work process of the large group and the small groups, to ensure that all perspectives are equally represented in the sense of impartiality and to provide input,
• documenting the results,
• to facilitate the integration of the results into the school administration.