Becoming Professionals Together
The Northern Savo Centre of Expertise for the Interprofessional Social and Health Care Education
There is an increasing need for new ways to think about how and on what we are working in health and social care. Interprofessional work and studying interprofessionally have become more important. The Northern Savo Centre of Expertise for the Interprofessional Social and Health Care Education builds new interprofessional environments and models, which respond to the changing needs of social and health care. It creates possibilities for the inventive collaboration between universities, health and social care sector and business.
This project has been planned together with the University of Eastern Finland (UEF) and Savonia University of Applied Sciences (Savonia). There are thousands of students in the UEF and Savonia studying health and social care disciplines. Therefore, we in Northern Savo have a unique opportunity to provide interprofessional education with the real health and social care environment and strengthen the connection between work and education.
The project has four missions:
The preparation of the interprofessional training model
New interprofessional learning environment in the acute care ward of the Kuopio University Hospital
New interprofessional learning environment in primary health care
Education of the social and health care professionals to act as tutors in the interprofessional training
The project is carried out from January 1, 2020 to December 31, 2022. It is funded by the European social fund.
For more information, please contact project manager Henna Saari: henna.saari@uef.fi
The SOKK Competency Objectives
We have defined general competency objectives for The Northern Savo Centre of Expertise for the Interprofessional Social and Health Care Education, also known as SOKK. The competency objectives are common to all social and health care students who study according to the SOKK Teaching Model.
The SOKK Competency Objectives are:
- The student knows how to operate in their professional role and explain the roles of different social and health care professionals in interprofessional services.
- The student is able to explain why and how interprofessional cooperation is done in social and health services.
- The student recognizes the principles of ethical and customer- and patient-oriented operations in interprofessional teams, working groups and networks.
- The student can analyze how interprofessional work promotes customer and patient safety.
- The student can reflect on the interaction and work of an interprofessional team as well as their own work as a member of an interprofessional team.
The SOKK Teaching Model
The SOKK Teaching Model proceeds in three stages:
1. The SOKK studies begin in the digital learning environment:
- Orientation to study, the implementation methods and the competency objectives.
- Familiarization with the study material.
- Getting to know the members of the interprofessional student team.
2. SOKK’s interprofessional learning in practice takes place in different learning environments:
- Participation as part of practice education or training.
- Working as interprofessional student teams in client work, instructed by trained tutors and teachers.
3. Learning is assessed afterwards:
- Completion of joint assignments in interprofessional student teams.
- Gathering feedback and developing practices.
The SOKK Teaching Model.
The SOKK digital learning environment
The SOKK digital learning environment for social and health care students supports interprofessional collaboration. Before entering the interprofessional learning environments in social and health care, students group together with their interprofessional student team and study the learning material. The SOKK digital learning environment supports the collaborative skills of future professionals and prepares them to work as an interprofessional team in social and health care services. We are piloting the digital learning environment from September 2021.
The SOKK digital learning environment consists of the following materials:
Learning and studying in the SOKK course:
- Completion of the course, The SOKK Competency Objectives, The SOKK Pedagogical Model, The SOKK Teaching Model
- Reflection as part of learning
- Different SOKK learning environments in social and health care
- Grouping task for the interprofessional student team
Interprofessional collaboration skills:
- Interaction and collaboration skills
- Ethics in interprofessional work
- The assessment of interprofessional care and service needs
- Customer and patient orientation
- Customer and patient safety
Working as a professional in social and health care system:
- The key roles and tasks of the social and health care professionals involved in SOKK
- Shared customers in social and health care services
- The future social and health care center
- The legislation governing interprofessional processes
Assignments:
- Interprofessional care and service plans
- Individual reflection on one’s own and interprofessional student team’s actions and learning
- Tests on learning materials
The interprofessional learning environments in social and health care
We are creating new interprofessional learning environments in the acute care ward of the Kuopio University Hospital and in primary social and health care. SOKK’s interprofessional learning in practice -model will be piloted in November 2021. In the acute ward of the Kuopio University Hospital, they focus on treating acute illnesses in elderly patients and supporting home care. In primary social and health care the interprofessional learning environments are in Kuopio city social and health care, Päihdepalvelusäätiö (the substance abuse treatment foundation) in Kuopio, Rautavaara municipal social and health care and Ylä-Savon SOTE Joint Municipal Authority in Northern Savo. In primary social and health care the focus is to provide care and service to people who have multiple needs.
In the interprofessional learning environments social and health care students are jointly responsible for care and service. They form an interprofessional student team that is instructed by tutors and other social and health care professionals. They take responsibility for the holistic care of the customer together and break the boundaries of traditional professional roles. It is important that the interprofessional student team operates in a customer-oriented manner and finds the best solution together with the customer.
Interprofessional tutoring
We are training social and health care professionals to act as tutors in the interprofessional service system. The training is created for the social and health care professionals who tutor students. The training module consists of three courses that focus on the pedagogy of interprofessional tutoring, useful digital tools and environments and interprofessional service system and networks. The training is time- and place-independent, self-directed, and organized online. We are piloting the training from September 2021 with our collaboration organizations.
SOKK’s interprofessional learning in practice.
The SOKK Pedagogical Model
The concept of learning in SOKK is based on a Pedagogical Model combining the Integrative Pedagogy Model (Tynjälä 2007; Tynjälä 2018; Tynjälä, Virtanen, Klemola, Kostiainen & Rasku-Puttonen 2016) and the Complexity Theory (Cooper, Braye & Geyer 2004).
The Integrative Pedagogy Model combines the key elements of expertise in learning situations: theoretical knowledge, practical knowledge, self-regulatory knowledge and sociocultural knowledge (Tynjälä et al. 2016; Tynjälä 2018). The Integrative Pedagogy Model is based on the understanding that learning takes place at three levels of human activity: social, cognitive and emotional (Tynjälä 2018).
The Complexity Theory is based on Tosey’s (2002) outline of the four complexity theory principles: the self-organization of learning, the paradox of learning, the emergence of learning and learning on “the edge of chaos”.
References:
Cooper, H., S. Braye, & R. Geyer. 2004. ”Complexity and Interprofessional Education.” Learning in Health and Social Care 3:4, 179–189.
Tosey, P. 2002. Teaching on the Edge of Chaos. Complexity Theory and Teaching Systems. LTSN Imaginative Curriculum Knowledge Development Paper.
Tynjälä, P. 2007. ”Integratiivinen pedagogiikka osaamisen kehittämisessä.” In Taidon tieto, edited by H. Kotila, A. Mutanen, & M. V. Volanen. Helsinki: Edita, 11–36.
Tynjälä, P. 2018. Integratiivinen pedagogiikka asiantuntijuuden kehittymisen tukena (video).
Tynjälä, P., A. Virtanen, U. Klemola, E. Kostiainen, & H. Rasku-Puttonen. 2016. ”Developing Social Competence and Other Generic Skills in Teacher Education: Applying the Model of Integrative Pedagogy.” European Journal of Teacher Education 39:3, 368–387.
The SOKK Pedagogical Model.
Accessibility and Data Protection
Accessibility
Website accessibility
This accessibility statement pertains to the website available at www.sokk.fi, and it has been drawn up on September 23, 2020. The accessibility of the website has been assessed by our team members. In addition, we have reviewed the website by using the Wave service and followed the Papunet accessible website design guide.
Accessibility status of the digital service
The website meets the AA level accessibility requirements, which we have set as our goal. The accessibility requirements have guided the layout design of and content production for our website. We are committed to enhancing the accessibility of our digital services, and we are continuously working to improve it. For users to whom our digital services remain inaccessible, we offer special support. If this is the case, please contact us at anna.miettinen@uef.fi
Did you discover an accessibility issue in our digital service?
Please let us know, and we will do our best to fix the issue. You can give feedback relating to accessibility by sending an email to: anna.miettinen@uef.fi
If you discover an accessibility issue on our website, please give us, i.e. the website administrators, feedback first. Please note that it may take up to 14 days to reply to your feedback. If you are not satisfied with our response or if you receive no response at all within two weeks, you can lodge a complaint with the Regional State Administrative Agency for Southern Finland. The website of the Regional State Administrative Agency for Southern Finland explains, in detail, how you can lodge a complaint and how the matter will be processed.
Contact information for the supervisory authority:
Regional State Administrative Agency for Southern Finland
Accessibility oversight unit
www.saavutettavuusvaatimukset.fi
saavutettavuus@avi.fi
Telephone number 0295 016 000 (switchboard)
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