gms | German Medical Science

International and national experts in the field of clinical competences in nursing, medicine and other health professions met on March 7 and 8 following the invitation from the Charité Institute of Health Science Education and Nursing Science. The aim of the symposium was to identify perspectives of research and development concerning clinical competences and to coordinate and network corresponding research activities.

Prof. Michael Ewers (Charité) opened the symposium by giving an overview of the topic “Developing Clinical Competences”. In his address, he emphasised the following features: learning strategies, assessment and feedback, actors in the learning process, and learning environments. These strands were followed during the whole symposium. They were first introduced by an expert’s presentation followed by an audience discussion, which picked up the issues and generated further ideas.

Keynote speaker Prof. Madeleine Abrandt-Dahlgren from Linköping, Sweden, highlighted interprofessional learning as the most important aspect in the development of clinical competences. She reported experiences, research results and developments from interprofessional learning at Linköping University over the last few decades. Students from different programmes at Linköping University were involved, for example, care for patients in “Interprofessional Educational Units” under supervision. The results of this learning strategy were positively assessed.

Dr. Kai Schnabel, MME (University of Berne, Switzerland), presented the development of learning strategies in medical education based on the example of clinical skills. He reported that nearly all medical schools have “Skills Labs” at their disposal and use simulation as a learning strategy. In addition, Dr. Schnabel presented national activities to find generally accepted competence models. The audience especially debated the possibilities of practice transfer from skills labs to real-life conditions.

Prof. Ingrid Darmann-Finck (University of Bremen) focused on the theoretical foundation of competence and explained possibilities as well as limitations of competence assessment, which is, she argued, rather assessing performance in practical skills. According to her statements, qualifications research concerning usability is required in addition to a view of “Bildung” as a development of the individual without considerations as to its measurability or usefulness.

The participants concluded the first day of the symposium with a reception in the Charité’s “Window of Science”.

A presentation was given by Dr. Anne Simmenroth-Nayda on March 8 about results and experiences from the work with simulation patients she supervises at the University of Göttingen. Through the cooperation with simulation patients, students can be trained in “near real life” situations, which are standardised and supervised. The participants discussed the results regarding the “patient as teacher” in real clinical settings.

Referring to “learning environments”, Dr. Manuela Bergjan (Charité) put the traditional clinical training up for discussion. With regard to situated learning, she stressed the meaning of complex social relations in the community of practice, as well as the requirement of evaluation of learning environments. Dr. Bergjan presented the “Clinical learning environment and supervision and nurse teacher scale” (CLES+T scale), which is an internationally accepted instrument. The possibilities and limitations of the measuring of social components of learning were thereafter discussed by the audience.

Finally, Prof. Rebecca Spirig from Zurich, Switzerland, presented a career model for nurses applied in the University Hospital Zurich. Referring to Benner’s competence model, she explained ways to work on different levels of competence in a health profession: “Not all are equal, but all are equally important”.

During the final discussion, the most urgent research desiderata were debated. It was pointed out that there are gaps in research in all of the areas mentioned in Germany. Many fundamental tasks need to be addressed, for example, the development of models of competence for the health professions.

The symposium provided an opportunity for research networking and aimed to be a kick-off point for interprofessional dialogue and diverse, coordinated research activities in medical and health professions education.

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.