Academic specialist centres part of solution for medical students

In his new role as Vice-Dean for collaboration with Stockholm County Council (SLL) with particular focus on education at Karolinska University Hospital, Carl-Fredrik Wahlgren’s highest priority will be to try, in collaboration with others, to secure KI’s programmes and courses in the new healthcare landscape that is taking shape in Stockholm.

Health and medical care in Stockholm is undergoing several extensive changes, where the reorganisation of Karolinska University Hospital is one of the things that will most impact KI’s possibilities to conduct clinical research and education. KI and SCC need to ensure that there are sufficient high-quality places for workplace-based education.

“The question highest on my agenda is to try to secure the teaching and degree objectives that are under threat. This requires close cooperation between KI’s management team, the Board of Higher Education, the unit for collaboration with the county council, representatives of the clinical departments, the education programmes and healthcare,” says Carl-Fredrik Wahlgren.

An impact study, commissioned by the Vice-Chancellor and conducted by KI in spring 2017 as a result of Karolinska University Hospital’s new orientation, makes it clear that several degree and education goals are threatened. They concern for example medical students’ possibilities to meet patients with common diagnoses and several programmes’ possibilities to attain the goals in inter-professional learning.

Much of the outpatient care carried out at the hospital will be transferred outside, and new learning environments that enable inter-professional learning (meaning that students in different professions can learn from each other and together) and clinical training environments are needed. The availability of teachers and supervisors who are competent in both their subjects, science and pedagogics is also high on the list of priorities.

Academic specialist centres a key issue

As specialist outpatient care is moved out, an important issue will be to establish academic specialist centres, where clinical research and education can be carried on hand-in-hand with healthcare. For example, such a centre will be opened on Torsplan in December and will thereby be located close to KI and Karolinska University Hospital in Solna. Here, KI will collaborate with Stockholm Health Care services (an organization within the SLL) to develop and implement workplace-based education at basic level and advanced level.

“The aim is to create a model for how education characterised by new approaches and innovative solutions with elements such as e-health and inter-professional learning can be carried on in specialist outpatient care. I believe that several such centres are needed if we are to ensure that places are available for KI’s workplace-based education”.

Challenges but also opportunities

In Carl-Fredrik Wahlgren’s opinion, collaboration should also be seen as a great opportunity to develop and improve clinical education still further. The aim is for the hospital to continue to be a central arena for KI’s clinical programmes and courses. There are still many research linkages with a great many researching teachers and good opportunities to, among other things, satisfy demands for inter-professional learning and internationalisation.

“Transformation work at the hospital is also an investment intended to strengthen collaboration between care, research and education. A university hospital without students is not a university hospital. Close collaboration between the university and healthcare is a prerequisite for a quality-assured education where the students are happy and can achieve their learning and degree goals”.

Information meetings

At two general information meetings, one in Flemingsberg on 11 September and one in Solna on 13 September, a summary will be given of KI’s impact study along with some proposed solutions. The meetings are open to everyone who is interested in the matter of education in collaboration with Karolinska University Hospital.

Text: Selma Wolofsky