Ludwigshafen University of Business and Society (HWG LU) today celebrated the inauguration of its new skills and simulation center for nursing and midwifery degree programs. The newly furnished premises on the second floor of Turmstraße 8 in the so-called Mediencarrée, just a few minutes' walk from the university's central campus, offer future midwives and nurses around 900 square meters of ideal conditions to train their practical skills and perfect everyday and crisis situations in healthcare under realistic conditions. The Rhineland-Palatinate Ministry of Science and Health (MWG) supported the construction of the skills and simulation center at the HWG LU with around €1.3 million as a health focus of the state. At today's inauguration ceremony, Ministerial Director Katharina Heil delivered the Ministry's greetings and praised the opening of the Skills and Simulation Center as a "great day for the students, the university, healthcare in Rhineland-Palatinate and beyond". The Ludwigshafen University of Applied Sciences is thus setting standards for high-quality academic and practical training for nurses and midwives and is making a decisive contribution to securing a skilled workforce. "The HWG LU is an important and reliable partner of the state government in the academization of the healthcare professions and plays a pioneering role in the expansion of healthcare degree courses," said Heil.
In his welcoming address, University President Prof. Dr. Gunther Piller thanked "all those involved who made this milestone possible", in particular the Ministry of Science and Health of Rhineland-Palatinate, but also GAG as landlord, the architectural firm ap88 and the companies involved in the conversion and construction. Special thanks also go to the clinical and non-clinical practice partners for their many years of support and trusting cooperation. Prof. Dr. Hans-Ulrich Dallmann, Dean of the Department of Social and Health Care, then looked back at the beginnings of the academization of the healthcare professions in the 1990s and the development of the healthcare degree courses: "It was a difficult birth, to stay with the metaphor, but what came out of it is something to be proud of," said Dallmann. At the same time, he made it clear: "Today is only an interim stage. Academization must continue with a Master's degree and beyond. We are on our way."
Prof. Dr. Nina Knape, Head of the dual Bachelor's degree programme in Midwifery Science and Vice President for Studies, Education and Diversity, also emphasized the pioneering role that Ludwigshafen has played in the academization of the healthcare professions, especially since the amendment of midwifery training in 2019, thanks to the political will of the Ministry and together with the practice partners involved. Looking at the new skills and simulation center, she almost feels "a touch of envy" when she thinks back to her own midwifery training. "Back then, everything had to be practiced and learned in professional practice, directly on the women. Necessary routines, standardized situations or emergency situations and the accompanying communication could not be trained in advance. Rarely occurring cases were often fraught with anxiety as a result," said Knape, looking back and adding: "The skills and simulation center does not replace practical experience, but provides the best possible preparation for it."
Ludwigshafen has also taken the lead in the academization of nursing training - Ministerial Director Heil spoke of the "pole position of Ludwigshafen's nursing degree courses" in her welcoming address. Prof. Dr. Joachim von der Heide, head of the dual Bachelor's degree course in nursing, outlined the development of the academization of nursing, which made it possible to start the Bachelor's degree course in nursing in 2022. "Rhineland-Palatinate reacted very quickly to the Nursing Professions Act and implemented nursing degree programs at the University of Trier and the HWG Ludwigshafen. Despite the hesitant beginnings, the state has stuck with the degree programs and provided them with strong financial support. We are now on the right track," says von der Heide. The Skills and Simulation Center is the place where theory and practice come together.
Kirsten Ahrens and Mareike Kast, the two practical advisors, also describe the Skills and Simulation Center, which they played a key role in setting up, as "a third place of learning alongside the lecture hall and professional practice". With eleven training rooms, the new premises in Turmstrasse offer around three times as much space as the old premises in Ludwigshafen city center - and therefore even more possibilities: In addition to two delivery rooms and a birthing room modeled on a birth center, there is also, for example, a hospital ward room with several beds, a ward room or an intensive care area. In addition to authentic furniture and equipment such as wider doors, nursing beds and medicine cabinets, the equipment also includes digitally controllable simulation mannequins, practice models and deceptively real baby dolls to make the work as realistic as possible. "We often encounter the prejudice that the degree course doesn't teach enough practical skills, but that's not true," says Practice Officer Kirsten Ahrens during the tour of the premises. "The opposite is the case. We have completely new opportunities for intensive learning support here. In small groups, for example, we can simulate an emergency situation in a delivery room and record it with cameras in the ceilings of individual rooms. This allows teachers and students to discuss everything in detail again afterwards," adds Mareike Kast, Practice Officer for Midwifery Science. The training in the skills and simulation center is of course supplemented by numerous hours of practical work at the university's practice partners - clinics, inpatient long-term care facilities, outpatient care services, delivery rooms, birth centers and midwifery practices in the region. In addition to optimal preparation for professional practice, the Skills and Simulation Center provides another advantage: examinations can be taken here under the same and therefore fair conditions.
Contact:
Ludwigshafen University of Business and Society
Department of Social and Health Care
Mareike Kast
Practice Officer Midwifery
Tel. 0621/5203-146
Mobile: 0162- 7419707
mareike.kast@hwg-lu.de
Kirsten Ahrens
Practice Consultant Nursing
Tel. 0621/5203-513
kirsten.ahrens@ 8< SPAM protection, please remove >8 hwg-lu.de
