The article highlights the new approach to teaching a foreign language to medical students as a reasonable mixed method of traditional teaching and the use of modern technologies. Teaching process at higher medical educational institutions is based on innovative didactic technologies, mechanisms and procedures. Many theories suggest implementation of combined classroom and online teaching called blended or hybrid learning. The aim of this investigation is to develop practical recommendations for successful integration of blended learning with traditional teaching medical students at the Danylo Halytsky Lviv National Medical University. Web-based technology stimulates and promotes self-learning, keeps the learner at the centre of the learning process using personality-oriented and technology-mediated approaches. E-learning promotes autonomy and motivates students to learn throughout the life performing specific tasks before or after classroom learning. The research involved 47 groups of students studying General Medicine at Danylo Halytsky Lviv National Medical University (602 second-year students, 2017-2018 academic year). The experiment consisted of 40% of e-learning and 60% of classroom teaching. Assessing performance, we concluded that students' academic performance results improved from 15% to 23% depending on the language skill due to the integration of blended learning strategies into the teaching process. Blended learning also assists students to choose and interpret required tasks, to assess cases related to future medical profession, and to apply compulsory information, which requires proficiency and practical skills.

The article deals with the issues of developing students’ creative skills at medical educational institutions. Intensification of students’ creative potential occurs through the formation of thinking, research and communication skills, ability to interact with information means and technologies. Second-year students of General Medicine Faculty were involved in the experiment at Danylo Halytsky Lviv National Medical University in Ukraine. Experimental and control groups included 172 students in each one. We singled out two groups: a control group – training based on the available basic course “Professional English in Medicine” and an experimental group – training based on a combination of two courses: the basic course “Professional English in Medicine” and the elective course “Special Medical Terminology”. Homogeneity of the control and experimental groups was checked using Student’s t-test. Testing 0-hypothesis showed no significant differences between samples for the reliability level 0.05 (5% probability). At the first stage of the experimental study, students’ performance was considered at the beginning of the experiment in the control and experimental groups. Students were divided into three levels: high (82–100 points), medium (64–81 points) and low (50–63 points). Certainty of differences between groups was tested using Pearson’s chi-squared test (χ2), according to which the critical value was = 5.991, and the corresponding empirical value = 0.414. Thus, any differences between the results of the control and experimental groups are random variations with a probability of less than 5%, and, therefore, the samples are homogeneous by the research indicator. Verification of reliability of the obtained results in improving the level of creativity in students was checked by Pearson’s chi-squared test (χ2), according to which the critical value equaled 5.991 and the corresponding empirical value = 6.11. Thus, any differences between the results of the control and experimental groups are with a probability of less than 5% and based on the result of introduction of an active pedagogical factor into the educational process, and, therefore, the difference between the control and experimental groups is expected for the studied indicator. To define creative abilities, we used Joy Paul Guilford’s parameters and factors for interpreting variations in creativity: sensitivity to problems; flexibility and fluency; originality; synthesis, analysis; reorganizing or redefining; complexity and evaluation; to determine verbal aspect of students’ creativity, we applied the techniques suggested by Walther Moede and Sarnoff A. Mednick. All students performed significant improvement in the ability to generate a lot of ideas; they also showed a steady increase in such forms of creativity as sensitivity to problems, flexibility and fluency. Slight increase was noticed in reorganizing or redefining, complexity and evaluation. The students’ ability to solve problems by realization of relevant analytical and synthetic operations must be taken into consideration while developing creativity and creative communication of medical students.

In the article, the problem of the development of nursing profession through the perspective of the Swiss labor market has been studied. The scientific-pedagogical and economic literature, which highlights different aspects of the research problem, and also documents of the international nursing organizations have been analyzed. The profession of a nurse has been defined as a specialist providing professional care to individuals, families, groups and communities, the sick and their relatives, persons with special needs, healthy citizens that envisages tasks performance for health maintenance and improvement, organization of preventive measures, preparation and labor support, assistance in acute diseases, recovery and rehabilitation, long-term care and palliative care. The complex of research methods (analysis and synthesis, systematization and generalization) has been introduced. Special features of the nurse labor market have been pointed out in Switzerland; the importance of professional migration, namely from Italy, Germany and France, which induces the specific nature of health workforce in the healthcare system of the studied country, has been emphasized. Working conditions of nurses (workload, wages, full-time/part-time employment) and their social security (paid annual vocation, financial, material or non-financial incentives) have been characterized. Positive and negative factors, characterizing the nursing profession and being of great importance for nursing practice, namely: independence in the performance of professional duties, professional status and sick pay rules, as positive ones; occupational burnout and change of workplace or even profession, as negative ones, have been examined. Nursing workforce (nursing support worker, licensed practical nurse, registered nurse) and their responsibilities has been analyzed. The essence of legal regulation in the development of nurses' vocational training, which is implemented in accordance with the national interests of Switzerland and synchronized with the trends of the international labor market, has been highlighted. The research conclusions and prospects for further research have been presented.

Social, cultural, commercial and technological fluctuations are occurring all over the world and necessitate to alterations in people’s behavior and the necessity to adapt to these changes even in the teaching process due to Covid-19 pandemic. The educational process is performed according to innovations and information technologies, mechanisms and procedures approved by the Ministry of Education and Science and the Ministry of Health of Ukraine. The Project “Strategy for the Development of Higher Education in Ukraine for 2021-2031” was compiled and submitted for public discussion as a result of the completion of the National Strategy for the Development of Education in Ukraine in 2021 (Decree of the President of Ukraine dated June 25, 2013 No 344/2013) [4] and an increased global cooperation and mobility, market integration and advances in information technologies.

No abstract