Social-, health care and rehabilitation educators’ competence: a cross-sectional study

The Appearance of Digital Competence in the Work of Health Sciences Educators

“…The research project, called TerOpe, took place in 2017-2019, and this article reflects one part of the whole project. 32 This key national project funded by the Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture aimed to develop the competence and continuous education of social, healthcare, and rehabilitation educators.…”

“…The instrument was included in the broader survey used in the TerOpe project. 32 The invitation, with a Web link to the survey, was sent by e-mail to universities of applied sciences and vocational institutions (a total of 25 organizations from different parts of Finland) in autumn 2018. It was sent to a contact person at each organization, who forwarded an invitation e-mail to the health sciences educators (N = 2330) at their organization.…”

Social, health and rehabilitation sector educators’ competence in evidence‐based practice: A cross‐sectional study

“…Since no suitable instrument developed measuring educators’ competence in EBP competence was found, the EBP competence self‐assessment instrument was developed for this study according to the Joanna Briggs Institute Model of Evidence‐Based Healthcare (Jordan et al., 2019) and a qualitative study conducted in the larger project (Mikkonen, Koivula, et al., 2019). Since education is seen in JBI as an important element of evidence transfer and evidence implementation, the items were operationalized, focusing on those two areas.…”

“…In Finland, health and social services educators have been regulated by decrees issued by the government (Government Decree on Polytechnics, 1129/2014, Section 17): their areas of expertise should include scientific and professional expertise in the fields of social work, health and rehabilitation; pedagogical, ethical and cultural competence; personal interaction, cooperation and network competence; and knowledge of administrative and occupational well‐being. Additionally, educators are required to have sustainable innovation and foresight competence, EBP competence and continuous development competencies, which are especially needed in the process of consolidating and transforming education (Mikkonen, Koivula, et al., 2019). Educators' basic knowledge, skills and experiences already form a good foundation for competence, but in addition, competencies are also seen as consisting of the potential and ability of the individual to combine their competencies and implement them in the working environment.…”

“…The World Health Organization (WHO) has also identified EBP as one of the core working areas for nursing educators (WHO, 2016). EBP competence in the context here refers to the educator's continuous competence in taking into account up‐to‐date evidence in their own decision‐making when educating students, working with colleagues and developing education (Mikkonen, Koivula, et al., 2019). Studies show that in the medical context EBP leads to high‐quality patient care, individualized patient treatments and the best possible outcomes, including improvement of patient safety (Considine & McGillivray, 2010, Revello and Gallo, 2012).…”