Swedish University Colleges Research Articles

Employability and long-term work life outcomes from studying at a Swedish university college: problematizing the notion of mismatch

Employability and long-term work life outcomes from studying at a Swedish university college: problematizing the notion of mismatch

Learning to teach at a norm-critical clinical learning centre: A Phenomenographic study

BackgroundCampus-based clinical learning centres are used for practice and learning in nursing students' education and can be arenas in which to enhance students' awareness and competence in social justice issues. Norm-critical approaches can be used as pedagogical tools in these centres to prepare students for hands-on caring situations in which social norms can bias the outcome. ObjectivesTo describe nursing teachers' conceptions of learning norm-critical approaches and implementing them in a clinical training centre. Setting and participantsThe study is based on interviews with 10 teachers at a Swedish university college. MethodsThe data was analysed using a phenomenographic approach. ResultsFive categories of description emerged in the analysis that described conceptions related to norm-critical approaches. These categories were: personally developing and meaningful; easily integrated with established nursing concepts; highlighting surrounding power; something to lean on when letting students take the first steps in norm-critical initiatives; and helping implementation in teaching and education. ConclusionsTeachers who are facing the task of providing norm-critical, practical education to nursing students in campus-based clinical learning environments are ambivalent towards the core principles of norm criticism, which they conceive as natural and provoking, at the same time. We therefore need to un-dramatise norm criticism and better prepare teachers in how to use it. Teachers would benefit from follow-up activities and formal collaborations regarding norm-critical teaching, so that they are given context to discuss, reflect, and learn from each other.

Nursing students’ attitudes towards the use of digital technology in the healthcare of older adults- a cross-sectional study in Norway and Sweden

BackgroundImplementation of digital technology has been suggested as a potential solution to future healthcare challenges. Healthcare personnel’s attitudes are important in the acceptance and implementation of digital technologies.AimThe aims of this study were to (1) translate and validate two different questionnaires to Norwegian and Swedish respectively, and then (2) use these to examine nursing students’ attitudes towards digital technology in healthcare, as well as their attitudes towards older adults’ abilities to use digital technology.DesignCross-sectional.MethodsA web-based questionnaire was distributed in first year nursing students in a Norwegian and a Swedish university college, respectively. The questionnaire consisted of the short form of the ‘Information Technology Attitude Scales for Health (ITASH)’ and the ‘Attitudes Towards Older Adults Using Digital technology (ATOAUT-11)’ questionnaire. The questionnaires were translated and validated in both countries. Frequencies, Student’s t-test, and one-way ANOVA were used to analyze the data.ResultsIn total 236 students responded to the questionnaire in the period September 2022 to April 2023. Students mainly reported positive attitudes towards digital technology use in general. They most agreed with the items ‘Using digital technology devices makes my communication with other health professionals faster’, ‘The sort of information I can get from the digital technology devices helps me give better care to patient’, and ‘Digital technology skills are becoming more and more necessary for healthcare professionals’. However, they reported more negative attitudes towards older adults using digital technology. They most agreed with the items ‘One needs a lot of patience to explain to an older adult how to use digital technologies’, ‘It’s hard to explain to older adults how to use digital technology’, ‘Using digital technology is harder for most older adults’, and ‘Most older adults fear using digital technology because they fear of being scammed or cheated’.ConclusionThe ITASH and the ATOAUT-11 is appropriate for use in a Norwegian and Swedish setting. Even if nursing students are positive to digital technology in healthcare in general, they are sceptical to older adults using digital technology. This may impact on their attitudes to using digital technology in the healthcare of older adults. These aspects need emphasis when revising nursing education curricula focusing on developing technological competencies in nursing, and gaining knowledge regarding older adults’ use of digital technology.

Dual use of instruments for assessing nursing students professional- and clinical competence

BackgroundChanges in demographics and the development of health systems have a direct impact on patients' nursing needs and nurses' ability to meet them. Modern and forward-looking nursing education programmes that will help nursing students to develop their professional competence require useful tools for assessment and self-reflection that can be combined in theoretical and clinical education. ObjectivesTo investigate the associations between the Nurse Professional Competence Scale – Short Form (NPC-SF), and the tool Assessment of Clinical Education (AssCE) tool, and to assess the graduating students´ professional competence based on their self-assessment. DesignA cross-sectional descriptive study design was used. Participants and settingsA total of 151 nursing students at a Swedish university college completed the NPC-SF and the AssCE (response rate 77%). MethodsIn their final weeks of the nursing programme, students were invited to respond to two questionnaires: the NPC Scale - Short Form (35 items) and the AssCE tool (21 items). ResultThere are significant correlations between the nursing students' responses to the NPC-SF competence areas and the AssCE areas (r = 0.19–0.57). Students score in the NPC-SF were highest in Value-based Nursing Care and lowest in Development, Leadership and Organization of Nursing Care, and in the AssCE areas student scores were highest in Examination and treatment and Professional Approach and lowest in Management and Cooperation. ConclusionThe NPC-SF and AssCE are valid and reliable instruments, showing a high level of correlation. Results imply that dual use could strengthen student-centred theoretical and clinical learning as well as professional competence development. Additional research is needed to assess student's competence development during the nursing program.

The reproduction of geographically advantaged student groups - trends in metropolitan student enrolment at Swedish university colleges

ABSTRACT This study examines how Swedish students originating from metropolitan areas have used university colleges to access higher education. In the 1970s, as part of a series of reforms to the Swedish higher education system, university colleges were established. One reason being to make higher education more accessible to students outside the metropolitan areas. However, students from metropolitan areas have increasingly enrolled in these institutions over time. Multinomial logistic regression was used to examine the pre-entry attributes of metropolitan students from four enrolment cohorts (1995, 1998, 2001, and 2004) and patterns in their enrolment at university colleges. The results indicate that over time metropolitan students from less advantaged backgrounds have increasingly attended university colleges, particularly those whose qualifications excluded them from entering the more prestigious universities.

From political correctness to reflexivity: A norm-critical perspective on nursing education.

Education is important in shaping professional identity, including how one approaches norms and normalisation. In the analysis presented in this study, nursing students' own constructions of norms and normality from the outlook of their education are highlighted and problematised. To deepen the understanding of these matters, the aim of this study was to explore constructions of norms and normality among students in nursing education. Students studying in a nursing department at a Swedish university college were approached and asked to consider open survey questions targeting their views on norms and normality; 154 of them replied. After a discourse analytic approach to the data, we could see how the students constructed norms and normality as (a) instrumental instructions, consisting of easy-to-digest statements grounded in the profession's obvious moral and ethical values, (b) limiting and frustrating obstacles for personal freedom that were important to challenge, (c) rules to be obeyed for the stability of society and (d) a matter of reflection, with each individual being responsible for understanding differences in norms, perspectives and opinions. We conclude that nursing education would benefit from norm-critical perspectives, problematising students' own positions to norms, power and privilege.

MOTIVATION, LEARNING STRATEGIES AND PERFORMANCE AMONG BUSINESS UNDERGRADUATES AT UNIVERSITY COLLEGES IN SWEDEN

Purpose – This paper brings new material to the understanding of interlinkages between motivation, learning and performance in academic contexts. By investigating these interlinkages in a new context – students of business and management at a Swedish university college – it seeks to answer the following research questions: How do students’ degree and type of motivation relate to their learning strategies?; how do students’ degree and type of motivation and learning strategies relate to their academic success?; and how do student characteristics in terms of experience and gender influence the nature and strength of these relationships? Research methodology – The data used in this paper is based on student surveys and a centralised system of reporting and archiving academic results. The latter contains information on the academic performance of individual students, whereas the surveys gathered information on the students’ background characteristics (experience and gender), their motivation for pursuing academic studies and their learning strategies. The difference in proportion tests and OLS regressions were then applied to investigate differences between student groups and relationships between the different variables. Findings – The findings reveal that business students are more extrinsically than intrinsically motivated; that deep learning approaches lead to higher grades for particular examination forms, and that female students are typically more intrinsically motivated, engage more in deep learning approaches and perform better than their male counterparts. Practical implications – The findings suggest that practitioners in higher education involved with the business and/or university college students have good reasons to stimulate motivation generally, and intrinsic motivation in particular. However, this must be accompanied by examination forms that promote deep learning. Originality/Value – In contrast to most research, this paper focuses on the interlinkages between motivation, learning and performance among business students in a university college setting. This contrasts most research on this topic which tends to be focused on university students, particularly in the US, in other fields of study or accounting. Moreover, this paper also takes student characteristics into account and uses a variety of measures to operationalise academic performance.

The influence of gender in academia: a case study of a university college in Sweden

PurposeThe aim of this paper is to describe senior lecturers' experiences of and reflections on the influence of gender on their work and career possibilities.Design/methodology/approachEight informants, four female and four male university teachers, representing different schools at a Swedish university college were interviewed. A qualitative content method was used for analysis.FindingsThe findings revealed that the lecturers at the university college had an experience of academic gender neutrality. The findings also pointed to experiences of gendered practice that had been internalized and made normal. It also revealed that the lecturers did not consider or reflect on the gap between experiences of and reflections on gender neutrality and gendered practice.Research limitations/implicationsEven if the number of informants is small, the findings have something important to tell about the gap between gender‐neutral academia and practice in academia.Originality/valueThe findings imply that although the Swedish model of equality work has been successful in many ways, a confrontation on the micro‐political level is required to achieve a gender equality workplace environment and to increase women's career possibilities.

Leadership Style, Social Climate And Organizational Outcomes: A study of a Swedish University College

The study raises the question of the dual influence of leadership style on organizational outcomes by way of climate and directly. Research material primarily collected for a study of the creative organizational and individual resources of a state university college in Sweden was utilized and further analysed. A sample of 130 teachers answered questionnaires about the creative climate in their departments, the department head’s leadership style and the performance of the department in terms of creativity and productivity. The results indicate that in this organization the behavioural style of the manager affects organizational results only through influencing the social climate. The implications of the results considering the kind of organization studied are discussed.

Nursing education in Sweden: development from vocational training to higher level education.

Recent decades have seen several changes within Swedish nursing education. The length of Swedish nursing education was previously 2 years; today, however, it has been adapted to the rules laid down by the European Union, which means that it covers 3 years. Swedish nursing education was raised to university college level as early as 1977; however, it is only in recent years that the education can be said to meet the requirements placed on it. The requirement that the education should be scientifically based entails that the teaching staff should include teachers not only with nursing experience but also with a doctor's degree in nursing. The county councils are the authorities responsible for nursing education with the exception of three university colleges of nursing education which are independent. During the past year, however, seven nursing programmes have gone over to State control, and several more are discussing co-operation. A central evaluation made of Swedish university colleges of nursing education shows that 10 colleges provided education which could not be considered to correspond to the required level of higher education. No university college of nursing education has yet been accorded the right to provide education for the bachelor's degree. The future of the Swedish nurse is uncertain due to a large extent to the reorganization that has taken place within the health services.