Commitment to the nursing training of the future

What are important insights that you would like to pass on to new generations of hospital employees?

You have a job that is meaningful, that's worth a lot. It may take a bit of idealism. We can make a difference for people in crisis situations. I have never regretted going into the healthcare sector. The prerequisite is to enjoy working with people. In my view, the healthcare professions are also very diverse. The opportunities for further development are great. There are more technical training courses, such as those to become an expert in emergency care, and further training to specialise in specialist topics such as palliative care.

What are the current opportunities for training in nursing or other professions?

We offer various training programmes for nursing and other professions at the hospital and at Gesundheitswelt Zollikerberg. There are apprenticeships such as healthcare specialist and business administrator, as well as higher specialist training to become a qualified nursing specialist HF or FH, FH midwife, HF radiology specialist, HF surgical technology, FH occupational therapy, FH physiotherapy, FH nutritional counselling and many more. A great option today is that after completing an apprenticeship, you can also go on to higher specialised training. We also offer various further training programmes: Further training to become a medical specialist, expert in anaesthesia care, emergency care, intensive care and others. The variety is huge.

How and by whom are trainees supported?

In all areas and departments, there are a total of around 60 vocational trainers across the foundation who support the trainees. In my area, there is a training team that also supports apprentices and students with introductions, discussions, learning support and other tasks. In addition to training on the ward, we also offer training in our learning workshop and other forms of learning such as training transfer days.

How do you experience training as a nurse today compared to 1993? What has changed?

After my A-levels, I spent four years learning integrated nursing, a training programme for the care of children and adults. In this pilot programme, we had to reflect a lot and work out the reasons for our actions ourselves. This programme was very progressive for the time. Today, developing the ability to reflect is part of normal training. Today, interprofessional collaboration is certainly even more collaborative than it used to be. Nursing has been given a higher status. The theoretical foundations of nursing care have become clearer and more well-founded.

I remember when I started my training as a qualified nurse, there were no trousers with a tunic but rather work aprons. I found this very cumbersome, especially when mobilising patients. Fortunately, things changed from the second or third year of training onwards. We also had vocational trainers who supported us well, but there was still no learning training transfer day or learning time during working hours. We were often left to our own devices and looked after many patients independently early on, often with little support. Fortunately, things are different today. Although our students and trainees also work in the teams, they are supervised more closely. The way we work has changed in that there are more professional groups around the patients. This requires good communication between these professional groups.

What has remained the same is that there is a lot to practise: In addition to communicating effectively with patients and working as part of a team, practising skills such as taking blood samples or mobilising patients is also an important task. The specialist knowledge to be learnt remains very diverse, which also makes it interesting.

What challenges and opportunities do you see in the future organisation of nursing training?

One challenge may be that pressure is increasing due to staff shortages, which means that students and trainees can receive less support. The opportunity is that our professions are deeply meaningful. I always realise why I enjoy going to work today. The technical possibilities in training, such as modern learning media like videos and virtual reality, can also make training more exciting. I recently tested this myself and I'm really enthusiastic about it. In my view, however, this will never be able to replace learning from experienced professionals. The exchange with patients could also be included even more in the training; they are experts in their individual situation and can best describe to us what they need and how they deal with their illness.

If you had one wish, what would you wish for the nursing professions of the future?

I hope that we can inspire many young people to enter the nursing profession and other professions in the healthcare sector. That interprofessional work improves even further and that our teams work together even better. And that nurses and all healthcare professionals stay in this valuable profession for as long as possible.

What other goals do you have for your future career?

To constantly develop myself further. There is always something to learn. I want to keep enjoying my work and working with my colleagues and remain curious.