The Berufsförderungsinstitut Upper Austria (BFI OÖ) is a vocational training institute and offers comprehensive training for advanced nursing and social care professions within the Competence Center for Health and Social Professions. The training spectrum includes nursing assistant professions such as nursing assistant and professional nursing assistant, social care professions such as specialist social care worker with various specializations, and medical assistant professions such as doctor’s office assistant, operating room assistant, laboratory assistant, and more. In addition to these training programs, the BFI offers a wide range of continuing education and training courses, available as individual courses or block sessions. Another focus is on courses for the recognition of foreign qualifications in the nursing field.
Trainees can start their training at the age of 17. However, many of them are adults who are pursuing a career change and choosing a training program in the social sector. The BFI collaborates with all hospitals and long-term care facilities in Upper Austria to provide hands-on training and is one of the largest training institutions for nursing and medical assistant professions in the region. For example, the Linz location offers courses for 330 trainees each year.
The use of new technologies has always been a key element at BFI Upper Austria. Their learning platform, along with associated tools for electronic communication and collaboration, is a central instrument for all courses and training programs.
In Austria, there are numerous opportunities to pursue education in the nursing field. These include:
· Training programs for various medical-clinical assistance professions and social care professions.
· Training courses for nursing assistants and schools for nursing as well as
· advanced continuing education programs and academic specialization courses.
A general overview of education at the Secondary Level II for Health Professions, including education and training for healthcare professions, is provided by this publication from OeAD (Austria’s Agency for Education and Internationalization): Health Professions, Education and Training for Healthcare Professions
Due to the high permeability and variety of institutions, qualifications, and specialization options, we have described the educational pathways to key professions in nursing as well as some specific training opportunities in Upper Austria in a compact summary
According to director Petra Maria Berger, the biggest challenges in the training courses at present are that adults must balance full-time training with their private family commitments.
According to Ms. Drews-Milalkovits, getting started with the mandatory learning platform and using it is also a challenge for some learners, especially if they have never worked with such systems before. On the other hand, digital tools are becoming increasingly commonplace in nursing and are therefore essential in training.
When it comes to language, the Upper Austrian dialect is primarily a challenge for trainees, both in teamwork, where staff resources are perceived as unhelpful, and especially when interacting with patients during practical training. It would be helpful to be able to offer parts of the training program in multiple languages, but also to address the local dialect.
When asked about the challenges in nursing practice, the two experts note that it is primarily the working conditions in nursing that are crucial for nurses to remain in the profession. Staff shortages and the resulting overwork or excessive demands, unbalanced teamwork, and underpaid professionals are clearly poor conditions for fulfilling professional practice.
Director Berger would choose nursing again without hesitation if she were making a career choice today. However, she would generally like to see a greater recognition of this profession and the training, an adjustment of remuneration, especially for the newly created profession of professional nursing assistants, and a more differentiated application process in order to attract more potential applicants.
Use of technology: Added value is key!
New technologies are always a topic of interest for the BFI, and the institutions have already explored VR: VR glasses with anatomy content were used in teaching, but their use in education was quite short-lived: The older glasses did not allow for such long periods of wear and the operation of the technology was still too complex.
If learners who are not so technically savvy are unable to make progress due to the technology not yet working so well, for example with hand tracking or with inconsistent immersion in a simulation, and attribute malfunctions to their own inability, then the use of VR is even counterproductive.
For both educators, the primary question in every decision regarding didactic settings and technological tools is: Where does something make sense? Where does it offer didactic added value? And what can be used to seriously and effectively support the learning process?
Petra Drews-Milalkovits puts it succinctly: “Always prioritize didactics before technology. And if the didactics can’t be fulfilled and the added value isn’t there, then there’s no point in using technology. Regardless of whether it’s a learning platform, VR, AR, XR, … or now even AI solutions… If the added value isn’t there… there’s no point in using technology.”
Petra Maria Berger also adds that the critical factors are the time required for use and the cost factor, not only in terms of purchasing and licensing the hardware, but also for technical staff and facilities – ideally, VR should be operated in an properly equipped laboratory.
Evaluating VR technologies in nursing education: Opportunities, challenges and next steps
Last year, VR headsets were evaluated in Munich in connection with the Skills Lab, but were not convincing, as the few simulations available in German were judged to be too weak and the still difficult handling caused more frustration than enthusiasm for learning.
VR simulations for processes are viewed with skepticism because they originate from the Anglo-American world and do not correspond to the processes used in Austrian institutions. Scenarios that require haptic feedback and teamwork are better trained in real life rather than virtual reality, the educators explain.
When it comes to simulations dealing with certain illnesses – for example dementia – VR cannot yet compete with a classic medium such as a video recording due to the still extremely weak translation of facial expressions and gestures.
In general, Ms. Drews-Milalkovits prefers applications that use augmented reality or mixed reality because they allow for the combination of the real and virtual environments, and the inclusion of real-life disruptive factors in a training setting.
The two educators would particularly like to use VR applications to train for situations that cannot be reproduced in a real teaching setting: dangerous situations or an emergency situation such as a cardiac alarm or special environments such as an intensive care unit are suitable here.
They can also imagine VR for training communication with patients, especially if it were possible for the patient—likely AI-supported—to respond, ideally even in the local dialect. This could, for example, better support more introverted students or those whose native language is not German. For such training, the educators could also envision offering VR headsets for rent.
However, Director Berger emphasizes that the information that the AI-generated patients are “fed” in these simulations must be monitored very carefully, so that the data setting is not distorted due to the lack of data sets from certain groups of people or due to unequal weighting, as is already a current issue in gender medicine.
The technical possibilities of artificial intelligence will be reflected not only in such training opportunities, but also in nursing practice, for example, in support of patient documentation through voice control. A great deal of research and development money is being invested primarily in the development of technical solutions for physicians. Here, as with other issues, nursing in particular needs a stronger lobby, says Director Berger, so that both the training and continuing education of future nurses and practical nursing work can benefit from these technologies.
Further information on the COMPETENCE CENTER FOR HEALTH AND SOCIAL PROFESSIONS at BFI OÖ:
https://www.bfi-ooe.at/G&S
©Astrid Leeb, Edugroup
Photo: Director Petra Maria Berger and Ms. Petra Drews -Milalkovits at the BFI OÖ in Linz