När visioner ställs mot principer: en rapport från arbetet med att utforma en ämnes- och lärosätesövergripande nätutbildning

The Masters course ”Teamwork in Home Care” was originally developed as a project supported by the Agency for the Swedish Netuniversity (In 2006 this agency was incorporated into the newly formed Swedish Agency of Networks and Cooperation in Higher Education). This programme aims to increase the ability of personnel employed in care and rehabilitation programs for the elderly and disabled to work in interdisciplinary teams. An earlier program review of Swedish comprehensive home care suggested that training programs should include these skills in their curriculum.

Up to now, educational programmes in the area have concentrated on making students more aware of a variety of perspectives by comparing and contrasting the views of elderly and disabled individuals, with those of their relatives and health care professionals with different backgrounds that can be found in the national healthcare system.

The ”Teamwork in Home Care” course was developed as a collaboration between University College of Kalmar, Kristianstad University College, Jönköping University, Blekinge Institute of Technology, and Växjö University. This project was driven by the idea that the number of course offerings and teacher competence would increase if the institutes of higher educations were to collaborate instead of competing with one another. Modern information and communication technology would enable modes of collaboration and flexible learning that were deemed necessary for success.

Collaboration between independent higher education institutions entails many unforeseen obstacles and difficulties. Different institutions each have their own routines, their own ways of interpreting rules and regulations, and their own epistemologies and learning philosophies. In addition they have adopted different learning platforms. This report gives a closer description of these obstacles and how the project team handled them.

Case-based methods were employed in order to foster an awareness of the relevant perspectives and promote a heightened understanding of the end user. By building a Masters program around the systematic approach to human narrative students are provided with the tools they need to supervise teams in their future careers in health services.

Although the obstacles have been many, collaboration between the different disciplines and institutions has also brought some obvious advantages. When people with different background come together there is often a lot to be learned. This was also the case regarding not only the collaboration that took place between different care and rehabilitation teams, but also between teachers from different universities and professional backgrounds.