Hi all, team Sweden calling!

We have now dedicated a year to the EthCo project and collaborating with colleagues from Finland, Latvia, Malta, and Spain have been enriching experiences. Our efforts thus far, have involved planning, research and conducting a survey. This fall, we have started the development of digital learning materials.

We will briefly glimpse one of the work packages, specifically the development of simulations, learning materials and digital video. An interesting learning activity within this package is the Ethical Coffee Room (ECR). The ECR consists of discussing and reflecting on model cases, presenting, and discussing students’ own cases and national and international workshops. All these focus on ethical aspects and how to handle different situations and challenges with support from ethics theory and ethical concepts. The plan is for ECRs to be digitally accessible to participants and the EthCo team has developed multiple scenarios.

Simulation is an effective way to practice clinical skills in a safe environment, before performing them in the real world with real people. As part of the EthCo project, various simulation training scenarios for healthcare students have been developed, which will also be available to healthcare professionals. A few examples of the contexts of the interdisciplinary simulation scenarios are communication, CPR, pain management, and a patient who does not want to be attended by students. All EthCo teams have written manuscripts for the scenarios with detailed instructions for both teachers and students and ethical learning objectives. In addition, the Swedish team have developed video case simulations, which can be used for ethical discussions. The Swedish team thoroughly enjoyed last weekend, while working on making the first video case. The video case is based on a real-life scenario, directed by a professional filmmaker, with the Swedish team as actors. It was hard work! One video case took almost a whole day to record. It will take a while before all three video cases are recorded, edited and ready for you to see. We hope that you will find them as useful and great as we do once available.

Authors: Gunilla Björling, Katri Manninen and Janet Mattson

Karolinska University Hospital