GeNEdu News: Full-scale implementation of 30-ECTS modules in gerontological nursing launched in China after accreditation

Conclusions from the BHU Accreditation Seminar were:

• The module is set to enhance nursing students’ competence as the core learning objective. Merged with the ideological elements, the module covers the whole process of gerontological nursing education.
• The module content is further innovated and optimized to organically combine theory, experiment, and practice. The learning is not only limited to the classroom, but also covering the lab and the whole nursing faculty. The organic combination of theory and practice fully arouses students' enthusiasm and interest for learning.
• The syllabus for the course “Innovation Project Management” is novel and the project development is very distinctive, which is conducive to cultivating students' ability in nursing management and innovation spirit, communication, evidence-based nursing, as well as lifelong learning.
• The assessment of the courses is comprehensive, and the importance of formative assessment is highlighted during the learning process.
• The curriculum system is scientific and complete, the implementation conditions are reasonable and feasible.

Supported by recommendations for improvement for each course, the Review Board mutually consented that the module could be accredited successfully and is ready for implementation.

Guangdong Medical University (GDMU)

The Accreditation Seminar was organized online on 7 May 2022. The Review Board consisted of five external experts invited from two partner universities and the geriatric care related departments of three partner hospitals. The Seminar was chaired by the Vice Dean of GDMU School of Nursing and participants included the Director of Academic Affairs Office, Dean of School of Nursing, project members of GeNEdu GDMU team, as well as responsible teachers assigned to the implementation of the module.

During the Accreditation Seminar, the experts gave concrete feedback to each of the six courses of the module, including the following:

• Through all courses, the learning of the whole module can integrate and optimize contents and resources to help students deepen their exploration and understanding of elderly care.
• Through their design, the course implementations are systematically formed to show the progressive nature of the contents. However, there are overlapping contents in the six courses.
• There are many individual learning hours designed for almost each of the courses. The requirements to students should be clear, the corresponding objectives should be scientific, and the methods to verify the learning effect should be reasonable.
• The objectives of the module include not only the knowledge and ability, but also the quality and values. On the basis of integrating the advanced European nursing concepts, the objectives reflect moral cultivation and curriculum ideology and politics.
• Good use of various pedagogical approaches in the design of the courses, such as flipped classroom, PBL, reflection, case study and other methods to provide students with diversified approaches.

Some suggestions were also provided for the further improvement in the future teaching of the courses. The Review Board agreed that the module could be accredited successfully and is ready for implementation starting from autumn 2022.

Guangzhou Health Science College (GHSC)

The Accreditation Seminar was conducted on-site at the GHSC campus on 19 January 2022. Seven external experts were invited to the seminar, among whom four from partner universities and three from the geriatric care department of a partner hospital and a nursing home for older people. GHSC’s own members included the Vice President, Deputy Director of Academic Affairs Office, and leadership of Nursing School in addition to members of the GHSC GeNEdu project team.

The conclusion of the experts’ review during the GHSC Accreditation Seminar was that the curriculum highlights competence-based concepts and is student-centred. All courses are based on the GeNEdu project plan and thus on international cooperation, and the whole development process has been scientific and rigorous. The outcomes of curriculum development and content settings meet the needs of China's elderly care; courses support each other, and the entire module is scientific and complete. The implementation conditions for the module are reasonable and feasible. It was suggested that in future implementation, courses should be further improved in combination with the latest development of social needs and regional elderly care services. The expert group unanimously agreed that the module was accredited successfully and could be implemented.

After the pilot at GHSC during spring 2022, BHU and GDMU further stepped into the implementation of the modules in September 2022 in accordance with their own institutional schedules. The full-scale implementation of the renewed curricula in China can be crystallized in the following quantitative indicators:

1. Number of gerontological nursing courses in the modules: 18
2. Number of teachers allocated for those courses: 21
3. Number of students studying the modules: at least 90 per year

The GeNEdu consortium will conduct a workshop with participants from all project partner institutions across four countries in early November 2022. It is aimed at summarizing the curricula related activities, further reviewing the suitability of all course designs, and collecting feedback on the actual implementation to prepare for the sustainable exploitation of this crucial project outcome.