The partners of the Erasmus Plus project “Clinical simulation practice-based learning in nursing” (CLINICALSIM) met this February at the facilities of the Universidade Internacional do Cuanza (International University of Cuanza, UNIC) to officially launch this initiative and establish the steps to follow for the joint work that will be developed until 2026.
The conference was attended by all the partners of the project: the leader, the Universidad Europea del Atlántico (European University of the Atlantic, UNEATLANTICO); the Polytechnic Institute of Portalegre (IPP) of Portugal; the Universidade Internacional do Cuanza (UNIC); Universidade José Eduardo dos Santos (UJES); and the Ordem dos Enfermeiros de Angola (ORDENFA).
During the week of activities, the partners presented their institutions and addressed the competencies of nursing professionals in Angola and their current needs. This meeting point has made it possible to share information and key experiences in relation to the training needs of the nursing profession. In addition, it has allowed the establishment of solid alliances among the participants that can favor the best effective work in the coming years.
In addition, visits were made to Angola’s clinical centers: the Walter Strangway Hospital, the Mother and Child Center, and its division for the Nutrition Care of Child Malnutrition, located in Cuito.
A visit was also made to the local market of Chissindo, where it was possible to observe and analyze situations related to food insecurity, which is so prevalent in the Angolan population.
The initial meeting included the first training of trainers developed by the renowned expert Dr. Francisco Martin, director of the Clinical Simulation Center of the University of Valladolid. This training addressed the fundamentals of the application of Clinical Simulation as a learning strategy in the field of health sciences and could be offered to partners and teachers of the participating/collaborating institutions.
In addition, an official visit was made to the Advanced Clinical Simulation Center, located in the UNIC facilities, where they were able to witness a real-time simulation with students developed with the recently acquired high-definition simulation equipment. There was also an opportunity to visit the recently acquired field hospital for health emergencies.
CLINICALSIM is a capacity building project targeting higher education institutions in Angola with the objective of improving the practical training of nursing professionals.
The project is aimed especially at nursing students and university professors, clinical simulation confederates, counselors, and managers of higher education in healthcare sciences, healthcare policy makers/public administrations/nursing associations, and the general public (as potential patients).
In this sense, simulation suites and multimedia digital tools will be used to deploy experiential learning and promote Community Service/Service-Learning in universities.
In the context of simulation, the project partners emphasized that there are different levels of simulation, some of them of high fidelity and complexity, which require sophisticated technological and human resources. There are also others that could be useful in nursing education in Angola that do not require too many resources and can be very effective, such as simulations with students or actors, with simple models, mannequins, or using easily accessible resources. The level of simulation will be adapted to the social-health situation in Angola.
In the context of Service-Learning, the social objective of this approach is also introduced by taking into account people with socioeconomic obstacles and health problems and the promotion of better nutrition habits.
In addition to the participation of partners from Spain, Portugal, and Angola, the Iberoamerican University Foundation (FUNIBER) and the University of Valladolid (UVa) from Spain, as well as the Jan Kochanowski University (UJK) of Poland will collaborate as partner organizations during the course of the project in certain activities.
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