Students organise a successful BIP Week at the FHD

As part of the module Vocational Education Project Practice, students in our part-time Master's programme Vocational Education for Nursing and Health Professions planned and implemented their own Blended Intensive Programme (BIP), funded by Erasmus+, in November. The project took place during their fourth semester and was designed for international students from a range of health professions.

From the very beginning, the student project team aimed to develop a practice-oriented programme that would provide participants with meaningful self-reflection experiences and encourage them to adopt new perspectives. During last year's Long Night of Science, the dementia simulation course had already demonstrated the value of experiential learning. The overwhelmingly positive feedback inspired the team to dedicate the entire BIP week to the theme "Self-Reflection and Perspective-Taking."

The programme began with an online kick-off session introducing the objectives, content and schedule. This was followed by a full week on campus at Dresden University of Applied Sciences (FHD), where participants from Poland, Lithuania, Slovenia and other countries came together.

Highlights of the week included:

• working with age simulation suits,
• participating in a dementia simulation course,
• the workshop "Providing Gender-Sensitive Care" delivered by the association TIAM,
• and the final presentations by the international student teams.

In addition to the academic programme, participants also had the opportunity to explore Dresden and experience the festive opening of the famous Striezelmarkt Christmas market.

The beginning of the week was particularly exciting for the project team, as it was the first time the students had taught entirely in English. Joanna, a Master's student in Vocational Education for Nursing and Health Professions who originally comes from Poland, was especially impressed by how attitudes towards previously taboo topics have changed in neighbouring Germany over the past ten years.

We would like to express our sincere thanks to our students and to Paola Yaconis (International Office), whose careful planning, openness and high professional standards made this exceptional project week possible. We are equally grateful to the many international participants, whose diverse perspectives on healthcare and nursing greatly enriched the programme.

Our thanks also go to WBS Schools and the Vogtland District Nursing Network (Pflegenetzwerk Vogtlandkreis) for providing the age simulation suits and the dementia simulation course.