 | | Helping the doves of peace to take flight. The new Net-based course Medical Peace Work has been created to help health professionals in conflict situations. Photo: Jan Fredrik Frantzen, NST. |
Doctors and nurses are often regarded as neutral parties in conflicts. This can inspire a whole new way of thinking about combining health care with working for peace.
A brand new Internet-based course has now been developed in response to this insight. Its aim is to prepare health staff for conflict situations they might find themselves involved in - and possibilities of which they may not be aware. The Norwegian Centre for Telemedicine (NST) is responsible for the Web solution and the educational design of the course.
Free and available everywhere
Eirik Øvernes and Vegard A. Johansen at the NST spent more than two years working on the project. They feel highly satisfied with the finished course, which is in English, free and available to everyone.
"The theme is very exciting, and the course meets a growing need for such competence. There is little to suggest that either the problems of violence or the tides of refugees in the world are going to diminish during the coming years," says Øvernes, who has worked as educational adviser in the project.
"In this context, health staff have the potential to make a very important contribution. Medical Peace Work is a highly flexible course, and the participants can take all or part of the course, depending on the challenges they face. As everything is available on the Net, they can also take it anywhere where they have access to the Internet," he adds.
From self-injury to streams of refugees
Each module in the course takes between eight and ten hours, and includes videos and examples from various types of conflict situations. The course is available to individuals, but it has also been designed to enable universities and colleges to adapt and use the course content in their own teaching programmes – free of charge.
"The seven modules in the course, totalling 60 hours, will give you accreditation that you have learned about handling various types of conflicts, such as self-injury or uncontrolled situations in refugee camps," says web developer Vegard Johansen, who has organized all the elements in a structured system.
The Norwegian Centre for Telemedicine has now taken over further operation of the website www.medicalpeacework.org through the e-learning portal www.helsekompetanse.no.
The project is funded by the project partners and the EU programme Leonardo da Vinci. The project partners include the Norwegian Centre for Telemedicine, the Centre for International Health at the University of Tromsø, the Norwegian Medical Association and University College London. The Centre for International Health has been the project manager.
Contacts at the NST
Course and web developer Vegard A. Johansen, telephone (+47) 474 17 731 and email vegard.johansen@telemed.no
Educationist Eirik Øvernes, telephone (+47) 481 33 173 and email eirik.overnes@telemed.no
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