PINS9520 Society and Sustainability Course description

The course addresses sustainability transitions, and how societal institutions, technical infrastructures, and culture constitute frames within which practices evolve. The course especially focuses on theories of social change, and how institutions may inhibit or enable transitions toward sustainability. The course will provide the candidates with tools for engaging in constructive discussions of how sustainable practices can be facilitated and stimulate interdisciplinary investigation of these issues. The syllabus may be abbreviated and adapted to fit the interest of the participants of the course in cooperation with the supervisors.

The course will address the following, non-exclusive list of themes:

• Socio-ecological, socio-technical, socio-economic and action-oriented perspectives on sustainability transitions.

• Institutional theory, as well as theories of social inertia and change.

• Sustainable alternatives to dominant political, economic and social structures.

Completed Master’s degree (120 ECTS credits) or equivalent education level.

Upon completing the course, the candidates are expected to have gained the following learning outcomes (knowledge, skills, and general competence).

Knowledge

The candidate:

• is at the forefront of knowledge for analysing how societal institutions, forms of organization, and infrastructures influence sustainability practices
• can contribute to the development of novel and cross-cutting sustainability methods in their own profession

Skills

The candidate:

• can formulate questions, plan and carry out research on sustainability issues related to their professions
• can engage in discussions of how sustainable practices can be facilitated at institutional, organizational and infrastructural levels
• can challenge established knowledge in their own professions and identify critical success factors for sustainable transformation

General competence

The candidate:

• can adopt a societal perspective on sustainability challenges in society at large and within their own professions
• can contribute with new, advanced knowledge and insights on sustainability transformations
• can communicate sustainability research and development work to society as well as through recognized academic channels such as scientific workshops, conferences and journals

Lectures, workshops, seminars.

Active participation in the seminars is necessary to adequately understand the course material and themes. Participation is therefore mandatory, and candidates are expected to attend all days of teaching and required to attend at least 80 percent of teaching days. In special cases of documented illness, the course leader may accept exceptions to this requirement. In these cases, lack of participation can be substituted with alternative arrangements such as writing a reflection note. Course requirements are assessed as confirmed or not confirmed. The course requirement must be completed and confirmed within the given deadline in order to have the right to submit a final essay.

The course requirements are:

• A plenary presentation on a subject decided in collaboration with the course lecturer.
• A prepared opposition to at least one other presentation.
• 80 % attendance is required.

Physics is the science that looks at phenomena like mass, energy and motion. You are simply investigating why the world is the way it is and how we can explain it mathematically. Thus, physics is one of the support beams in engineering.

In this course, the student will learn about Newton's laws, and how to apply them mathematically to understand, for example, the conservation of energy, understand movement, speed and impact. In addition, the student will get an introduction to oscillations and electromagnetism.

No requirements over and above the admission requirements.

The student must have passed the first and second year of the programme or equivalent.

After completing the course, the student should have the following learning outcomes defined in terms of knowledge, skills and general competence:

Knowledge

The student

• can describe the organisation of and interaction between the primary and specialist health services and explain the most important functions of the municipal emergency medical centres, emergency department and municipal emergency inpatient units
• can describe how the primary and specialist health services attend to the needs of particular groups, such as children, elderly people, pregnant/women in labour, persons with mental and physical disabilities, people who are victims of violence and/or sexual abuse, persons with substance abuse problems, persons with mental illness, and minorities such as the Sami and indigenous peoples
• can describe how emergency medical centres, emergency department, emergency psychiatric service and maternity wards interact with other parts of the health service
• can explain patients’ rights in connection with assessment and the responsibility of the primary and specialist health services for handling acutely ill and injured patients
• can explain typical patient care pathways from arrival to the emergency medical centre/emergency department to discharge/arrival to ward
• can explain the principles for triage (prioritised levels of urgency) for patients who contact a municipal emergency medical centre or an emergency department
• can discuss how the different practice placement locations apply the principle of necessity, self-defence, the duty of disclosure and reporting to the police and the child welfare service
• can describe the most important observations, complications and interventions in connection with childbirth
• can explain the principles for sterile and non-sterile procedures and is familiar with the practice placements standard operating procedures for handling clean and unclean equipment
• is familiar with the most important principles of blood sampling and common diagnostic tests
• can explain how the practice placement uses digital solutions and medical-technical equipment, and how that impacts patient safety
• can describe important principles for good inter-professional teamwork and a good working environment
• can describe relevant clinical guidelines for walk-in clinics and emergency departments
• knows the use and usefulness of a blood gas analysis
• is familiar with national evidence-based guidelines and relevant action plans for improvement work and patient safety in healthcare services

Skills

The student

• can perform basic wound care and assist in suturing
• can place, manage and remove a permanent transurethral catheter, and perform sterile intermittent catherisation and clean intermittent catherisation
• can maintain relevant precautions for contact and droplet infection and is familiar with precautions for airborne infection
• can carry out basic patient reception routines in accordance with updated knowledge, applicable laws and ethical principles
• can assist in a systematic primary and secondary survey of patients, establish monitoring, and contribute to diagnostic and therapeutic interventions
• can recognise the risk of patient harm and implement preventive and health-promoting measures
• can carry out systematic primary and secondary survey of patients, start necessary monitoring and recommend actions for further treatment
• can hand over patients to partners in a satisfactory manner in accordance with requirements for information and documentation
• can assist health care workers´ in receiving patients at risk of suicide, in mental health crisis and/or with substance abuse issues
• can communicate their own assessments to cooperating staff in a clear and structured manner
• can take care of patient and their next of kin, and give advice and information adapted to their needs
• can administer medication in accordance with local guidelines
• masters bag-mask ventilation and ables to contribute in a multidisciplinary team in the delivery of advanced airway interventions
• can recognise and handle a normal birth

General competence

The student

• can disseminate knowledge about primary and specialist health services
• can identify and handle professional and ethical dilemmas that arise in the paramedic’s work at the interface between health services´
• can discuss safeguarding of patients’ rights independently of gender, age, culture, language and ethnicity when working in the primary and specialist health services
• can reflect on how health care workers assess and treat patients with complex issues
• can deliver medical help in accordance with their own competence and limitations
• can reflect on how stress and crisis reactions in patients and next of kin influence communication and interaction in emergency medical situations

Work and teaching methods consist of clinical training, simulation and skills training, preparatory teaching for clinical training, seminars, work on the clinical training document, writing of reflection notes, and participation in reflection groups.

The course is taught over approx. 14 weeks and comprises clinical studies in different parts of the primary and specialist health services. Relevant practice placement arenas may include municipal healthcare services, somatic and psychiatric hospital departments, specialised hospital departments, substance abuse care, mobile teams, and private providers.

The content of the placement periods will vary with the activities at the practice placement locations and will therefore offer varied arenas for clinical exposure in terms of scenarios and complexity. Parts of the clinical studies can be replaced by simulation and skills training, if this provides a better learning outcome.

To document activity and achievement of the learning outcomes, the students must fill in a dedicated clinical training document. The document is a tool to promote learning activities and to document attendance and achievement of different learning outcomes.

In addition to clinical activities, the students work on an individual reflection note. One written piece of feedback will be provided on the note, provided that the student submits it within the stipulated deadline.