Thematic Network on Northern Nursing Education

The goal of the NNEN is to address the accessibility and quality of baccalaureate nursing education in the northern regions. The development of a stable, local nursing workforce in the High North promises to improve community health, wellness and self-sufficiency.

Through establishing a network of institutions providing decentralized nursing education to northern communities, in Norway, Canada, Siberia, Finland, Iceland and Greenland, the network hopes to improve the pedagogy of northern nursing education, share best practices, and form a community of students and educators in an annual Innovative Learning Institute on Circumpolar Health to jointly examine and improve the clinical practice of nursing in a northern context.

• Conduct research assessing pedagogies and didactics most appropriate for northern nursing education;
• Share best practices amongst northern nursing educators at biannual TN meetings, and a concomitant survey tracking northern nursing education programs, pedagogical models, and recruitment & retention rates;
• Establish an Innovative Learning Institute for Circumpolar Health to allow northern nursing students to meet and learn from their counterparts around the Circumpolar North;
• Evaluate the regulation of nursing practice in a northern context across the circumpolar North;
• Explore different uses of technology, including remote presence technology, to improve accessibility and quality of clinical instruction and continuing education by using technology to develop pedagogics suitable for health care students in the high north; and
• Facilitate the transfer of knowledge between circumpolar health researchers, and nursing educators and students.

More information and past activities can be found here.

Bente Norbye, former Lead of the UArctic Thematic Network on Northern Nursing Education