Nursing in Norway Blog Post for 27.5.24
By: Cortney Cain & Olivia Young
Today was our first day of class at the Lovisenberg Diakonale Høgskole in Oslo, Norway. Our group of nine students met with our teachers in front of our hotel in the am, and we walked to the campus as a group. When we arrived, we quickly discussed what the day’s events would entail, and then joined the Norwegian students for class. It was here that we learned that the Norwegian version of Community Health, known as Urban Health, is an elective course that students take only if they are interested. The two professors for this course described what it would look like for the Norwegian students and made sure to note our presence during their presentation. Following this, we were able to hear from a key informant speaker, a representative from the Norwegian branch of the Salvation Army, who discussed the importance of knowing one’s own values when providing nursing care to others.
While we discussed plenty about the value of this organization and the nurse in general, we also spent a good amount of time discussing the vulnerable population in Oslo and what they do to help them. Many of those who are homeless and live in poverty are also addicted to drugs, this is a major health concern since the use of illicit drugs and life on the street can lead to other chronic and acute health conditions. They have created two hospitals specifically for this population to receive the proper health care they need. We felt that this relates to SDG #1 Poverty, which also ties in with the health concern. Poverty, addiction, and homelessness are all intertwined and have a complex relationship to each other, it is not uncommon for someone in poverty to be homeless, an addict, or both, which all areas need improvement. The speaker from the Salvation Army gave us a meaningful account of how just because they can be a difficult population to work with does not mean they do not deserve basic healthcare and kindness; it was really moving and inspiring.
After lunch, we had a tour of the Lovisenberg campus from Unni Jenssen Senior Advisor, International Coordinator, and Associate Professor. We saw numerous classrooms, cafeterias, cafes, study spots, the campus library, simulation lab, and finally, a small museum that displayed medical equipment from the 1800s, during which the school was founded. The museum also paid tribute to the university’s founder, the deaconess Cathinka Guldberg, and her impact on expanding health care from beyond the upper middle class to other members of the community during her lifetime. Following the tour, we collaborated with our Norwegian peers on our community assessment project groups, where we discussed numerous differences between the United States and Norway, including, but not limited to: homelessness, healthcare, accessibility to medical services and medication, college tuition, education quality, and more. We concluded our time on Lovisenberg campus by enjoying a social event with the Norwegian students that included a fun quiz game and pizza.