Background. Mentors in healthcare professions have a major impact on quality nursing education during clinical practice, and mentorship training is one means of improving mentors’ understanding high-quality education.

Method. This was a quasi-experimental study involving non-randomized, pre- and postintervention measurements. Training comprised a blended method for the intervention group (n = 192) and an online-only method for the control group (n = 64) in two Finnish hospital districts.

Results. Mentors’ competence improved after training, and all but one area of mentorship competence (reflection during mentoring) showed a statistically significant difference. The blended training produced larger mean differences than the online-only training in the competence areas requiring mentor-student interaction.

Conclusion. Both training methods increased mentorship competence . Healthcare organizations must seriously consider implementing mentorship competence training using methods that are effective and facilitate more efficient allocation of limited available resources.

Data and methods. This descriptive qualitative study was conducted across four Finnish higher education institutions. The data were collected through semi-structured thematic group interviews with 19 social and health care educators. The material was analyzed using inductive content analysis.

Results. The educators emphasized how important continuing education was to their professional development. When discussing the need for further education, the participants expressed a desire for continuing education that covers digital pedagogy and skills relevant to the modern working environment, i.e., entrepreneurial and management competence. However, the participants reported that both their employers and the institution responsible for education spent  insufficient resources on continuing education.

Discussion. Continuing education must cover relevant topics to be useful. This research provides new insight into how continuing education builds social and healthcare educators’ competence as well as which topics have not been covered  sufficiently.

Methods. A cross-sectional survey was conducted. In total, 147 midwives working in Kaunas (Lithuania) maternity hospitals responded to the questionnaire. The Lithuanian Bioethics Center issued the permission to conduct the study (No. BEC-82(M)-190).

Results. The study found that for more than a half of midwives it is very important to follow professional values in their professional activities. The dominant values of midwives were sympathy, individual and professional competence, precision and accuracy in care, and responsibility. The professional values of autonomy in decision making and responsibility were more important for younger midwives.

Conclusions. Sympathy, individual and professional competence, precision and accuracy in care, and responsibility were the most important professional values for midwives working in maternity hospitals. Values that midwives emphasize as important in their professional practice varied in  qaccordance with their age and length of work experience.

Objective. The aim of this systematic review was to find new evidence on educators’ experiences of their competence in health and rehabilitation science higher education.

Methods. The study was a systematic review of previous peer-reviewed qualitative studies. The inclusion criteria were planned according to PICo: health and rehabilitation science professionals (Participants), competence (Phenomena of Interest) and teaching (Context). The search strategy was conducted by retrieving original studies from the databases of Cinahl (Ebsco), PubMed, Medic, EriC (ProQuest). Nine studies passed the inclusion criteria and quality assessment. Meta-synthesis was done by using summarizing thematic synthesis and abstraction.

Results. Six main themes were identified as important for educators’ competence and their continuous development: self-development, supervising, interaction, researching, a subject on educators’ own profession, networking, and multiculturalism competences.

Conclusions. Competence is dynamic, and it is possible for educators to train or develop further. The creativity and innovation are needed in developing educators’ competences in the future in designing new learning environments and organising an inclusive classroom for health and rehabilitation science students. More research is needed to understand better and develop the competences of health and rehabilitation science educators.

Methods. The study was conducted in one third level health care institution during September 2014 and January 2015 in Lithuania. The study was based on the nurse competence scale, designed by Finnish researchers Leino-Kilpi, Meretoja, and Kuokkanen. In total, 103 operating-room nurses participated in the anonymous survey (response rate – 78.6 %). A permission of the Bioethics Centre of the Lithuanian University of Health Sciences was obtained for the research. The study employed descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, dispersion analysis.

Results. The majority of surveyed nurses were women (n=99, 96%) whose mean age was 43±8.98 years, mean professional experience was 19.5±9.10 years, and the mean work experience at an operating-room was 17±8.51 years. The total competence score of operating-room nurses was very high (80.05 of 100), and operating-room nurses with university education (n=43) assessed their professional competence higher. The competence elements related to critical situation management (mean range, 3.23), work role (mean range, 2.9) and therapeutic interventions (mean range, 2.53) were assessed best by operating-room nurses; meanwhile, the elements in the category of teaching/coaching were assessed to be lowest (mean range, 1.85).

Conclusions. Special attention in operating rooms should be placed on quality assurance and teaching, as the competence elements in these categories were indicated by operating-room nurses to be rarest. Operating-room nurses also reported to have the worst skills and knowledge in the category of teaching/coaching.