Together with Christian Haas, CDU member of the Bundestag, she visited the Catholic Hospital Association’s Weser-Egge (KHWE) educational center in Brakel – and was inspired by the project “Virtual Reality in Nursing”.
Christian Ghosts, Managing Director of KHWE personally greeted the distinguished visitor from Berlin and gave a brief overview of the numbers, data and facts of the company as the largest employer in the Hoxter area. “In addition to the approximately 80,000 outpatients and inpatients we take care of annually, we also have a huge responsibility for more than 2,800 employees,” said Justis and thanked Christian Haas for the reliable and solid support from Berlin.
Regular visits to the KHWE are, of course, for members of the Bundestag. “The hospitals and health facilities in Hoxter County are close to my heart, and I would like to commit myself fully politically at all levels to be able to maintain our quality medical care in my home country,” he said.
Extension of the Education Center
Not only is the nursing profession, but nursing training should also become more attractive. “We’d love to offer something for our children,” said Ghostis, and reported on the construction work underway for a three-storey extension to the Brakel site, which means the school will be twice the 2,000 square meter area. € 3.6 million is being invested in this construction project as a milestone for Brakil Education Center.
For innovative teaching approaches and the concept of digitization in particular, the KHWE Education Center receives financial support of € 1.8 million from the European Union ERDF Regional Development Project. During an inspection of the construction site, the Federal Minister of Education managed to get an idea of the multi-million dollar project. Mayor Hermann Temme and Bundestag Member Christian Haas were also affected by the construction work situation at the education center.
Among other things, so-called “skills laboratories” will be established in the new building – the hospital and nursing rooms equipped with the latest medical equipment in which students can realistically train. This is intended to further enhance practical learning. In addition, students and classrooms will be equipped with tablets and electronic boards will be installed in the “old part” of the educational center and in the new building.
In addition, work is currently underway on a new project in cooperation with the German Red Cross (DRK), the city of Hereford, where virtual reality (VR) will be introduced in the classroom. Both teachers and trainees in the Education Center must design and produce educational content for the virtual space themselves.
“Virtual reality” allows training in nursing even under extreme conditions and in times of crisis: trainees can access any virtual content with portable virtual reality headsets regardless of time and place.
Christian Ghosts, Managing Director: “This means that a distance can be maintained at all times. Even in special crisis situations, it will not be necessary to teach face to face.”
Share with interns
Federal Minister Anya Karlichik shows herself close to people this afternoon and actively strives to speak with the interns at the training center. I asked the group of students, “What exactly do you want to give me on my way to Berlin?” And I immediately got a straight answer: “We want the best practical training we can have,” said one of the self-confident students. Even if they did not finish their training in Hamburg or Munich, but in Brakel in the Hoxter region.
Anja Karliczek is impressed with the new curriculum already being implemented in the KHWE Nursing School and the future projects being undertaken together there. “The virtual reality project shows that hospital reality is indistinguishable from virtual reality,” said Karlichik, who is rapidly putting on virtual reality glasses and looking at the first virtual learning units.
Entry in the Golden Book of Brackel
At the end of her visit to KHWE, the Minister signed the Golden Book of Brackel in the presence of Christian Justes, Marcel Jeffers (Chairman of KHWE), Christian Haas and Haute Pagel (Deputy) at the request of Mayor Hermann Timm. “Thank you for this lovely evening with you in Brakel,” Anya Karlichik said goodbye heartily, “I look forward to visiting KHWE again after the new building is completed.”
