NEWS In order to work in Swedish healthcare, practitioners need to know about Swedish legislation, for instance the laws and regulations related to the healthcare system. The Umeå Forum for Studies on Law and Society at Umeå University will offer a new course in Swedish laws and regulations aimed at healthcare practitioners educated outside the EU/EES. This will help hundreds of people find work in Sweden.
In many healthcare professions, knowledge of Swedish legislation is essential. The Umeå Forum for Studies on Law and Society has been commissioned by the National Board of Health and Welfare to give a course on Swedish laws and regulations. The course is aimed at people educated outside the EU/EES, and who need to get their skills verified to practise a healthcare profession.
“Those who take the course can for instance be a nurse, medical physicist, psychologist, dental practitioner or physiotherapist who is keen on quickly finding work in Sweden,” says Åsa Yttergren, project coordinator and director of the Umeå Forum for Studies on Law and Society.
The course is entirely web-based, and participants can choose themselves when to start and at what pace to take the course.
“This flexibility when it comes to starting and pace of study is rather unusual and certainly simplifies matters. Students who take the course don’t need to travel to Umeå and they can adapt their participation to their other commitments in life. All that participants need is a computer with an internet connection. At the Umeå Forum for Studies on Law and Society, we have developed our educational skills when it comes to web-based education for years now, and we offer other modules and study programmes online,” says project manager Ann-Christine Petersson Hjelm.
In this first round, the National Board of Health and Welfare estimates that approximately 300 people will take the course. Students will learn the basics in social structure and organisation and more on the public exercise of power. The course will also teach the student more about the Swedish legislative process, basic rights and freedoms, laws and regulations to which the healthcare system is subject, and not least understand the relevant laws to each profession.
“We are excited and keen that the Umeå Forum for Studies on Law and Society is given the opportunity to help educate people in these important professions to quickly give them an opportunity find work in Sweden,” says Åsa Yttergren.
The 7.5 credit course Swedish laws and regulations starts on 1 November 2016.
Those who want to work as healthcare practitioners in Sweden and are educated outside the EU/EES may need to obtain a licence. The course on Swedish laws and regulations is one step in obtaining that licence. The National Board of Health and Welfare has more information on how to obtain such a licence for each profession.
Read more about licences at the National Board of Health and Welfare
Åsa Yttergren, project coordinator and director of Forum for Studies on Law and Society, Umeå University
Email: asa.yttergren@umu.se
Phone: +46 90-786 62 85
Ann-Christine Peterson-Hjelm, project coordinator
Email: ann-christine.hjelm@umu.se
Phone: +46 90-786 62 68
Swedish text: Elin Andersson
Translation: Anna Lawrence
Editor: Anna Lawrence