Nursing school with high school diploma: thinking about expansion
Nursing staff are currently desperately needed – which is why nursing training was set up in the Multiaugustinum two years ago. In the five-year school with high school diploma, the young people are trained to become nursing assistants.
In the second grade there are 14 students – including 16-year-old Jennifer Gruber from Mariapfarr: “I just really like helping people. And I just always knew that I would go into nursing. My goal would be to finish school in three years, to get my high school diploma. Then I would like to have a bachelor’s degree – also a qualified nurse. And then I think about studying medicine.” 15-year-old Karla Zidaru from Mauterndorf also emphasizes “that you learn a lot and do a lot of practical work at school.”
Professionals gently introduce the topic
The total of 34 students in the previous two years of the nursing school are carefully introduced to the topic – by professionals from the field such as Silvia Kues, teacher at the health and nursing school of the Salzburg State Clinics (SALK): “The motivation was on A bit inhibited at the beginning,” she says. “But now that it’s entered the nursing departments, they’re highly motivated. They work great, got a real kick out of being able to work on the care bed or in the internships.”
Teacher Lisa Grabendorfer from the SALK Nursing School thinks it’s “cool that my students have chosen this branch because it’s very important that we have young staff to follow. We’ve often been thrown in at the deep end – thank God that doesn’t happen to them.”
Nursing training with Matura in the Multiaugustinum
“We need these young people”
After graduating from high school, the students can work immediately in the hospital or retirement home, but they can also continue studying, says Brigitte Kößlbacher, deputy director of one of the SALK nursing schools: “We need these young people. And of course it’s our job to introduce people to the job in such a way that they don’t lose their enjoyment of it.” Through the training, the young people get an early insight into the reality of work, adds Kößlbacher: “Before they work at the bedside at the age of 17 are allowed to, they have already got to know institutions from the age of 14 and can thus already determine an orientation in which direction they would like to develop.”
Klaus Mittendorfer, Director of the Multiaugustinum, is proud of the nursing branch in his school: “We saw that the first students we have are people who are very social. They are basically very interested in the matter. Whether they go straight to work later on, continue studying nursing or maybe – as some people want – continue studying medicine, the important thing is: These students remain in the healthcare system as a whole. So the training makes a lot of sense.”
Thinking aloud about expansion
After the first two years, none of the 34 students dropped out. But there is still room for improvement and there is already talk of expanding the school.