Sote-Digiohjaaja

Developing the digital counselling competence of social and health care professionals

Funders

Project information

Project duration

-

Funded by

European Structural and Investment Funds - European Social Fund (ESF)

Funding amount

178 835 EUR

Project coordinator

University of Oulu

Unit and faculty

Research Unit of Health Sciences and Technology
Faculty of Medicine

Contact information

Project leader

  • Anne Oikarinen

Researchers

Project description

Digicounsellor of Health and Social services (Sote-digiohjaaja)is a working life-oriented project led by University of Oulu. Its aim is to develop and pilot an education model to support the systematic development of the digital counselling skills of social and healthcare professionals in the wellbeing services county of Northern Ostrobothnia. The project provides social and healthcare professionals with solutions to the new kinds of digital counselling competence requirements caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and digitalization, as well as to the societal need for continuous learning in working life. In addition, the project promotes cooperation between higher education institutions and working life.

Project actions

Phase 1: Designing and developing an educational cooperation model and online course that supports the digital counselling competence of social and healthcare professionals

  • Plan multidisciplinary online education for the competence needs of social and healthcare professionals in cooperation with University of Oulu and the wellbeing services county of North Ostrobothnia
  • Organize workshops involving social and healthcare professionals and students, health technology experts and customers using digital health services
  • Use a wide range of methods to map factors related to the digital counselling competence of social and healthcare professionals to support the design of the education model

Phase 2: Piloting and evaluation of working life-oriented online course that supports the digital counselling skills of social and healthcare professionals

  • The online course is a three-credit (3 ECTS) course that aims to strengthen the digital counselling skills of social and healthcare professionals
  • The online course utilizes the Moodle learning environment and provides multidisciplinary expert support to social and healthcare professionals
  • The education is recommended and directed to those social and healthcare professionals who want to develop their skills while working in digital counselling environments
  • The digital counselling skills and experiences of the social and healthcare professionals participating in the online course are evaluated during the course so that the course can be assessed and further developed

Phase 3: communication, dissemination, and evaluation of the Sote-digiohjaaja project to develop digital counselling skills

  • We will use communication methods to promote the further use and dissemination of online course to develop digital counselling skills as counselling environments become increasingly digital
  • Social media is used in communication, such as the websites of University of Oulu and the wellbeing services county of Northern Ostrobothnia, as well as the Blogger platform
  • Versatile production of digital content and materials
  • The project and its results are actively presented to a wide range of target groups
  • Networking with actors in the region and cooperating with other projects

Project results

In the future, the results of the project can be used for the continuous development of digital counselling competence for social and healthcare professionals working in digital counselling environments, regardless of geographical boundaries, to strengthen multidisciplinary cooperation in the wellbeing services counties, counties and municipalities in order to correct the challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and promote health.

As a result of the project, the following will be developed:

1) Online course to support digital counselling skills

2) The model of cooperation between universities and working life in education

3) Webinars, publications on social media, as well as various professional publications

4) Final report of the project

Linkis

Link to the Sote-digiohjaaja projects blog (in Finnish)

Partners

The project is implemented in cooperation with the actors of the wellbeing services county of Northern Ostrobothnia.