Heli-Maria Kuivila

I am a member of the HealthEduCom Lab research group, led by Professor Kristina Mikkonen. My research focuses on competence and continuous education, particularly in health sciences education.

Research and evaluation of competencies acquired through comprehensive training in health sciences and health care education are essential, as degree program curricula are designed to build expertise that prepares future healthcare professionals. It is important to examine the types of knowledge and skills produced by education and to assess the relationship between competence and education. Furthermore, there is a need to differentiate between effective and less effective education and to evaluate its impact on other mechanisms and factors influencing human development. By continuously evaluating education and competencies, we can identify areas where competence development is most needed. This also enables us to distinguish effective training programs from less effective ones and allocate educational resources to areas requiring the most improvement.

The purpose of my dissertation study was to describe and analyze the competencies and competence development needs of health sciences teacher candidates in health sciences teacher education. The results of this study will contribute to the development of national competence standards for health sciences teachers in Finland and the integration of these competencies into teacher education curricula in health sciences.