Dedicated Educational Unit: A Scandinavian Model

Abstract

This chapter gives a Swedish perspective of the Dedicated Education Unit as a learning environment where caring and learning are united in ‘reflective tutoring’ at the University of Borås. The author discusses the overall purpose and structure of the Borås Dedicated Education Units, their scientific and philosophical bases and their focus on patient-centred student learning, reflection and research. She explains the key tutoring roles within the Borås Dedicated Educational Units, the lifeworld perspective of caring science that forms a frame of reference for learning and tutoring there and strategies that affirm and clarify the fundamental principle that caring and learning are parallel and common phenomena. She also describes the challenge for Borås Dedicated Education Units to focus on active patient care development through research, reflects on what is needed for successful tutoring, explains how Dedicated Education Units contain rich possibilities for concretising caring theory into practice and outlines six themes that characterise a Dedicated Education Unit from the students’ and tutors’ perspectives. The chapter concludes with the results of research evaluating the effectiveness of the DEUs as student clinical learning environments and suggests strategies for future development of the Borås Dedicated Education Units.