Ethical dilemmas faced by healthcare teachers during the COVID-19 pandemic.

BACKGROUND: Previous studies have shown that the rapid transition to emergency remote teaching due to the COVID-19 pandemic was challenging for healthcare teachers in many ways. This sudden change made them face ethical dilemmas that challenged their values and ethical competence. RESEARCH AIM: This study aimed to explore and gain a deeper understanding of the ethical dilemmas healthcare teachers faced during the COVID-19 pandemic. RESEARCH DESIGN: This was an inductive qualitative study using a hermeneutic approach. Semi-structured interviews were conducted and analysed thematically. PARTICIPANTS AND RESEARCH CONTEXT: Healthcare teachers (n = 20) from eight universities and universities of applied sciences in the Nordic and Baltic countries participated. ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS: This study was based on the research ethics of the Norwegian National Research Ethics Committee for Medicine and Health Sciences and approved by the Norwegian Agency for Shared Services in Education and Research. FINDINGS: Healthcare teachers faced several ethical dilemmas due to restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic. The analysis revealed three main themes: How should I deal with students' ill-being, and what can I as a teacher do?; What can I demand from myself and my students, what is good teaching?; How do I manage the heavy workload and everyone's needs, and who gets my time? CONCLUSIONS: This study highlights the importance of healthcare teachers' continuous need for pedagogic and didactic education, especially considering new technology and ethical issues. During the pandemic, the ethical consequences of remote teaching became evident. Ethical values and ethical dilemmas should be addressed in healthcare education programmes at different levels, especially in teacher education programmes. In the coming years, remote teaching will grow. Therefore, we need more research on this issue from an ethical perspective on its possible consequences for students and healthcare teachers.

Nursing professionals' experiences of person-centred practices in hospital settings.

BACKGROUND: Person-centred culture has been studied very little in Scandinavian Countries, yet it significantly affects in the care experiences of patients and staff. Current research indicates there are many factors restricting or enabling person-centred care in the hospital setting. AIM: The purpose of this study was to describe person-centred practice in hospital settings and the factors associated with it. METHOD: Data were collected from nursing professionals (N = 276) in a purposefully selected city hospital in one hospital district in Finland. The professionals worked in inpatient wards that had the average duration of treatment period more than one day. The Person-Centred Practice Inventory-Staff (PCPI-S) instrument was used to obtain data via an electronic questionnaire. Data were analysed statistically. RESULTS: A 30% response rate was achieved (n = 82). Person-centred practice was described in positive ways. Nursing professionals' assessments of the implementation of person-centred practice were fairly positive, prerequisites (mean = 3.93, SD = 0.40), the care environment (mean = 3.64, SD = 0.50) and the care process (mean = 3.98, SD = 0.42). There were a few background factors such as the nursing professionals' age, job title, work experience in current unit, employment relationship and the number of nursing professionals in the ward that were associated with how they assessed the prerequisites of person-centred practice. Nursing professionals' demographic variables such as their job title and working experience in nursing associated with how they assessed the implementation of person-centredness in the care environment and the care process. CONCLUSIONS: Nursing professionals have the ability to implement person-centred practice. However, newly graduated or less experienced nursing professionals need support to explore person-centredness in their work.

Continuing professional development among social- and health-care educators.

Future social- and health-care educators will be required to have versatile competence in educating professionals that reflects both the constantly changing health-care environment and delivery of high-quality patient care. Continuing professional development can be defined as a process that aims to increase educators' competence and well-being, along with the effectiveness of an organisation. This study aimed to describe educators' continuing professional development and clarify the contribution of continuing education. The research applied a qualitative approach as only limited information about social- and health-care educators' professional development currently exists.' Data were collected by group interviews of 35 experienced social- and health-care educators from six institutions of higher education and two vocational schools across Finland. An inductive content analysis yielded 39 subcategories, 11 categories and three main categories, namely, educators' approaches for developing professional competence, barriers to continuing education, and educators' continuing education needs. The educators reported that they maintain and develop their competence in versatile ways; for example, continuing professional development takes place through both formal continuing education and informal collaboration at daily work. Regarding barriers to continuing education, the educators most often cited the lack of planning and a lack of resources, for example, scheduling and financial factors. The continuing education needs of social- and health-care educators are highly individual and should not only reflect organisational goals. The fact that this study only included experienced educators can be considered a limitation, as a sample that also included novice educators may have yielded different perceptions of continuing education and professional development. The results of the research can be utilised when designing the continuing professional development of educators at the individual, group or organisational level.

Digital Learning Interventions in Higher Education: A Scoping Review.

This scoping review was undertaken to synthesize and describe research related to digital learning interventions in higher education, focusing on technological outcomes. Five electronic databases were searched, and 86 articles were included in the review. The data related to positive and negative technological outcomes and authors' suggestions were analyzed using inductive content analysis. The articles represented six disciplines across six continents and included quantitative (n = 65), qualitative (n = 3), and mixed-methods (n = 18) intervention studies. For positive technological outcomes, digital formats of learning were considered effective and participatory forms of learning in a majority of the articles. The students appreciated individualized and self-paced learning, and the digital form increased their motivation to learn. Automatized technical solutions that enabled learning and teaching had several advantages, and digital learning was believed to save the resources of students, teachers, and organizations. For negative technological outcomes, the technical difficulties in using the digital devices or platforms were described the most, and a need for resources was identified. Feedback from teachers was considered important from positive and negative viewpoints. Authors' suggestions for future digital teaching and learning as well as related interventions consisted of various activities, resources, environments, and methods.

Health and social care educators' ethical competence.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Educators' ethical competence is of crucial importance for developing students' ethical thinking. Previous studies describe educators' ethical codes and principles. This article aims to widen the understanding of health- and social care educators' ethical competence in relation to core values and ethos. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND AND KEY CONCEPTS: The study is based on the didactics of caring science and theoretically links the concepts ethos and competence. METHODS: Data material was collected from nine educational units for healthcare and social service in Finland. In total 16 semi-structured focus group interviews with 48 participants were conducted. The interviews were analysed with a thematic analysis according to Braun and Clarke. ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS: The study is approved by the Declaration of Helsinki, the legislation regarding personal data and the General Data Protection Regulation. The study received ethical permission from the University of Jyväskylä. Informed consent was obtained from all the educational units and participants in the study. FINDINGS: The findings are presented based on three general patterns, an ethical basic motive, an ethical bearing and ethical actions. Subthemes are Humane view of students as unique individuals with individual learning, Bearing of tactfulness and firmness, Bearing of perceptiveness and accessibility, Bearing of satisfaction and joy over student learning, Valuing bearing towards each oneself and colleagues, Ability to interact and flexibility, Collegiality and a supportive work community and Educators as role models and inspirators. CONCLUSION: Educators' personal and professional ethos is crucial to student learning, personal growth and ethical reasoning. Therefore, it is important to further develop educators' training regarding ethical competence.

Family involvement in rehabilitation: Coronary artery disease-patients' perspectives.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: To describe coronary artery disease patients' perceptions of family involvement in rehabilitation and the connection between background factors and family involvement. BACKGROUND: Coronary artery disease patients' hospital stays can be very concise. Family members can support rehabilitation, but many challenges can emerge. There is a need to nurture patients and family members in an individual way and to recognise their concerns. More accurate patient education should be available for patients and their family members. DESIGN: This study is a descriptive cross-sectional study. METHODS: Data were collected from patients with coronary artery disease at least 6 weeks after discharge from hospital (n = 169) with a postal questionnaire. The Family Involvement in Rehabilitation (FIRE) scale measures family members' promotion of patients' rehabilitation and issues encumbering rehabilitation in family. The data have been analysed with statistical methods. Both parametric and nonparametric tests were used to evaluate group differences. RESULTS: Patients with coronary artery disease perceived that family promotes their rehabilitation significantly. Respondents also perceived challenges at home. Family relations before hospitalisation were related to all subareas of family promoting rehabilitation and one subarea of issues encumbering rehabilitation in family. Patients with symptoms at rest also had more encumbrance on their rehabilitation. Patients who had undergone coronary artery bypass surgery perceived more challenges than percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) patients in many subareas of issues encumbering rehabilitation in family. CONCLUSIONS: Family relations prior to illness and the rigour of heart symptoms are significantly relevant to challenges that can occur between patient and their family members. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: Healthcare staff need to pay attention to coronary artery disease patients' individual situation, and patient education should be more family-centred. In the future, it would be noteworthy to collect more data from family members of patients with coronary artery disease and to find out their perceptions of family involvement.

Women with vulvodynia: awareness and knowledge of its care among student healthcare staff.

BACKGROUND: Many women with vulvodynia are women of fertile age, and this syndrome may cause many physical and psychosexual functional disorders. Women with vulvodynia often find that healthcare professionals seem to demonstrate a lack of awareness about the syndrome and its care. These issues have not been previously studied among student healthcare staff. AIM: To investigate awareness and knowledge about vulvodynia and its care among staff in the student healthcare sector in Finland. METHOD: The study design was cross sectional. A survey instrument called 'Awareness and knowledge of vulvodynia and its care' was developed for this study and was used for data collection. The data were collected from a web-based survey conducted with student healthcare professionals (N = 191, n = 79) in all 13 student healthcare units in Finland. Descriptive statistical methods were used to describe the connections between the factors associated with awareness of vulvodynia and its care. Ethical standards were followed throughout the study. RESULTS: The primary results of the study indicated that the respondents had somewhat good awareness of how to identify vulvodynia and somewhat poor awareness of the treatments for vulvodynia. Participants' awareness of the meaning of encountering patients, as well as the information and support they provided, was good. Based on the knowledge test, knowledge of vulvodynia and its care was estimated to be poor. The respondents' experience-based skills in treating vulvodynia and education about vulvodynia were mostly associated with better awareness and knowledge about vulvodynia and its care. CONCLUSION: The student healthcare staff who meet and care for women of fertile age have irregular awareness and knowledge of vulvodynia and its care. The creation of educational programs to develop such awareness and knowledge is recommended to obtain a standard quality of care for all women with vulvodynia.

A qualitative study of the factors that help the coping of infertile women.

AIM: The study describes the factors that help the coping of infertile women. DESIGN: A qualitative study. METHODS: Purposive sampling was used in gathering the data from the Finnish Infertility Associations closed discussion forum on Facebook. An electronic questionnaire included structured background questions and a qualitative open-ended question related to the factors that help coping. In total, 101 women participated voluntarily in the study. The participants had at least a 1-year personal experience of infertility. The data was analysed using inductive content analysis. RESULTS: The factors that helped the coping of infertile women were personal resources such as mental well-being and having good abilities to deal with the issue. Also, a well-functioning relationship and getting help contributed to coping. Coping was also positively influenced by the ability to adapt to a childless life, which included having comforting thoughts, doing things that brought relief and orientating thinking towards the future.

An empirical model of social and healthcare educators' continuing professional development in Finland.

The objective of this work was to develop and test an empirical model of social and healthcare educators' continuing professional development. A cross-sectional survey study design was adopted, and a total of 422 part-time and full-time social and healthcare educators from 28 universities of applied sciences and vocational schools in different regions of Finland participated. Data were collected from October to December in 2018. The participants taught in the fields of healthcare, social services, and rehabilitation. The questionnaire included the EduProDe scale and background questions. Confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling were used to develop the model, and its quality was assessed by computing goodness of fit indexes. The main finding was that when educators understand the benefits of continuing professional development, they will recognise their developmental needs and proactively seek support from their superiors. The results obtained provide insight into the preconditions for professional development and offer guidance for the design of future shared development programmes or activities for social and healthcare educators.

Social, health care and rehabilitation educators' competence in professional education-Empirical testing of a model.

The social and health care educator's role in educating future professionals need to be stronger emphasised and deserves international recognition. The purpose of this study was to develop and test an empirical model of social and health care educators' competence in higher and professional education. The presented research employed a cross-sectional study design. Data were collected using HeSoEduCo-instrument from 28 educational institutions in Finland. The model was empirically tested with confirmatory factor analysis through Structural Equation Modelling that applied the Full Imputation Maximum Likelihood estimator. A total of 422 social and health care educators participated in the study. The empirical model of social and health care educators including eight competence areas: leadership and management, collaboration and societal, evidence-based practice, subject and curriculum, mentoring students in professional competence development, student-centred pedagogy, digital collaborative learning, and cultural and linguistic diversity. All of the connections between concepts of the empirical model were found to be statistically significant. There were strong connections between most of the identified competence concepts; however, two weak connections were found, namely, the link between competence in evidence-based practice and competence in subject and curriculum, along with the link between competence in digital collaborative learning and competence in student-centred pedagogy. The presented empirical model can help stakeholders identify which areas of social and health care educators' curricula should be further developed. The model is also relevant for improving continuous education, allowing educators to assess their competence levels and evaluating educators' performance at the organisational level.

Development and testing of the Educators' Professional Development scale (EduProDe) for the assessment of social and health care educators' continuing professional development.

BACKGROUND: Social and health care educators are crucial to educating competent professionals that are prepared to work in a rapidly changing society. Previous studies have primarily assessed educators' continuing professional development from a single perspective. It would be important to gauge educators' perceptions about their professional development from multiple dimensions to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the current learning process. AIM: To develop and validate a new educators' professional development scale that is relevant to social and health care education institutions. METHOD: The development and validation of the scale comprised four phases: defining continuing professional development; creating an item pool; an expert review of the item pool; and psychometric testing of the scale. Face and content validity were evaluated by two expert panels. The initial item pool included 104 items, with 41 remaining after the expert review. A total of 2330 social and health care educators from 29 organizations were invited to respond to the developed self-assessment survey. The response rate was 18% (n = 422). RESULTS: Explorative factor analysis identified six factors, including a total of 22 items, that accounted for 68.37% of the total variance. The factors defined different elements of continuing professional development for educators, namely, "need for pedagogical development" (7 items), "need to manage challenging situations in teaching" (3 items), "leadership of competence development" (3 items), "self-directed learning" (3 items), "need to develop clinical competence" (3 items) and "benefits of professional development" (3 items). Internal consistency for the six subscales, measured through Cronbach's alpha coefficient, ranged from 0.70 to 0.89. CONCLUSION: The EduProDe scale is a relevant and reliable tool for the planning and evaluation of continuing professional development processes or programs designed for educators of social and health care students.

Social, health and rehabilitation sector educators' competence in evidence-based practice: A cross-sectional study.

AIM: The purpose of the study was to identify and describe the characteristic profiles of evidence-based practice competence of educators in the social, health and rehabilitation sectors and to establish relevant background factors. DESIGN: This study was carried out as a descriptive cross-sectional study. METHODS: Data were collected from social, health and rehabilitation sector educators working in the 21 Finnish universities of applied sciences and seven vocational colleges (n = 422; N = 2,330). A self-assessment instrument measuring evidence-based practice competence was used. Competence profiles were formed using a K-cluster grouping analysis. RESULTS: Three distinct competence profiles were identified and delineated. Most educators feel that they can guide students' critical thinking and are able to seek and produce scientific knowledge. Evidence-based practice competence was explained by background factors such as year of graduation (for higher degree), level of education, job title, current employer and current field of work.

Predictors of fear and anxiety nine years after coronary artery bypass grafting.

AIM: This paper is a report of a study to identify (i) associations between fear and anxiety with variables of demography, symptoms, treatment and perceived health, (ii) associations between fear, anxiety, depression and social support and (iii) predictors of fear and anxiety nine years after coronary artery bypass grafting. BACKGROUND: Earlier research shows that anxiety and fear are common, but there is a lack of knowledge about the long-term (>five years) situation of people after coronary artery bypass grafting. METHOD: A convenience sample (n = 170) was formed of patients who had undergone coronary artery bypass grafting (n = 723) in one university hospital in 2007, nine years after surgery, by postal questionnaire. The questionnaire was sent to 152 surviving patients, and 114 responded (75%). RESULTS: Fear had a connection to female sex, age under 65 years, more chest pain, hospitalization and poor perceived health. Anxiety had a connection to age under 65 years, living alone, more chest pain and poor perceived health. Social support had a low negative correlation with anxiety. Age under 65 years and chest pain explained 28% of the variance in fear. Age under 65 years and depressive symptoms explained 51-57% of the variance in anxiety. CONCLUSION: Anxiety in people with coronary heart disease can be alleviated by developing social support from peers and professionals. Those aged under 65 years should be recognized as at greater risk of a predictor of long-term fear and anxiety after coronary artery bypass grafting.

Family composition and living arrangements-Cross-sectional study on family involvement to self-managed rehabilitation of people with coronary artery disease.

Aim: To describe the family composition and living arrangements of persons diagnosed with coronary artery disease and those relationships to family involvement in self-managed rehabilitation. Design: A cross-sectional study. Methods: Data were collected with postal questionnaire from persons diagnosed with coronary artery disease (CAD) by using the Family Involvement in Rehabilitation (FIRE) scale. It measures family members' promotion of patients' rehabilitation and issues encumbering rehabilitation in family. Statistical methods were used to analyse the data. Results: Patients' gender and having children in the family were predictors of issues encumbering rehabilitation in the family. But when examining living arrangements, patients who lived with a spouse or underage children had a better environment for recovery than those who lived alone or with adult children. More attention should be paid to targeting appropriate support for persons with coronary artery disease and their family members during the rehabilitation phase.

Health science student teachers' perceptions of teacher competence: A qualitative study.

BACKGROUND: Health science teacher competence is multifaceted and continuously changing according to national and international healthcare standards. Organizational restructuring and emphasis on cost effectiveness is changing the scope of health science teachers' practical work and their role in healthcare (worldwide). AIM: This study aimed to describe student teachers' perceptions of the competencies needed to work as an educator in the healthcare field. Objective of study was to gain new knowledge which can be used in the development of teacher education programs in nursing science and to define a broader definition of the health science educators. METHODS: A qualitative study was conducted. Data were collected from 23 Finnish students completing a master's degree in teaching in the healthcare context using focus group interviews. The data were analyzed by inductive content analysis. RESULTS: The student teachers identified eight main categories of teacher competence: leadership and management competence; evidence-based practice competence; subject competence; ethical competence; pedagogical competence; collaboration competence; internationalization competence; and continuous professional development competence. CONCLUSION: This study identified essential teacher competencies that can be evaluated among students to develop health science teacher curricula. The findings can be used in follow-up studies or comparative research to investigate competence differences between novice and experienced teachers.

Social and health care educators' perceptions of competence in digital pedagogy: A qualitative descriptive study.

BACKGROUND: Digitalisation has made digital competence a necessity for those working in social and healthcare. A high degree of competence in digital pedagogy is required of educators to meet the challenge of educating future professionals who are themselves highly digitally competent. OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to describe the perceptions of competence in digital pedagogy that educators in social and healthcare have. DESIGN: A qualitative descriptive study. PARTICIPANTS: The participants were Finnish-speaking social and healthcare educators (n = 37) working at six Finnish universities of applied sciences (UAS). METHODS: Group interviews (n = 12) were conducted during spring 2018. Each group consisted of 2-5 educators, with a total of 37 educators. The data was analysed using an inductive content analysis. RESULTS: According to the interviewed educators, competence in digital pedagogy involved pedagogical, digital, and ethical skills and awareness. The educators were aware of the possibilities afforded by digital technology and had a positive view on how the technology could be utilised in education. However, the educators were concerned that technology might solely be utilised for the sake of digitalisation instead of being pedagogically preferable. CONCLUSIONS: In the future, the results of this study can be utilised while developing an instrument to evaluate the level of competence in digital pedagogy. Examining the perceptions of the educators will allows us to better understand the phenomena from the educators' point of view.

Development and testing of an instrument (HeSoEduCo) for health and social care educators' competence in professional education.

BACKGROUND: Health and social care education is highly important for preparing future professionals for their future roles in sustainable health and social care. However, previous studies have emphasized that health and social care educators' competence is complex and poorly defined. Thus, there is a clear need for a psychometrically validated instrument to enable clarification and assessment of the required skills. OBJECTIVE: To develop and psychometrically validate an instrument (the HeSoEduCo) for assessing health and social care educators' competence in higher and professional education. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. METHODS: A HeSoEduCo instrument, with items inviting 1-4 Likert scale responses, was developed, based on one systematic review and one qualitative study, then validated in terms of face, content and construct validity and internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha values). All health and social care educators based in all 21 universities of applied sciences in Finland and seven vocational colleges were subsequently invited to participate in a large-scale application of the instrument in fall 2018. In total, responses of 390 of these educators are analyzed here. RESULTS: The face and content validity of 71 newly developed items were assessed by experts in two evaluation rounds. The final content validity showed high scores for the instrument's relevance and clarity. Confirmatory factor analysis (to test construct validity) yielded eight factors (43-items remaining), defining the following competence areas of educators: evidence-based practice, digital collaborative learning, student-centered pedagogy, collaboration & societal, leadership & management, cultural & linguistic diversity, mentoring student into professional competence development and subject & curriculum. Cronbach's alpha values for the factors ranged from 0.70 to 0.89. CONCLUSION: The instrument can be used to obtain self-evaluations of educators' competence when assessing their general competence levels and help human resources departments and managers to identify suitable continuous education programs for their staff.

Qualitative study of social and healthcare educators' perceptions of their competence in education.

Competent educators are needed to ensure that social and healthcare professionals are effective and highly competent. However, there is too little evidence-based knowledge of current and required enhancements of educators' competences in this field. The aim of this study was to describe social and healthcare educators' perceptions of their competence in education. The study had a qualitative design, based on interviews with educators and rooted in critical realism. Forty-eight participants were recruited from seven universities of applied sciences and two vocational colleges in Finland, with the assistance of contact persons nominated by the institutions. The inclusion criterion for participation was employment by an educational institution as a part-time or full-time, social and/or healthcare educator. Data were collected in the period February-April 2018. The participants were interviewed in 16 focus groups with two to five participants per group. The acquired data were subjected to inductive content analysis, which yielded 506 open codes, 48 sub-categories, nine categories and one main category. The educators' competence was defined as a multidimensional construct, including categories of educators' competences in practicing as an educator, subject, ethics, pedagogy, management and organisation, innovation and development, collaboration, handling cultural and linguistic diversity, and continuous professional development. Educators recognised the need for developing competence in innovation to meet rapid changes in a competitive and increasingly global sociopolitical environment. Enhancement of adaptability to rapid changes was recognised as a necessity. The findings have social value in identifying requirements to improve social and healthcare educators' competence by helping educational leadership to improve educational standards, construct a continuous education framework and create national and/or international curricula for teacher education degree programs to enhance the quality of education. We also suggest that educational leadership needs to establish, maintain and strengthen collaborative strategies to provide effective, adaptable support systems, involving educators and students, in their working practices.

Web-based education about vulvodynia and its care among student healthcare staff: A quasi-experimental study.

Student healthcare providers are the type of primary healthcare professionals who usually have first contact with young women who have problems with intimacy, such as vulvar pain - known as vulvodynia. However, a need to increase healthcare professionals' level of knowledge of vulvodynia and its care has been identified. This study aimed to assess the awareness and knowledge of vulvodynia and its care among student healthcare providers, before and after Web-based education. The study design was national, descriptive and quasi-experimental, and was conducted across Finland. A total of 79 participants completed baseline measurements, 58 completed web-based education and 30 took part in a follow-up survey. A survey instrument called 'Awareness and knowledge of vulvodynia and its care' was developed for this study, and the data were collected using a web-based questionnaire. Descriptive statistical methods were used to evaluate the participants' awareness and knowledge of vulvodynia and its care before and after web-based education. The primary results indicated that the participants' awareness and knowledge of vulvodynia and its care was statistically significantly improved following web-based education.

Competence areas of health science teachers - A systematic review of quantitative studies.

BACKGROUND: In the face of rapid digitalisation and ever-higher educational requirements for healthcare professionals, it is important that health science teachers possess the relevant core competences. The education of health science teachers varies internationally and there is no consensus about the minimum qualifications and experience they require. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this systematic review was to describe the health science teachers' competences and the factors related to it. DESIGN: Systematic review of original quantitative studies. DATA SOURCES: Four databases were selected from which to retrieve original studies: Cinahl (Ebsco), PubMed, Medic, Eri (ProQuest). REVIEW METHODS: The systematic review used PICOS inclusion criteria. Original peer-reviewed quantitative studies published between 1/2007 and 1/2018 were identified. Screening was conducted by two researchers separately reading the 1885 titles, 600 abstracts, and 63 full-texts that were identified, and then agreed between them. Critical appraisal was performed using the JBI MAStARI evaluation tool. The data was extracted and then analysed narratively. RESULTS: The core competences of health science teachers include areas of knowledge, skills and attitudes. Health science teachers evaluate their own competence as high. Only in relation to entrepreneurship and leadership knowledge was evaluated to be average. The most common factors influencing competence were teachers' title/position, healthcare experience, research activities, age, academic degree and for which type of organisation they work. CONCLUSION: It is important to identify the core competencies required by health science teachers in order to train highly competent healthcare professionals. Based on the findings of this systematic review we suggest that teachers should be encouraged to gain university education and actively participate in research, and that younger teachers should have opportunities to practice the relevant teaching skills to build competence.