Abstract:

Health care systems in Europe and worldwide are facing huge challenges due to population aging, increasing prevalence of chronic diseases and technological innovation. Anticipating future skills for people working in the health care sector to meet new healthcare demands is a challenge for EU member states. Member States need to act swiftly to avoid skills mismatches and gaps in the healthcare sector to ensure tomorrow's workforce is equipped with the right skills to adapt to the continuous changes in health care driven by technological innovations, demographic transitions and legal evolution.

In the academic literature very often soft skills are ranked among the most essential skills for health care managers (e.g. Stefl, 2008) but there are few studies on how to develop effective team-members and good teamwork skills in healthcare management education. Additionally due to increasing scarcity of resources devoted to welfare programmes, economic competencies and managerial skills are going to be progressively more demanded especially among healthcare providers’ organisations (Mahon and Young, 2006). In order to cope with complex needs and tasks in healthcare also interprofessional cooperation and exposure to an international context is seen as vital (WHO, 2010; Bhutta et al., 2010). Internationalization can be seen as a powerful opportunity for higher education in general and for future health care management professionals in particular. Across the European Union, health and social systems and related policies are becoming more interconnected than ever before. The spreading of diseases does not stop at borders; and neither do patients, staff, or technology.

The summer school EUROPAMO (European Patient Mobility on the example of health care service for tourists in the Veneto region) was organized jointly between four European university-level institutions (University of Bologna (Italy), University of Oslo (Norway), Erasmus University Rotterdam (The Netherlands) and Management Center Innsbruck (Austria) and the local health care authorities of the Italian Veneto region in June 2013 and 2014 and provides an example how to integrate international and interprofessional elements into healthcare management education. The majority of the costs of the summer school were financed by a successful application for an “Erasmus Intensive Program” by the European Commission. The Veneto region has a population of 4.8 million and has become famous as a major tourist destination, which increases dramatically twice a year during the peak summer and winter seasons. Consequently, Veneto makes for a very interesting case study of patient mobility and health tourism in Europe as the significant flow of tourists brings a series of health care challenges for regional health care services to contend with (Scaramagli et al., 2006).

The aims of the article are twofold. Firstly it describes how international and interprofessional aspects have been integrated into the learning design of a 2-week summer school for postgraduate health care management students jointly organized by four European universities. Secondly it is illustrated how the cooperation between four European university-level institutions in an Erasmus Intensive Program can contribute to develop sustainable long-term cooperation expressed through the development of a joint master degree program in health economics and management.

Keywords:

Healthcare management education, Erasmus Intensive Program, cross border health care, internationalization, interprofessional education, joint degree program.