Focus on high-care training

In January 2026, the book "Practical training in high-care areas - vocational pedagogical guidance and situation-oriented teaching" was published. It brings together contributions from various authors, often with a connection to RWU. In this interview, Georg Roth - co-editor and graduate of the former RWU Nursing Education degree program - and RWU Professor Dr. Jörg Wendorff, co-author, talk about the contents of the book and its significance for practice.

Kathrin Wöhrle: To clarify the term first - what exactly is the high-care sector and who is the book aimed at?

Georg Roth: High-care areas are specialized areas of hospitals. These include intensive and palliative care, emergency rooms, operating theaters, anesthesia and psychiatry. Specialist staff such as surgical assistants are often neglected in general courses. But it is precisely in these high-care areas that different skills are needed than on normal wards. In the textbook, we deal with the training of practice supervisors in these areas, i.e. the training of trainers, so to speak. And the book is intended for them.

Isn't there already a lot of literature on this?

Georg Roth: There is hardly any literature that brings these different areas together. But that is exactly what is becoming more and more of an issue: the networking of disciplines. There are many interfaces, for example psychiatric patients in the emergency department.

What challenges are there in the high-care sector and how does the book address them?

Georg Roth: The challenges are multi-dimensional: heterogeneous trainees, language barriers, different learning challenges, self-organization or mental health issues among young people are increasingly playing a role. It's also about attracting junior staff who will stay in the profession in the long term. In order to do this, practice supervisors must have sufficient time as well as knowledge of didactics and methodology.

Jörg Wendorff: Interculturality also plays an important role. More and more people from abroad are working in the care professions. It is good if they are trained here. On the other hand, patients are getting older and older and have multiple illnesses. That's why we need better and better training. The book contributes to professionalization.

Georg Roth: The meta-topic is job retention. That is the main goal of an institution. This requires the right trainers so that people say: "Yes, I'll stay here" - and for longer than the average eight years.

How is the book structured?

Jörg Wendorff: We start with the basics of pedagogy, didactics and the learning field approach - in other words, with my contribution to the book. Advanced learners can select content directly according to their interests. It's not a book that you read from cover to cover, but rather one that you work through according to your areas of interest.

Georg Roth: We use the situation-oriented approach in the book: the case studies are a central element. Each learning unit begins with a practical situation in which the reader finds themselves. Building on this, methodological steps are explained, and at the end there are concrete approaches for practical application. Practice instructors learn how to justify their actions professionally and ethically - just as they should convey them to their trainees.

Jörg Wendorff: In the past, a lot of work was done intuitively, for example in the emergency services. Today, the work is more scientifically based and systematized. The book combines practical relevance with a scientific basis.

You mentioned the learning field approach. What does that mean?

Jörg Wendorff: The learning field approach is about thinking about different disciplines together: Who can make a contribution from medicine, from education, from nursing? Ideally, you have teachers who coordinate beyond their lessons in order to create overlaps between the disciplines and bring together different perspectives.

What other aspects do you cover in the book?

Georg Roth: It is also important to us to strengthen the trainers: Health promotion, mindset, attitude and humor also play a role. Humor in particular is not about jokes, but rather about an optimistic and positive attitude - an empathetic relationship or cultivating relationships with young people. You need the right mindset as a trainer to retain people in a company like this in the long term.

Jörg Wendorff: Above all, eye level is crucial - despite differences in age or hierarchy. The willingness to engage in discussions and learn is therefore much greater. Snooty lectures along the lines of "I'm the guru, you have to learn this" don't work - people learn what they think makes sense. There needs to be a good balance between support and independence for young people.

What role do the different generations play in everyday training?

Jörg Wendorff: Generations have different strengths, but a mutual deficit view ruins everything. Older people often say that the younger ones have to do something first, and the younger ones respond with: "What are you trying to tell us?" That doesn't solve any problems. Older professionals should value the innovative ideas of the younger ones, the younger ones should recognize the experience of the older ones. Mutual respect instead of walls enables cooperation and professional training.

Georg Roth: The way we organize training and continuing education should also be different today. Tools and, above all, cell phones should not be demonized. They can be usefully integrated through short learning units or simulations: For example, in the Room of Horror, errors such as fall hazards are built into the rooms and these have to be searched for using an app. In the Meta-Hospital, everything revolves around virtual reality. These are clinics with special areas, such as surgical care, in which training units are vividly taught with the help of virtual scenarios.

The book brings together a lot of specialist expertise - how did the individual contributions come about?

Georg Roth: The input came from contacts in our German-Swiss network. Everyone who contributed a specialist chapter comes from a practical background and is a trainer themselves. We chose Jörg Wendorff, for example, because as a former head of the nursing education course, he was able to provide the expertise for the contribution on educational pedagogy.

To conclude: What is the most important message of this book for you both personally?

Georg Roth: For me, it is the networking of the high-care areas. We can no longer think in isolation. And it is an important signal for the high-care areas and a very practical aid in these challenging times for and in vocational training.

Jörg Wendorff: For me, the book is a kind of legacy of the nursing education course that was discontinued years ago. The network that was created back then still exists today. Former students as well as current and former RWU employees carry the acquired knowledge into practice and to the outside world. It shows that the training and networking of specialists can have a long-term impact and sustainably improve the high-care sector.