'You speak such good Norwegian': a kiwi nursing lecturer, working in Norway for a year, shares some of his thoughts and experiences from the land of the midnight sun.

UNITEC Institute of Technology's nursing programme has, over the past ten years, established relation ships with a number of university colleges in Norway. These are part of UNITEC's overall emphasis on "internationalisation"--of recognising that we live in an increasingly interdependent world.

The nursing programme's relationships originated from the Norwegian Government's Study Abroad programme. This entitles each student enrolled in higher education to financial support for one or two semesters of study in a tertiary institution outside Norway. In 2002 there were 176,000 students enrolled in higher education in Norway and approximately 20,000 were studying abroad. For the last six years, there has been a small group of Norwegian students enrolled in UNITEC's undergraduate nursing programme and the majority of these students come as part of the Study Abroad programme.

The concept of internationalisation encompasses far more than the enrolment of foreign students--there is also the commitment to develop international research and scholarly participation, and to foster alliances with overseas institutions. For the nursing programme, this has lead to the exchange of academic staff with our Norwegian partners. We are routinely visited by teaching staff from our Norwegian partner institutions who are responsible for the students who are studying with us. The exchange is by no means one way; two years ago my colleague, Elizabeth Niven, and I both spent five weeks lecturing and meeting with staff at three university colleges in Norway. This led to an invitation for me to teach at Buskerud University College in Drammen for a year.

Drammen is a city of approximately 50,000 people, 40 minutes south of the capital, Oslo, The college draws its students from the entire Buskerud county with a population of 240,000. The school of nursing has around 400 students enrolled in the baccalaureate programme and 150 in a range of postgraduate diplomas. A new master of nursing programme will be introduced later this year.

While I have not been able to find exact figures on the number of nursing students in Norway, the largest number of students (18.2 percent) are enrolled in health, welfare and sport, and 60 percent of all enrolments in higher education are female., The Government provides a high level of support for tertiary students. There are no tuition fees and the students also receive a cost-of-living allowance of approximately Norwegian kroner NOK8000 (NZ$1860) per month. This allowance consists of a combination of grants and loans. Students are entitled to a grant equivalent to 40 per cent of the cost of living allowance, and 25 percent of this is payable when they begin their studies and the remaining 15 percent on timely completion of their studies and will be converted from the loan already paid out. While the grants and loans may seem very generous, Norway is expensive. You can expect to pay at least NOK3000 per month for an apartment and much more in Oslo; a beer costs NOK48 (NZ$11), a ticket to the movies NOK78 (NZ$18), and all the necessities of life are much more expensive than in New Zealand.

So why would a Norwegian school of nursing want to employ an English speaking staff member from New Zealand? Increasingly, since the Quality Reform of Higher Education instituted by the Norwegian Government in 1998, tertiary institutions have been involved in internationalisation programmes. Part of this reform programme is to learn from international expertise and to attract more foreign students to Norway, by increasing the number of academic courses offered in English.

When the school of nursing in Buskerud decided it wanted to employ an English-speaking lecturer, it was serendipitous we had established links between the two schools. The staff had already met and worked with me and were able to understand my accent! But that was not the only reason to employ a New Zealander. Dean Inger Margrete Holter is keen for staff to develop expertise in on line learning and in the incorporation of evidence-based practice in their teaching--two explicit themes in UNITEC's undergraduate curriculum. So this year I have the extraordinary opportunity to work with the staff and students in Norway, using now taken-for-granted expertise in New Zealand but which are new challenges for nursing educators here. I am continuing to work part-time for UNITEC, with students on-line who are enrolled in men's health.

Many staff here have a basic understanding of evidence-based practice and on line learning, but the hurdle for them is "what next?" They are keen to develop strategies for incorporating these concepts into their teaching. This has required developing skills to access relevant information from electronic databases. Staff here are all familiar with the electronic blackboard environment but use it solely for providing information, rather than as a way of delivering education.

Interestingly, here at the college we have just had a visitor from a school of nursing in Germany who was impressed with what is being achieved in nursing education in Norway and New Zealand. Both countries are trendsetters in nursing education in comparison to Germany. Germany plans to have nursing students in baccalaureate programmes by 2010, and basic nursing education is still being delivered in hospital-based nursing programmes.

Cultural safety is another area where others are keen to learn from our experience. It is of increasing relevance here, as Norwegian society is rapidly becoming multicultural and, in perhaps another parallel with New Zealand, Norwegian society is beginning to listen to the voices of its indigenous people, the Sami. Traditionally, the Sami have been nomadic reindeer herders spread across northern Scandinavia and Russia. Today approximately 40,000 Sami live in northern Norway, with a further 17,000 in Sweden, 6000 in Finland and 2000 in Russia. They remain a largely rural-based culture living in Finnmark, in the most northern part of the country. The Sami have been colonised by the Norwegian Government and a process of 'norwegianisation' occurred, which has many parallels with the experience of the tangata whenua in New Zealand. The Sami language was prohibited between 1889-1952. (2)

There are numerous parallels between the New Zealand and Norwegian experiences of nursing and nursing education. Here, too, there are concerns about how to maintain standards in the face of nursing shortages and how to promote nursing as an attractive career option, when neither the pay nor conditions of employment make it so.

The concern about standards is even more intense here, as the Norwegian Government funds education on the basis of students successfully completing their course of study, rather than on the number entering a course. Such a model seems dangerous. As an educator, I don't want to be placed in the situation of having to choose between being part of maintaining the standards of education and practice, and ensuring enough students pass in order to keep my job. Such a model runs the risk of lowering the standards of education and practice.

Of the 26 state colleges of higher education, 22 offer undergraduate nursing education with five private religious colleges also offering nursing education. As the population of Norway is not much bigger than New Zealand (4.5 million), this has lead to the question of whether so many nursing programmes are needed.

Teachers here also feel pressure to pursue higher degrees and this has raised concerns about increased workloads and the expectation to do more with less money. Nursing education in Norway seems to be rich in resources and there appears to be far more money for staff development. Four staff members here are being paid their full salary while working full-time on their PhDs--something most of us in New Zealand can only dream about. Staff here routinely travel abroad to conferences, meetings with other educators and to update their clinical practice in another country. Not all that money comes from the Norwegian Government; the European Union (EU) makes considerable funds available for such teacher exchanges to promote educational and professional links between member countries. Much work is happening on developing shared courses and curricula between EU member countries.

While many Norwegians speak English, they are generally reluctant to speak it in front of colleagues. One challenge has been to create an environment in which they feel safe to speak English in front of one another. A strategy I have used is trying to speak Norwegian. I hope that by being prepared to "dummer meg" (make a fool of myself) every day with the accent and vocabulary, it will make those who speak less than fluent English more comfortable. My attempts at speaking Norwegian have been a great source of amusement to many, especially when I wanted to borrow a vacuum cleaner from a colleague recently. Not knowing the word, I improvised and tried to describe it and came up with the "sucking machine". It was at this point that my belief that Norwegians were extremely polite and not given to seeking double meanings was shattered forever! Now, increasingly, I'm finding I'm working in a blend of Norwegian and English, and that staff, students and myself swap backwards and forwards between the two languages. The strategy seems to be working, as people who once were too afraid to approach me and speak English are now seeking me out to practise with me.

My efforts to learn Norwegian are being richly rewarded as people respond very positively to my faltering attempts. I am being invited to participate in life as it is actually lived by Norwegians. This has meant numerous invitations to dinner, cross-country skiing, parties and evenings out at cafes, bars, restaurants, theatre and opera. I am increasingly immersed in the language and culture. Weekends away in the mountains with new friends, as I learn to cross country ski, have provided wonderful opportunities to enjoy the beautiful countryside, experience extraordinarily cold temperatures (-25[degrees]C is nay record so far), and learn some interesting new words around the fire in the evening. The summer holiday promises a trip to the far north, with Norwegian friends and my kiwi partner, to experience the midnight sun at Nord Cap, Europe's most northerly point. Most visitors make no effort to learn the language because so many people speak English welt here. By trying to speak the language I am something of a novelty and am constantly encouraged with comments such as: "You speak such good Norwegian." As most people expect me to speak English, they are listening for that, and become confused when I use their language. We usually have to start the conversation anew, once they have turned their "Norwegian ears" back on again.

REFERENCES

(1) Statistics Norway (2004) http://www.ssb.no/english/subjects/

(2) Viken, B. (2003) The Sami People: History and Contemporary Perspectives Health and Social Services Presentation at UNITEC, School of Health Science. New Zealand, 20.10.2003.

--Thomas Harding, RGON, MSc, was programme leader of the bachelor of nursing programme at UNITEC's School of Health Science. He is teaching for a year in the nursing programme at Buskerud University College in Drammen, Norway.