Practical training as a means of reflecting on practice: an evaluation of a vocational and education and training programme for rescue officers

In a revision of a vocational and education and training (VET) programme for rescue officers, practical training in the rescue company was supplemented with periods of training in hospital wards. The purposes of this were to teach the rescue officers basic nursing and to qualify them to inform the patients in the ambulances about the procedures at the hospital. An evaluation of the revised programme showed that these two purposes were fulfilled. However, the trainees also described another kind of outcome, which could be called awareness of own practice. The practical training in the hospital seems to provide a profitable space for reflection. In this article, the trainees’ learning from their practical training in the hospitals is investigated in order to explain why the hospital succeeds as a space for reflection.