Over the decades, nursing training has changed fundamentally: The nursing school has become a modern vocational school with academically qualified teachers. Today, interested students can choose between a three-year full-time course, a four-year part-time course, a one-year course in healthcare and nursing assistance or a primary qualification course. Specializations and areas of focus include paediatrics, psychiatry and intensive care. The entire training program is AZAV-certified. This enables the school to accept further participants into the training courses in cooperation with the employment agency. Courses for the recognition of foreign specialists are also planned at the school from 2026.
In addition to training young people, the school also plays a central role in securing skilled workers: it trains the largest professional group in the healthcare sector and is therefore key to counteracting the shortage of skilled workers. "Our nursing school is an indispensable building block in countering the shortage of specialists and firmly anchoring the clinics in the region. It enables us to train our own specialists in a targeted manner, secure our corporate strategy and thus ensure excellent care for the public. This allows us to reduce the use of temporary workers," emphasized Dr. Marc Nickel, Medical Director of RKH Gesundheit.
Head of School Ursula Palmer described the development of vocational nursing training and took a look into the future, in which education will continue to change through the use of digital tools. "Looking into the future of nursing education makes it clear to us that we need to think ahead about how teaching can work in the future. This path must now be taken and initiated." Renowned experts also provided impetus in their presentations: Prof. Dr. Anke Simon, Dean of Studies at the DHBW Stuttgart, described the importance of digital use in nursing education, Prof. Dr. Claudia Eckstein, Professor of Nursing Science at the Protestant University of Applied Sciences Ludwigsburg, spoke about the challenge of theory-practice transfer and Christine Vogler, President and Managing Director of the German Nursing Council, emphasized the need to expand the fields of activity of nursing as well as the importance of professional self-image. A panel discussed the upheaval in nursing training with a view to nursing studies.
In the afternoon, the nursing school opened its doors to school classes and interested parties. Visitors were able to find out about topics such as psychiatry, intensive and acute care and children's nursing and even experience patient safety training hands-on. The offer was enthusiastically received.
