ROC Friese Poort is located within hospital walls

DRACHTEN – In 2022, the MBO adult education Care and Welfare of ROC Friese Poort will move from the Wetterwille location to a new school location in Nij Smellinghe hospital in Drachten. In this way, the school makes education even better in line with practice and the educational institution offers space to the rapidly increasing number of students.

Thanks to the collaboration, Nij Smellinghe is able to attract more care providers in training. It is unique in the Netherlands that an MBO school is located within the hospital walls. Chairman of the Board of Directors of Nij Smellinghe Hospital Bert Kleinlugtenbeld and member of the Executive Board of ROC Friese Poort Alice Muller signed the letter of intent officially confirming the collaboration last week.

Intensive cooperation
In 2018, ROC Friese Poort and Nij Smellinghe decided to intensify their collaboration. It is important for the region that there is and will remain sufficient well-trained healthcare personnel. The plan for the new school location is the concrete elaboration of this. Thanks to this collaboration, the MBO students of Care and Welfare from ROC Friese Poort will soon follow all their education at a practical location. They experience up close how things work in a hospital and can easily gain practical experience in Nij Smellinghe. Practice is literally behind the next door. That makes this unique school location an extra educational environment. The declaration of intent entails more than simply relocating education. For example, in the field of research, the organizations will collaborate.

Grow adult education
In recent years, adult education Care and Welfare within ROC Friese Poort has grown from 590 to approximately 700 students. Many of them are retraining and further training due to the growing demand for healthcare employees. The intention is that from 2022 students will be able to go to the new school location of Nij Smellinghe.

Alice Muller, member of the Executive Board of ROC Friese Poort: “An educational location in the middle of the professional field will only benefit the quality of our education. We believe that students are best educated in an environment where learning and practice are linked. By working together, we can continuously link education to changes in the work field. At the same time, Nij Smellinghe gets up-to-date knowledge from ROC Friese Poort. And of course I am incredibly proud that Nij Smellinghe and ROC Friese Poort together to be able to supply a sufficient number of well-trained care personnel in the Drachten region.

Learning in practice
“Nij Smellinghe believes it is important that students can learn fully in practice,” says Kleinlugtenbeld. “As a hospital, we want to offer students the opportunity to develop themselves further and to allow their talents to be discovered in daily professional practice. Thanks to the close cooperation on location, Nij Smellinghe can attract more care providers in training at ROC Friese Poort, possibly even after completion. of the training. In this way we work on a solution for the scarcity of healthcare workers and we build a sustainable organization. “

Sustainable new construction
Nij Smellinghe will further expand the current hospital building to realize the school location. Sustainable construction is the starting point of both Nij Smellinghe and ROC Friese Poort. Such as Biobased Building and CO2 neutral. And also the use of sustainable and energy-efficient materials, registration of the materials in a materials passport with a view to reuse and a building design with lots of natural light. The goal is to receive the first students after the summer holiday of 2022. In addition to the school location, there will be a meeting center and dining facility in the new building. Good agreements have been made with the municipality of Smallingerland about sufficient parking and improved accessibility of the hospital grounds.