This article is part of the presentations related to the Future Health HUB and Erasmus+ SA-IS projects, delivered at the Health Education Without Borders: Innovation Through Collaboration conference held in Maputo on April 10, 2025. An overview of the conference and the projects presented is provided in the main article.

A New Approach to Healthcare Education

In a rapidly evolving healthcare world, the Future Health Hub (FHH) model offers an innovative educational framework that redefines how students learn, collaborate, and make a real impact. Developed through global cooperation between institutions like Savonia University of Applied Sciences (Finland) and ISCISA (Mozambique), the FHH model blends hands-on experience with curriculum-based learning, empowering students to grow both professionally and personally.

The FHH project facilitates multicultural, community-oriented projects for healthcare students, offering both physical learning centers and a virtual e-learning platform at both universities. Using service design methodology, the FHH ensures that all student activities are curriculum- and evidence-based , bridging theory and practice to benefit both learners and the communities they serve.

This isn’t just about learning healthcare. It’s about doing it together, across disciplines, cultures, and borders.

What Makes the Future Health Hub Unique

The Future Health Hub is both a learning platform and a mindset of collaboration and continuous improvement. It is built on the principle that students learn best by solving real problems in real communities.

At its core, the FHH model:

• Encourages multicultural teamwork across universities and countries

• Connects academic theory with community-driven healthcare projects

• Combines virtual and physical collaboration

• Focuses on evidence-based practices and reflection

It offers students and teachers the opportunity to think globally, act locally, and make healthcare education more meaningful.

Service Design at the Heart of the Model

Service design begins by identifying a challenge or problem, investigating it thoroughly to determine its core cause, and generating multiple possible solutions. The best option is then conceptualized as a service and tested in its real environment, often through several rounds of iteration and refinement until a practical, effective solution emerges.

Within the FHH project, service design has guided the creation and development of the model. It helps to reveal the stages of the service path within the model and streamline them in practice. Service design depends on information from all stakeholders, especially users.

Students have acted as users, testing the models and providing feedback for development. Teachers and guidance staff have worked alongside them in piloting activities. Students have also gathered and shared information from families involved in family counselling projects. This information is collected through repeated cycles of action, evaluation, and case work, building a shared data pool that refines guidance over time.

The students’ contribution is significant: they work on real cases, apply evidence-based content, and learn by doing. They are able to quickly apply fresh research when it matches the needs of the families they are working with. Students identify these needs, search for information independently, use assigned materials, and consult supervisors, teachers, and librarians. This ensures that the information used is current, relevant, and responsive to emerging challenges.

The Four Phases of the FHH Model

The FHH model follows a clear, structured process consisting of four phases that guide every project from concept to completion.

Phase 1: Identifying Project Partners

• Choose community partners with genuine healthcare needs

• Align project themes with academic goals and timelines

• Market opportunities to students and clients

• Set up communication channels and ensure ethical practices

Phase 2: Preparing Student Projects

• Define goals, expectations, and milestones

• Prepare students through orientation and kickoff meetings

Phase 3: Students Implement Projects

• Work in multicultural teams

• Apply evidence-based practices to deliver services

• Use digital tools to collaborate across borders

• Reflect and adapt during implementation

Phase 4: Project Evaluation

• Evaluate impact and learning outcomes

• Gather client feedback via student-designed surveys

• Share results to improve future projects

From Idea to Impact: Visualizing the Journey

The FHH model is also presented visually to make it easier to understand. The diagram follows the Western left-to-right reading flow, which helps readers interpret processes over time.

The stages are represented as areas of different sizes, illustrating the relationship between the time spent and the amount of content covered. Larger areas signify more work and also reflect the participant’s perceived importance of the task. The model’s upward trajectory shows the accumulation of skills and knowledge, starting from a small seed, an idea or observation, that grows into a project or collaboration.

Phases 1 and 2 depict the initial situation and preparation, expanding like a flashlight beam as the direction becomes clearer. Phase 3 shows students actively implementing the project, refining direction, and building competence, with the narrowing shape indicating progress toward defined goals. Phase 4 involves evaluation, feedback, and identifying best practices, feeding into new projects. The circular shape of this phase symbolizes a perfected, compact “pearl” of knowledge that can be revisited repeatedly.

Why the Future Health Hub Matters

The FHH model is already in action in Kuopio, Finland. At the Savonia Wellness Center, more than 100 students each year from fields like nursing, midwifery, business, and tourism apply the model as part of their internships.

FHH meets a growing need: preparing students for a healthcare world that demands adaptability, empathy, and global collaboration. It creates a space where learning is multiprofessional, international, hands-on, human-centered, and community-driven.

By combining structured learning with real service, the FHH:

• Equips students with skills that employers truly value

• Strengthens communities through direct engagement

• Promotes cultural exchange and international teamwork

• Prepares a new generation to lead with care and competence

In short, the Future Health Hub is not just building better students — it’s building a better future.

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Authors:

Marja Gröhn-Rissanen, International Coordinator, Senior Lecturer, MSc, Rn. Savonia University of Applied Sciences, Department of Health care, marja-liisa.grohn-rissanen@savonia.fi.

Antti Kares, Lecturer, Savonia University of Applied Sciences, Department of Desing, antti.kares@savonia.fi

Salla Lommi, Service coordinator of Savonia Wellness Center, Savonia University of Applied Sciences, salla.lommi@savonia.fi

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