No matter how many times you may have been in contact with someone online, there is something unique about finally meeting them face-to-face. In fact, although we have all come to appreciate the wonders of technology and how it enables online meetings, seeing someone in-person is like truly meeting them for the first time. This was our experience as the GenoNurse project consortium met in-person in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Suddenly the relationships began to develop at high speed and the collaboration entered a new level!
The work of our consortium aims to develop a model to educate nursing teachers and students in our respective European universities (and maybe even beyond) in the realm of genomics. The whole process thus far has been an eye opener indeed, and I have come to consider myself as one of the teachers needing to be educated. Although I am familiar with the use of, for example, DNA sequencing and its benefits in epidemiological investigations, it has been fascinating to gain understanding of the vast uses of genomic data overall – not to mention the challenges many of these practices come with. Therefore, it is a privilege to be working together with so many passionate and capable people, as we begin to bring to life a model so desperately needed in nursing education.
The first week of working together included a lot of brainstorming, defining the boundaries of our task, and gaining an understanding of the unknowns. We also discovered that sometimes processing ideas requires getting your hands dirty. One of our planning activities included baking bread. We were given a selection of ingredients and utensils – yet no recipe. The idea was to compare the ingredients and the process of making bread to that of developing the GenoNurse model.
Thankfully we had a secret weapon in our group: an Italian ciabatta master! Needless to say, we were all mesmerized with awe and may have even struggled to fulfill the true purpose of the activity.
Overall, our time together moved us along and got us a few steps closer to our goal. As we got to know each other better, the experience also served as an excellent reminder of how every team member comes with a unique set of skills, knowledge, and experience for the common good.
The GenoNurse project consortium is so synced for further delicacies!
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