Nursing training at schools and universities is undergoing a process of change due to the new Nursing Professions Act (PfBG) of 2020. Nursing is a communicative profession and language skills are increasingly recognized as an important part of the professional competence of nursing staff. At the same time, the number of multilingual nursing trainees/students due to migration is growing, which poses challenges for both learners and teachers.

The interdisciplinary project “SCENE” (language-sensitive nursing education) under the direction of Prof. Dr. Inger Petersen (German as a second language and subject-integrated language education) and Prof. Dr. Wolfgang von Gahlen-Hoops (nursing education) is working on behalf of the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB) to develop language level descriptions for the different qualification levels of nursing training as well as assessments to record linguistic and communicative skills. On the other hand, modular curricula and digital and analog teaching materials are being developed to promote language and communication skills throughout the course of training.