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Collaborating Across Disciplines for Sustainability

What is needed for Øygarden medical center (LMS) to achieve the UN´s sustainability goals? During the fall of 2020, an interdisciplinary student group received a slightly different TVEPS practice.

By: Gunhild Agdesteen

Published: (Updated: )

TVEPS-gruppe bærekraft Øygarden
The interdisciplinary student group presents their proposals to Øygarden medical center. Elisabeth Tran (right), Ole Alexander Bakkevik, Eirin S. Gjerde (right), Tonje Alvsvåg and Regine Ulveseth in Øygarden and Elin Christine Gundersen and Ane Johannessen in TVEPS (small pictures on the far right). Photo: Skjermbilde av digitalt møte via Teams, TVEPS

– A vegetable garden can provide fresh, local produce that is healthier and more environmentally friendly.

– We know that a more plant based-diet is associated with reduced risk of cardiovascular disease, certain types of cancer and obesity. 

Eirin S. Gjerde and Elisabeth Tran complement each other when they talk about locally produced vegetables, lifestyle diseases and food waste. They are final year students in clinical nutrition and medicine. Together with radiography student Arun Siva and an economics and administration student, Ole Alexander Bakkevik, they participate in a slightly different TVEPS group. 

On behalf of the medical centre in Øygarden (ØLMS) municipality, they have investigated how the center can achieve the UN's sustainable development goals. Based on the three sustainable development goals: 

  • 3. Good health and well-being 
  • 8. Decent work and economic growth 
  • 12. Responsible consumption and production 

The interdisciplinary student groups suggestions range from simple and affordable everyday changes to larger scale that require political endorsement to be implemented. 

Among the proposals are how the center can ensure increased user participation for patients, facilitate cycling and carpooling among employees, establish green areas with edible crops, carbon accounting, solar panels and concrete ways to reduce food waste. 

– Our responsibility

Two weeks earlier, the students received basic documentation about existing routines and a corona-adapted, digital tour of the medical centre by the manager Tonje Alvsvåg. 

She has been wanting to host a TVEPS group that could look more closely at the link between the centre and the UN sustainability goals. Although the sustainability goals are global, - regions, municipalities and cities are important in ensuring sustainable development. 

– It is our responsibility. We must do our part to achieve the sustainability goals, says Alvsvåg. 

Concrete measures 

Øygarden municipality (formerly Fjell municipality) has for several years received interdisciplinary student groups from TVEPS. Normally, students are given the task of investigating individual patients in nursing homes or users of home care services and creating interdisciplinary action plans for how to improve their daily lives. 

Academic divesity and a fresh perspective can both change and inspire, and in 2017 Alvsvåg invited a student group to come up with a proposal for . Now she will take the proposals from the sustainability-TVEPS group further. 

For example, we may be able to reduce food waste by making changes to our routines. The students present many good measures, and I am impressed that they are so specific in their proposals. 

Innovative thinking and social engagement 

– It is nice to get positive feedback. I am left with the impression of having contributed with inspiration and perhaps to initiatives being implemented at the medical center, says Eirin S. Gjerde. 

The students found it interesting and enlightning to collaborate on sustainable development goals. 

– I have gained increased knowledge about challenges in the health sector in terms of sustainability and how these can be solved, says Ole Alexander Bakkevik. 

– We worked across fields and learned from each other. Even though this group were beased more on personal intererest than professional knowledge, it opened for collaboration, innovative thinking and social engagement, says Elisabeth Tran and adds;

– I hope TVEPS will continue with similar groups in the future! 

Who are the TVΕPS students? 

TVEPS - Center for Interdisciplinary Work-Place Learning facilitate interprofessional collaboration among students at the workplace.  

The students enrolled are final year students from different professions from the University of Bergen and the Western Norway University of Applied Science. TVEPS is a collaboration between the University of Bergen and the Western Norway University of Applied Science with the municipalities of Bergen and Øygarden as participating partners. 

The interdisciplinary student groups consist of 4 to 5 students from different professions, among them nursing, public health nursing, psychology, medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, speech and language pathology, nutrition, bioengineering and law. 

Questions? Please feel free to contact us via e-mail (tveps@uib.no)Ìý

Sustainable Development Goals 

°Õ³ó±ðÌý are a call for action by all countries – poor, rich and middle-income – to promote prosperity while protecting the planet. They recognize that ending poverty must go hand-in-hand with strategies that build economic growth and address a range of social needs including education, health, social protection, and job opportunities, while tackling climate change and environmental protection. Source:

TVEPS

Centre for Interdisciplinary Work-Place Learning (TVEPS) trains health and social science students in interdisciplinary collaboration. Students are at the final stages of their education and come from various disciplines at the University of Bergen and the Western Norway University of Applied Science.

TVEPS is a collaboration between the Faculty of Medicine, the Faculty of Psychology, the Faculty of Law, the Faculty of Art, Music, and Design at the University of Bergen, the Faculty of Health and Social Sciences at the University of Bergen, the municipality of Bergen and the municipality of Øygarden. 

In TVEPS, students are placed into groups of 4 to 5, all with different professions. The groups are sent out to practice arenas such as nursing homes, home care, kindergartens, or Nav. In recent years, we have incorporated new arenas such as Wellness Centers, Learning and Coping Centers, Group Homes for People with Disabilities, and Child and Family Services, as well as elementary schools. 

The core of TVEPS is that students should learn from, about and with each other. This is done by giving them assignments that require interdisciplinary collaboration in which they must make suggestions or solve challenges in real work situations and with real cases.