First professors appointed in nursing sciences

The Board of Governors of the University of Luxembourg has appointed Laurence Bernard and Marie Friedel Full professors in Nursing Sciences who will jointly develop a comprehensive study offer in Nursing at the University.

Laurence Bernard (photo on the right) holds a PhD in nursing and joins the University from the Faculty of Nursing of Université de Montréal. She has a ten-year experience as a professor and has published in the domains of Health care safety and recently Pandemics, but also in Critical theory including Feminism, Postmodernism or Socio-constructivism. Laurence Bernard has the Canadian and Belgian citizenships and is fluent in French and English.

Marie Friedel (photo on the left) was born in Luxembourg and is a French and German national. She holds a PhD in public health. Marie Friedel has been working as a Scientific collaborator at the Institute of Health and Society (IRSS) at the Université Catholique de Louvain has been teaching for more than 20 years at the Nursing and Midwifery Department, Haute Ecole Léonard de Vinci in Brussels. Her research activities, based on mixed methods designs and a strong collaborative approach, focus on paediatric palliative care, outcomes measurement in healthcare, ethics and nursing education. Marie Friedel speaks French, English, German and Italian.

In order to offer nursing education on an academic level, the Government mandated the University of Luxembourg to develop a comprehensive range of Bachelor programmes in Nursing. A total of seven new Bachelors in different fields of Nursing are planned to be launched gradually as of September 2023: Bachelors for Surgical Medical technical Assistants (SMA) as well as for nurses specialised in the fields of anaesthesia and resuscitation, paediatrics, mental health followed in 2024 by midwifery and radiology as well as a Bachelor of Nursing in general care.

The study programmes will combine theoretical training using the latest technology with practical training in hospitals and in collaboration with the various institutes in Luxembourg as well as foreign partners.

Laurence Bernard and Marie Friedel are both trained nurses themselves. Prof Laurence Bernard will take up office in October and Prof Marie Friedel in November 2022, both with primary assignment in the Department of Life Sciences and Medicine of the Faculty of Science, Technology and Medicine (FSTM). Both professors will have important roles in building and coordinating nursing education at the University. They will also be responsible for developing research in Nursing sciences at the University of Luxembourg.

University rector Stéphane Pallage stated: “This is an important Milestone for the University of Luxembourg on the way to an attractive academic nursing education in Luxembourg. Marie Friedel and Laurence Bernard bring to the University a rich experience, people-oriented personalities and a clear vision of the development and the needs of the nursing profession.”