Lithuania joined the Occupational Therapy in Nordic and Baltic Countries Network (Occupational Therapy in Nordic and Baltic Countries), which was founded in 1992 and includes universities from five large Nordic and Baltic countries: Norway, Sweden, Finland, Iceland, Denmark, Estonia and Latvia, this year and is represented by the Rehabilitation Department of the Faculty of Medicine of Kauno kolegija Higher Education Institution (HEI).

The representatives of the universities of the network cooperate closely in order to improve the quality of education of occupational therapy study programme students in all countries, increase mobility, develop scientific research and development, and support inter-institutional partner relations and cooperation.

Milda Gintilienė, head of the Rehabilitation Department of the Faculty of Medicine of Kauno kolegija HEI, occupational therapist Emilija Strimaitytė, and Dovaidė Kurytė and Evelina Balčiūnaitė, third-year students of the Occupational Therapy study programme, went to Karolinska Institute (Karolinska Institutet, Sweden) in Stockholm and participated in an intensive NordPlus project week, the theme of which was “Inclusion in everyday life using everyday technology”.

The goal of the project is to expand students’ competencies in solving the challenges posed by everyday technologies for certain groups of individuals. The students used the Design thinking method to find ways to solve the problems raised during the project, which will encourage innovative and creative ideas of students.