Future health care managers and the need for an international and interprofessional learning experience ? the case of a summer school on cross-border health care

Internationalisation and interprofessional cooperation are central to health care in the 21st century. For health care managers, policy analysts and academic researchers, knowledge of multiple relevant disciplines and an international view and network are key to understanding and solving the challenges that health care systems and health care services are facing. One of the primary challenges for health care managers in both private and public organizations will be the adaption to a continuously changing environment driven by technological development, demographic transitions and legal evolution. A recent development in this context has been the EU directive on the application of patients? rights in cross-border health care, which had to be implemented by all member states by October 2013, and allows individuals to receive treatment in other member states if they also have the right to this treatment in their home country. This increase in the mobility of patients and services also requires health care managers to be equipped with specialized knowledge and technical skills in order to address the international dimension (e.g. legal and financial issues) and to enable high quality of work by considering the diverse cultural and professional backgrounds of staff members.In order to explain how future health care managers can be prepared for this interprofessional and intercultural work environment, the article focuses on two main aspects. First, it sheds light on the core competencies required and explains how those skills can be acquired and further developed. Second, based on the example of an international summer school on cross border health care this article illustrates how interprofessional and intercultural learning can be promoted in the course of a two-week intensive program. The summer school which took place in 2013 and 2014 was jointly organized by four European universities (University of Bologna, University of Oslo, Erasmus University Rotterdam and Management Center Innsbruck). The concept will be outlined in detail to give insight to a practical example on how to promote intercultural and interprofessional learning among an international group of health care management students.