My name is Petra Fercher, and I have been working with Validation since 1998. I love my work! It was an honor to spend so much time with Naomi and Vicki directly and to learn from them. I became a Master in Validation in 2014, and since 2017 I have been training new teachers in Austria. Together with my colleague of many years Gunvor Sramek, I wrote the book « Bridges to the World of Dementia – Validation in Everyday Life », which was published in 2014 by Reinhardt Verlag with the 4th edition to be published next year. In addition, this book has been translated into Bulgarian, Czech and Slovak. I am especially excited that an audio book is now being created from this to be published in 2024 under my own direction and with my own voice recording.
In 2020, Trauner Verlag approached me with the request to co-write a new work for nursing education with four other authors. This work, « Pflegewelten, » was published in the fall of 2023 and is currently being used in many training centers. Within this publication, I describe the basis of Validation according to Naomi Feil and assisted the publisher with the design.
In order to ensure uniform training quality throughout Austria, Gesundheit Österreich GmbH was commissioned by the Federal Ministry of Labor, Social Affairs, Health and Consumer Protection in 2017 to develop curricula for the training programs for nursing assistants to be compliant with the new training ordinance.
A big, important order from the ministry!
With the present curricula, an attempt has been made to create an innovative training program for nursing assistants and nursing specialist assistants that is up-to-date and meets the professional requirements. The curricula are result- and competence-oriented, action-oriented and subject-integrated, as well as practice-integrated and structured in stages. With the help of vocational structuring, exemplary and practice-oriented learning will be possible.
In the volume « Relationship Design and Communication », among other things, the basic Validation training based on Naomi Feil, was integrated as a fixed component with 16 hours as “learning field 6.”
When asked if I would write the content for the basic training in Validation for this volume of the textbook series « Pflegewelten », I was thrilled with this opportunity. Basic training is a hands-on, gentle introduction to Validation, while at the same time providing in-depth knowledge. This form of training has always been and continues to be a very special concern of mine. In the almost twenty years that I have been conducting training and education in Validation according to Naomi Feil, the positive effects of this have been confirmed to me time and again.
For years, Validation basic training courses have been conducted throughout Austria in educational institutions, health care organizations and especially directly in nursing homes as well as in the acute sector. This gave me the idea to create my own workbook for the basic training to be used as teaching material for Validation teachers and as a working script for participants.
« Validation – A workbook for basic training according to Naomi Feil » now provides the contents compactly and adapted to the target group in a separate book. Together with the innovative and competent team of TRAUNER Verlag, we have succeeded in making this book practical, efficient and didactically prepared. Basic knowledge in Validation is conveyed in a well-structured way and with many exercises from practice. In addition, the book offers the opportunity to deal in detail with the topic of « people with dementia ». Last but not least, sufficient space is given to self-reflection and self-awareness in relation to relationship building and communication with the elderly and people with dementia. All this makes this work a valuable support in teaching, teaching and learning. I wish everyone who uses this workbook much joy and ease in teaching and learning basic knowledge in Validation according to Naomi Feil.
Here the link to the workbook:
https://www.trauner.at/shop/validation-ein-arbeitsbuch-fuer-die-basisschulung-nach-naomi-feil
Here the link to the Pflegewelten volume:
And in addition under publications there are also other articles I have written: