Change at the top of the nursing school for the elderly: the Stephan Meuß experiment ends

Created: 08/17/2022, 16:02

By: Wolfgang Schorner

Typical attitude: Headmaster Stephan Meuß usually sat in front of his students in class.

Now he is leaving the Penzberg vocational school for geriatric care.

© Wolfgang Schorner

Stephan Meuß is leaving the Penzberg vocational school for geriatric care after eight years as headmaster.

Around 200 geriatric nurses were trained under his direction.

The greatest upheaval in the history of the vocational school also took place during his time - which indirectly contributed to Meuß' departure.

Penzberg – In September 2014, Stephan Meuß took over the management of the vocational school on the premises of the "Steigenberger Hof" in Penzberg from Margit Wutz.

The 57-year-old was born in the Upper Palatinate, but his home has been Middle Franconia since childhood.

There in Ebenried, before his time in Penzberg, he had headed the technical school for curative education, which, like the Penzberg school, belongs to the "Rummelsberger Diakonie".

Deacon Meuß will remain loyal to the "Rummelsbergers" in the future.

In the future, he will teach prospective educators, primarily for kindergarten, as a lecturer at the Academy for Social Pedagogy in Rummelsberg.

He himself had completed the state educator training and later studied to become a teacher for vocational schools, specializing in social pedagogy.

The greatest upheaval in the history of the school took place during his time

Stephan Meuß ran the small vocational school in Penzberg for eight years.

This was the time of the greatest change in the history of the school.

Two years ago, a new era of nursing education began nationwide.

Since then, there is no longer a distinction between geriatric care, nursing and child care, which was an enormous change for the schools.

In Penzberg, the first "generalist" class will complete their three-year apprenticeship in 2023.

The experiment: school directors only on site two days a week - is that possible?

This also had an indirect influence on Meuß saying goodbye.

To explain that, the 57-year-old goes far.

It was an experiment for everyone involved when he took over the management of the school in 2014.

The experiment was to see if he could run a school even though he was only there two days a week.

The rest of the time he stayed in Middle Franconia, where his home is, his children are and where he is also the head of the fire brigade - "my main focus of life", as he says.

He "wanted to step down a bit".

Apparently that worked for a while.

It became more difficult when his predecessor, who had continued to work as a teacher for two years, and his deputy Barbara Gottwald retired a few years ago, along with other employees who had been at the school for a long time.

With the generational change in the team came the upheaval in nursing training.

New Nursing Education: Not getting the resources needed

The new "generalist training", says Meuß, is based on many good basic ideas, but is a paradigm shift.

"In order to implement something like this, you need resources, but we didn't have them." With the existing staff, you had to take a two-pronged approach, i.e. continue the old training, but at the same time fill the new concept with life.

That means developing exams and tasks, entering into cooperation with clinics and care facilities and renewing training content.

"It's not trivial, it's very complex," says Meuß.

"That really cost us a lot of strength." The Free State had also demanded that nursing schools and facilities form alliances and promoted this with start-up financing.

a feat,

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"I noticed: Now it's good"

“And then Corona came on top.” With school closures and digital lessons – with Meuß expressly praising the Rummelsberger Diakonie.

"They gave it their all." All in all, however, the headmaster was faced with the question of whether he had to go to Penzberg full-time, "because the work could no longer be completed in two or three days".

Meuß had already increased it to three days.

But even full-time, he says, is unreasonable, which also erodes motivation.

"I noticed: Now it's good." His decision was made: He's going back to Middle Franconia - his new job is just ten kilometers away.

However, he does not look back on his eight years in Penzberg with resentment.

There have been countless beautiful experiences, says Meuß.

He names the school team with its 17 employees.

It was always a "great collaboration".

One of the best experiences, he adds, was the graduates' graduation ceremonies: "When you see how people who also carry packages with them go their way successfully."