Prof. Dr. Katrin Student joined the Department of Social and Health Services at the beginning of July
Since July 1, 2026, Dr. Katrin Student has been serving as a professor of clinical nursing and medicine in the Bachelor’s program in Nursing and the Master’s program in Advanced Nursing Practice in Department IV. This makes Prof. Dr. med. Katrin Student one of the first female physicians in Germany to establish an academic nursing professorship focused on advanced clinical competencies. As a board-certified specialist in occupational medicine and an emergency physician, she brings extensive medical expertise to the role. As a certified social worker in healthcare, she has also experienced patient care from a perspective that medicine often overlooks and publishes research at the intersection of nursing and medicine. Stays in Finland, Sweden, Switzerland, and the Netherlands have shaped her view of care models that other countries are already successfully implementing.
Here, Prof. Dr. Katrin Student briefly introduces herself in an interview:
You have been a professor of clinical nursing and medicine at HWG LU since July 1, 2026. Did you get off to a good start?
I received an extremely warm welcome from everyone and was provided with all the necessary information and materials. This was all the more valuable because, as a “northerner,” I was not only appointed to the university but also moved to the region for the first time.
You’ve had an unusual career. What connects these different stages?
A common thread runs through it all: an interest in quality healthcare, in the question of how responsibility is distributed within the healthcare system, and in the joy of education. As a social worker in healthcare, I saw how much care goes beyond pure medicine. My medical studies gave me a foundation in the natural sciences and clinical practice. For years, I’ve been publishing work at the intersection of nursing and medicine. Now, as a professor, I’m bringing all of this together: medical knowledge, clinical experience, and an eye for what nursing can already do today—and what it will be able and permitted to do tomorrow.
What responsibilities does your new position entail, and what particularly appeals to you about it?
The time is ripe for expanded competencies in nursing. At HWG LU, I can help shape what other countries are already demonstrating: nursing on an equal footing with medicine, based on academic training and expanded clinical competencies. Our nursing students will be among the first in Germany to acquire these competencies—that’s an enormous responsibility for the university, the students, and for me as well. My task is to help develop scientifically sound and practice-oriented education methods and examination formats that demonstrate whether someone is capable of shouldering this responsibility—while implementing the changing legal framework in a way that serves clinical practice. And to provide scientific guidance for this development.
What makes the nursing programs at HWG LU special to you?
The Bachelor’s program in Nursing with a university-level professional qualification prepares nursing professionals to integrate medical care into the nursing and therapeutic process and to take on responsibility independently in this area; as such, it is ahead of its time both regionally and nationally. This is more than just academic formalization—it’s a redistribution of responsibility within the healthcare system.
What do you see as a particular challenge?
Completely redesigning the education: What do nurses really need to competently take on medical tasks without losing their nursing identity? How will the nursing role change as a result of expanded competencies? This is true innovation—shaping the future rather than merely managing the status quo.
What would you like to impart to your students?
I want to empower my students to remain curious, think critically, ask questions, and reflectively interpret scientific findings. My goal is not only to provide them with professional training but also to enable them to make well-founded assessments of complex clinical situations and to act responsibly and in an evidence-based manner.
Beyond that, I’d like to instill three things in them above all:
Courage and humility: The courage to take on medical responsibility when it is professionally justified, and at the same time the humility to recognize one’s own limitations and the limits of what is medically feasible.
Clinical judgment: Especially in the age of artificial intelligence, this is becoming a key competency. It includes the ability to systematically acquire knowledge, evaluate scientific evidence, interpret clinical findings, and use them to make well-founded decisions for the well-being of people in need of care.
A professional identity: Nursing is an independent profession with its own knowledge base—and at the same time, it can responsibly assume expanded medical competencies. This “both-and” approach is what makes the profession particularly exciting. You will actively help shape the future of this profession and, in doing so, become pioneers in your field.
What did you do professionally before taking up your position in Ludwigshafen?
Most recently, I worked at the Jülich Research Center, one of Europe’s largest research institutions, as deputy chief physician of the occupational health service, focusing on prevention and emergency medicine. Before that, I worked for several years in clinical settings at a hospital and a rehabilitation clinic, specializing in internal medicine, emergency medicine, orthopedics, and trauma surgery. I have always combined clinical practice with education—including through courses for medical students and physicians.
Why did you choose HWG LU?
HWGLU offers the opportunity to help shape an innovative degree program at the intersection of medicine and nursing alongside excellent colleagues—and in doing so, to create something that contributes to securing the healthcare of tomorrow.
Thank you very much!
(Interview: Human Resources Development/Hoko)
