KELA

In Finnish society, Kela supports people I variety of different life situations. I think this is a good thing, as it aims to support people’s ability to cope with everyday life and the various challenges that can arise throughout life. I have received a scholarship from the reel while studying to be a nurse. After that, I have received maternity and home care allowance from Kela. I have three children and I have received child allowance from them. Payment of child benefit ends when the young person reached the age of 17. My oldest child just turned 17, so I still receive child benefit for the two younger children. The amount of child benefit depends on the number of children in the family.

I have not yet had a European Health Insurance Card. I have been aware of this, but I have not acquired it yet, especially as traveling has been slight for the last two years due to the Covid-19 situation. In my opinion, it is easy to apply for a European Health Insurance Card: I logged in to Kela’s website with a mobile certificate and answered a few questions. After the application the card arrives home in the mail in about two weeks.

Omakanta

OmaKanta allows you to check your own health information. You can view health information, recipes and laboratory answers in Omakanta. It is also possible to view the health information of your child under 12 years of age. I would like the guardian to be able to view the details of all their minor children, but unfortunately this is not possible. I have often used OmaKanta to check the results of laboratory tests and, more recently, the results of the Covid test.

KEVA

Keva is Finland’s largest pension institution and manages the pensions of public sector employees. I checked my own retirement information and found out my retirement age would be 67 years, so I still have a long career ahead of me. If I could work until I am 69, my pension would be about approximately 300 euros higher.

Online stores

I do a lot of shopping online nowadays, mostly for myself and my family. I know it would be wise to support traditional brick-and-mortar stores but in this Covid era, shopping online is easy and fast. In most online stores ordering and returning is free. I am currently cautious and want to check online stores’ return policy before ordering. A few years ago, I ordered products from a foreign online store and they sent me an invoice. However, the products could not be returned in any way, no refund could be made and no one replied to the emails on contacted me, even though I asked for it. So I got almost 200 euros worth of items for which I had no use.

I have booked trips and hotels through Booking.com or Trivago.com. I think booking though them is pretty easy and safe. Destination hotels are easy to find and easy to compare. I have noticed that when booking through the hotel’s own website, the price may not be that different compared to the price in Booking.com.

When we booked the hotel in Tallinn three years ago via Booking.com, there were problems with the trip. We had booked, paid for and received a booking confirmation from the hotel. Upon arrival, we were informed that the booking had been canceled two weeks in advance. We had not received any information about this in the email. The hotel also did not offer us another room, since the hotel was fully booked. Fortunately, we were able to book a room at another hotel, but it took several days and we had to make many phone calls. It was never clear why Booking.com had canceled the booking without notifying us.

Microsoft Teams

I use a lot of Teams in my work. It is very easy and quick to use. It allows us to hold meetings and, especially during covid, it has been a really good means of communication so we don’t have to be physically present. You can create different groups in teams and this way you can store things for a specific group in one place. In teams, we can also save notes of meetings which each employee can find on their own, which is a good things especially in shift units.

The benefits and threats of digitalization

Nowadays, almost all day-to-day services can use digitized services, at least in part. I think it’s almost impossible today to survive without a computer or a smartphone in modern society. For example healthcare services and co-operation between schools and the home take place electronically and even grocery store have increased their activities to electronic form.

For older people, digitalization can pose challenges to coping in everyday life. They may not have the same skills and desire to learn how to use computers and smartphones as younger ones. However, it is important to take into account when planning services that elderly patients are not overlooked and should be provided with basic services. Social and health services must be accessible to all, even if they do not have access to digital services.

Digital proficiency test

I did a digital proficiency test and the result was about what I expected. The overall result was 75%, i.e. I am at level 5 (advanced). The highest scores were obtained in the areas of health, collaboration and identity management. This result did not surprise me, since I am now quite careful in what things I publish on social media.

Self-assesment

This assignment gave me a lot of knowledge about my own digitalization skills. Information security is also an important part of nursing, so this topic is always relevant to me.

I commented on these blogs: AMiinius bolg, Johanna´s site and Tiina´s bolg.