On 19 and 20 June, the EFN, representing 3 million EU nurses, participated in the Bewell Summer General Assembly in Oslo. TheErasmus+ 4-year EU project on digital and green skills BEWELL – Blueprint alliance for a future hEalth Workforce stratEgy on digital and green skiLLs is making progress to deliver some tools that will probably impact the healthcare ecosystems in the EU. In these 2 GA days, all the Bewell partners had the opportunity to exchange views and provide new inputs for reaching better and impactful results in the upskilling and reskilling of the healthcare sector.
The EFN and the other partners discussed the first draft of the Skills Strategy (WP3) which aims to address skill needs and gaps in the healthcare sector and to be implemented at a local, regional, national and at the European level through the Pact for Skills, in the context of the design of a Blueprint for sectoral cooperation on skills. As Covid-19 demonstrated, it is essential to have a more resilient healthcare workforce and with healthcare professionals being better prepared to face a new upcoming health crisis. In this context, new digital and green skills are essential for taking concrete actions to improve the nurses working conditions.
Furthermore, the partners focused on the Green Skills for frontline healthcare professionals. From the EFN perspective, it is important to facilitate and co-create concrete nursing planetary health actions, led by nurses in advanced roles. It is important to promote multilateral and inclusive governance by including nurses in decision-making by implementing a trans-sectoral planetary health policy framework. Therefore, the Bewell needs to incorporate advanced practice nurses (APN) roles in Nursing Planetary Health for improved prevention and planetary health promotion.
Moreover, during these 2 intensive day, the EFN and the other partners of the Bewell project discussed about the training programmes and curricula. On WP 5 deliverables, UTH created a training program on data protection and GDPR, while the University of Bergamo focussed on Big Data and Analytics. The aim of this course is to improve knowledge in clinical databases, database management, clinical data, data distribution. DATEY from Gemany focussed on cybersecurity aiming at giving micro-credentials. VARNA University prepared 6 modules for electronic health records while FAGINN worked on Telemedicine. ITS training courses on Telemedicine for physicians, technicians and staff aims to give basics knowledge on telemedicine and problem-solving methodologies. WP 6 (UTH) will now conduct the pilot training in Romania, Bulgaria, Norway, Germany, Italy and Greece after WP 7 (WIAB) advisory board did the evaluation and quality assurance of the courses content. On WP 2, the Netherlands Institute for Health Services Research and the European Observatory on Health systems and policies showed the results of the scoping review made for understanding the necessary skills in the healthcare sector. According to what it emerged, the specific trainings have to connect digital and green skills in order to ensure sustainability.
As stated by the Secretary General of EFN, Paul De Raeve: “the nursing curricula in line with Directive 2013/55/EU and Article 6 with the nurses competencies, is key to develop further Lifelong Learning and CPD for frontline nurses. We need an EU approach to prevent patchwork”.
In the context of skills and education, from the EFN perspective it is important to support and implement the Directive 2013/55/EU on mutual recognition of professional qualification throughout the design of the different digital courses developed in WP4. Nurses high quality and digital skills and knowledge is key for the well-being and the well-functioning of the entire healthcare system.
During the Bewell Summer GA, the EFN interviewed the leaders of each Work Packages to give you more insights on the project. Click here to listen to the podcasts and watch the video on the EFN YouTube channel.