Today EFN has met with Postgraduate Nursing Students at the University of Hasselt, Belgium. It was a great opportunity to share with them the lobby work being conducted by the EFN towards the European Institutions in Brussels, as well as to hear their views and concerns on the biggest issues affecting the nursing profession.
Furthermore, EFN took this opportunity to conduct a focus groups on the work being conducted by the KEEPCARING Project. In this regard, the EFN did a demonstration of the HEXOSKIN Shirt, which is being used for a biobehavioural monitoring study at the University Medical Centre Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE). The washable smart shirt collects real-time biometric data from #nurses, by nurses themselves, enabling the continuous monitoring of physiological indicators such as fatigue, stress, and recovery.
Moreover, EFN presented the innovative studies and interventions being developed by the KEEPCARING Project, including the Change Management Platform (CMP). The nursing students reflected on the importance of such work, saying that “Embracing technology and healthcare innovation is vital, both to empower the patient and to support the nurses.” Finally, EFN presented the ICUData4EU Project, which is developing a confederated ICU data sharing platform. In particular, EFN presented to the students the primary use cases that are being considered by the project, and got very positive feedback on the possibility of using the data sharing platform at the frontline in order to support the early diagnosis of skin conditions in post-surgical chronic patients, which is mainly conducted by nurses, and on which there is plenty of evidence!
Meetings like this one are key for the EFN, as they demonstrate the importance of the work being carried out both in Brussels and within EU projects, and provide EFN with plenty of evidence and feedback to improve the work further!