I International Workshop and I International DigiNurse Seminar: Learning ICT Supported Nursing for Self-Management of Patients

Procedural digitalization is currently a social challenge worldwide. Digitalization in healthcare is no exception, calling for new approaches to meet the needs and growing demand for access to person-centered care at distance, often due to economic reasons, difficulty in access to health services, or need for protection, when there is a risk of contagion caused by epidemics that require mandatory confinement. Therefore, the need to offer/provide health care at distance increases, focusing on prevention and early detection and/or compliance with the treatment plan. The main challenge will be to provide more and better-quality care with the same resources as people get older and more likely to develop chronic illnesses.

In this sense, higher education institutions also need to adapt and integrate the active use of new technologies in the curricula so that students, as future health professionals, can be ambassadors of quality care in the digital monitoring of chronic patients, supporting them in their self-care.

Acknowledging these realities and the growing need for intervention, a European consortium of Tampere University of Applied Sciences (Finland), Thomas More University of Applied Sciences (Belgium), Karelia University of Applied Sciences (Finland), University of Ljubljana (Slovenia), and Nursing School of Coimbra (Portugal) designed the DigiNurse: Learning ICT Supported Nursing for Self-Management of Patients project funded by the Erasmus+ Strategic Partnerships program.

This project aims to develop the DigiNurse model, a generic model containing organizational, educational, and professional elements for the development of nursing students’ digital skills. Digital skills include digital health coaching, personalized health literacy and promotion, clinical data monitoring according to decision-making protocols, goal setting, support to treatment adherence, progress assessment, and integration of care plans based on shared decision-making. This model will guide the selection, observation, and evaluation of teaching and learning methods to support and enhance students' digital learning.