Fundamentals of Care
The research centre has three specific focus areas: ‘Fundamentals of Care in Educational Practice’, ‘User-involving methods in research and practice’ and ‘Technology in nursing practice’.
FoC emphasises the importance of providing situational and person-centred care, ensuring patients’ fundamental needs are met competently and empathetically. Developed by the International Learning Collaborative (ILC) in response to studies showing unmet healthcare needs, the FOC framework offers a structured approach to delivering care based on professional nursing values and theories.
The establishment of the Fundamentals of Care in Educational and Professional Practice Research Centre consolidates UCN as a contributor to local as well as national and international research on FoC.
The research centre is involved in a variety of research projects. Three examples are described below.
THE FUNDAMENTALS OF CARE FRAMEWORK IN NURSING EDUCATION
In 2016, the nursing programme at UCN integrated the Fundamentals of Care (FoC) framework into the curriculum. Research shows that the framework supports students’ understanding of fundamental care, promotes critical thinking, and highlights person-centred, evidence-based practice. This project aims to map how the FoC framework is used in nursing education, including which elements are applied and how they are evaluated. The study is a scoping review based on JBI guidelines.
INVOLVING RELATIVES IN A DANISH HOSPITAL
Systematic involvement of patients and their relatives in the care and treatment has the potential to in-crease treatment and care quality. However, patients, their relatives and the healthcare professionals are often experiencing barriers to patient and relative involvement. The aim of this project is to develop and strengthen the involvement of the relatives of hospitalised pa-tients in a Danish public hospital. The study design is action research with user-involving workshops. The participants are healthcare professionals, patients and relatives.
USE AND IMPLEMENTATION OF MEDICATION DISPENSING ROBOT
The number of elderly citizens is increasing while recruitment of nurses is becoming more difficult. This challenge has been addressed in Aalborg Municipality by implementing medication dispensing robot MedimiSmart. Implementation began in 2019 but has not yet been fully studied. Hence, the aim of this project is to explore the use and implementation of MedimiSmart for home nurses and citizens in Aalborg Municipality. The study is designed as a qualitative interview study consisting of two sub-studies 1) focus groups with home care nurses and 2) individual interviews with citizens.