Opinion Article on Empowering Nurses: The Cornerstone of Exceptional Patient Care

The patients’ journey is a complex network involving multiple layers of impactful stakeholders, among these stakeholders are nurses. Nurses’ impact is critical to achieving better health outcomes and an uplifted experience, yet there are gaps in supporting nurses and empowering them to maximize their contribution to patients. Empowering nurses can take place in the form of educational support, recognition, and reducing their workload to limit their burn-out. The impact of such support to nurses would result in improved health outcomes, reduced mortality rates and an increase in patient satisfaction

Improving the digital health literacy of diabetic patients

Background: The wide availability of web-based health information creates opportunities for citizens to be better informed and to play a more active role in self-managing their health. However, to benefit from this opportunity, one must have the competence to access, understand, evaluate and apply health information from the internet. People with low digital health literacy (DHL) may retrieve inaccurate, misleading, or incomplete information that can be detrimental to their health. To counter this, the EU-funded IC-Health project developed a series of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCS) to help improve the DHL of Europeans. Methods: As part of this project, MOOCS were developed to increase the DHL of diabetic patients. Five sets of MOOCs were developed in a co-creation approach involving diabetic patients and health professionals in Spain, Sweden, Denmark, Italy and Belgium through meetings and interactions on an online forum. The MOOCS were tested in patient groups and fine-tuned based on their comments and suggestions to maximize their cultural fit and usability. Results: The resulting MOOCs developed in each of the five countries differ in content and presentation, but use the same four course structure representing the four dimensions of DHL (accessing, understanding, appraising and applying internet-based health information). For each course, guidance and examples are provided on how to find health information online, how to use search engines, and how to assess the reliability of websites. The final versions of the MOOCs were tested in a large sample of diabetic patients via a questionnaire assessing DHL before and after taking the course, assessing if course participation enhances the DHL among the users. Conclusions: By creating a series of MOOCs focusing on DHL for diabetic patients, the IC-Health project helps to strengthen their competences to access, understand and use accurate and reliable information to make well-informed health decisions

Health Promotion in Europe: Shaping the future. Globalization, Economic Instability, and Health.

The practice of health promotion in Europe has considerably developed since the Ottawa Charter, inclduing an expansion of the workforce, a wide range of health promotion activities, the proliferation of training programmes in health promotion and the establishment of structures and institutions. The prese,tation gives a n analysis of the strengths, weaknesses, threats and opportunities of health promotion in Europe

Globalization, Economic Instability, and Health

Prospects for future health depend increasingly on the processes of globalization. Globalisation is a relative new process. In the past, globalization has often been considered as an economic process, but increasingly it is perceived as a more comprehensive phenomenon, shaped by a multitude of factors and events that are reshaping our society. Understanding the health effects of globalization requires a holistic approach rooted in a broad conception of both population health and globalization