Strengthening the mental health of nursing staff was the topic of the 2nd symposium "Health Promotion & Prevention in Nursing", which took place on February 13, 2020 at the Ludwigshafen University of Applied Sciences (HWG LU) as part of the Rhineland-Palatinate's specialist and qualification initiative Nursing 2.0. Psychological stress due to work overload, time pressure and increasing verbal and physical aggression account for a high proportion of the health risks associated with the nursing profession. To counteract this, conference organizer Andrea Kuhn from the Health Research Network of the HWG LU, together with her cooperation partners - the Employer's Liability Insurance Association for Health Services and Welfare Care (BGW), the Rhineland-Palatinate Accident Insurance Fund (UK RLP) and the Rhineland-Palatinate State Chamber of Nursing - has taken up the cause. And the organizers seem to have hit a nerve with the nursing staff. For as with the first symposium in 2019, the symposium in 2020 was able to book a full house with around 250 participants and once again welcome a representative of the Ministry of Social Affairs, Labor, Health and Demography (MSGD) of Rhineland-Palatinate in the person of State Secretary Dr. Alexander Wilhelm.

In his welcoming address, the State Secretary emphasized the immense social importance of nursing: "What is achieved here - by the nursing staff as well as by the executives - deserves unconditional recognition and respect from the whole of society." Accordingly, he said, the situation of care is also centrally placed with regard to the Rhineland-Palatinate's skilled workers and qualification initiative Pflege 2.0. "Attractive working and employment conditions require a healthy and health-promoting working environment. It is very important that we succeed in tapping the potential of supportive opportunities that we have in the state and use them in a targeted manner in dealing with stresses in care work. With the Skilled Workers and Qualification Initiative Care 2.0, we are on the right track here, together with our partners in the field of action 'Maintaining and strengthening the health and working ability of employees'," says Dr. Alexander Wilhelm.

Under the guiding question "Culture of health and safety in the nursing profession - nursing works!", the conference focused primarily on practical tools for everyday working life in nursing. Among other things, the topics of violence prevention in psychiatry and nursing, appreciative corporate culture, conflict management, professional regulations as support in everyday practice or nursing ethics, professionalism and appreciation were presented as building blocks of good nursing practice and then discussed and concretized in various practical workshops in collegial exchange.

"With this 2nd symposium, we are taking up the topics that were particularly close to the hearts of the 2019 conference participants in greater depth and providing very concrete examples for implementation in their respective practices. It is important for us to show the caregivers: We have understood your concern!", explained organizer Andrea Kuhn from the university's Health Research Network. At the same time Kuhn appealed to the conference guests to become active themselves and to articulate professional self-image and demands of the profession self-confidently - not only in 2020, the international "year of the nurses and the midwives". University President Prof. Dr. Peter Mudra also encouraged the participants to "carry the messages of this conference into civil society, politics and into their own working environment."

The goal of the conference series, which takes place as part of the Rhineland-Palatinate's Skilled Worker and Qualification Initiative Care 2.0, is to bring caregivers from practice, science, management, teaching and training into conversation and to jointly initiate innovations for the benefit of caregivers as well as people in need of care. In addition to HWG LU, cooperation partners include the Rhineland-Palatinate Accident Insurance Fund (UK RLP), the Employer's Liability Insurance Association for Health Services and Welfare Care (BGW), and the Rhineland-Palatinate State Chamber of Nursing.

The abstracts of the conference papers can be found here.

Technical contact:
Ludwigshafen University of Applied Sciences
Andrea Kuhn
Coordinator Research Network Health
Tel. 0621/5203-244
E-mail: andrea.kuhn@hwg-lu.de