The Health Research Network is the contact for field of action 3, "Attractive employment conditions. Andrea Kuhn is responsible for the sub-field of action "Maintaining and strengthening the health and working ability of employees. The mandate is as follows: "Maintaining and strengthening the health and working ability of nursing staff in hospitals as well as in outpatient and inpatient long-term care facilities is considered to be an essential contribution to ensuring the provision of nursing care in the future. In addition to appropriate further training, targeted supportive, preventive and rehabilitative occupational health management programs for nursing staff are to be further developed, offered on a needs-oriented basis and publicized. This also includes offers that aim at an age-appropriate design of working conditions in nursing" (FQI 2.0 p. 40).

The series of conferences on health promotion and prevention in nursing care

As a first offer, a nationwide symposium was established, which annually deals with scientific findings and practical examples of occupational health management (BGM), so that nursing professionals can successfully manage their work tasks and their health is maintained. In addition, a network of stakeholders in the field of BGM is promoted (cf. ibid.).

The implementation of the symposium developed dynamically: When the Rhineland-Palatinate Accident Insurance Fund promoted the idea of a joint symposium in Rhineland-Palatinate during the working sessions on the agreement in November 2017, network coordinator Andrea Kuhn was able to use her expertise in the field of health promotion and care to convince the accident insurers that the Research Network Health would be a competent cooperation partner for their concerns. In further coordination loops with the employers' liability insurance association, the university in Ludwigshafen emerged as a well-suited conference venue. As a further cooperation partner, the Rhineland-Palatinate Chamber of Nursing could be won over, which, as a self-governing body of professional nursing, has a high interest in maintaining the health of nursing professionals and also has a direct line to its members with the chamber magazine and its newsletter. Meanwhile, the conference series Geusndheitsförderung und Prävention in der Pflege (Health Promotion and Prevention in Nursing) developed from the kick-off event, and more information about the past conference in 2019 and the upcoming conference on Feb. 13, 2020 can be found here.

Health promotion projects

The second agreed contribution also has great potential for the Research Network Health, it reads: "The universities are increasingly addressing the contexts of working conditions and quality of care in nursing against the backdrop of the Skilled Workers Initiative and are participating in projects and network formations with a focus on prevention, health promotion and rehabilitation of employees in nursing"(ibid. p. 41).

Project support and evaluation of the debureaucratization of nursing care

Regarding the "debureaucratization of care," a sub-field of action of field 3 "Attractive employment conditions,"reads: "The universities accompany and evaluate innovative projects to streamline unnecessary bureaucratic and administrative processes. They promote the necessary development and further training processes of digital information and communication technologies in nursing. In addition, they support competence-oriented interdisciplinary professional collaboration, e.g., in reducing resource-intensive multiple documentation of the individual occupational groups in the health care sector" (ibid. p. 39).

This contribution reflects the competencies of the research network in its internal and external networking and offers ideal docking points for the development of research and development projects that relieve and support nursing practice. Therefore, it was possible to include the text in the agreement in close coordination with the president of the university and in consensus with the FQI- stakeholders of the other universities in Rhineland-Palatinate. The Research Network Health is already working on several application concepts for corresponding research projects.