From June 19 to 22, the research group of Universidad de Jaén, formed by Carmen Álvarez Nieto (project coordinator in Jaén), Isabel Mª. López Medina, Mª. Luisa Grande Gascón and Manuel Linares Abad of the Department of Nursing and Gema Parra Anguita of the Department of Animal Biology, Plant Biology and Ecology, participated in the NurSusTOOLKIT Launching Meeting in Esslingen, Germany. The Universidad de Jaén participates, together with the Plymouth University (UK), Esslingen University (Germany) and Maastricht University (Netherlands), in the European Erasmus Plus Nursing Project entitled “NurSusTOOLKIT: a teaching and learning resource for sustainability in Nursing”. NurSusTOOLKIT is a teaching-learning resource integrated into an online training platform, which will be free for any European health professional interested in sustainability, climate change and health. The researcher team of Universidad de Jaén has assessed the quality of teaching and learning materials of NurSusTOOLKIT in the different countries participating in the project.
Over five days, Janet Richardson and Jane Grose (Plymouth University), Norma Huss, Eva-Maria Hönemann and Thomas Heidenreich (Esslingen University), and Maud Huynen (Maastricht University), have presented the teaching- learning resource to the attendees the European Meeting. At the meeting participated the President of the National Conference of Nursing Deans, Julio Fernández Garrido, the Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences, Mª José Calero García, the Director Executive and Secretary General of the Royal College of Nursing in the United Kingdom, Janet Davies, Executive Director of the German Association of Nurses, Franz Wagner and its President, Christel Bienstein. The meeting was opened by the Rector of the Esslingen University, Christian Maercker and the Dean of the Faculty of Social Work and Health Care of the Esslingen University; Astrid Elsbernd.
Likewise, at the meeting has attended and participated students of Nursing Degree of the universities participating in the project. The students of Universidad de Jaén are: María Ruiz Zambrana, Cristina García-Láez Camacho and José Luis Castilla Galán.
The aim of the long-term project is to introduce changes in the Nursing Degree curriculum across Europe to include contents of sustainability, climate change and health, as there is sufficient evidence to show the close relationship between them and health, as well as raising awareness among health professionals about reduce the production of waste.
NurSusTOOLKIT, funded by the European Union with a figure close to half a million euros (448,024), started in September 2014 and lasts for three years until August 2017.
