Cologne and Krefeld unite forces for innovative nursing research!

Cologne and Krefeld unite forces for innovative nursing research!

The University of Cologne and the Krefeld municipal retirement homes have initiated a groundbreaking cooperation that is intended to significantly improve long-term care. Over a period of five years, until May 2030, a connection between nursing research and practical nursing will be established as part of the “PraWiLab” project. The aim of this collaboration is to jointly overcome the challenges arising from demographic change and the changed framework conditions in the health and care system.

The focus is particularly on the problems that care facilities are confronted with, such as the decreasing informal care potential. Studies show that it often takes over ten years until new findings from nursing research are actually applied in practice. This finding underlines the importance of a faster transfer of scientific knowledge into everyday nursing care. The project aims to make these transfer processes more effective by feeding concrete questions from practice into research. In this way, the exchange between the two areas is institutionalized and continuously promoted Bibliomed care emphasized.

Living Lab as an innovative approach

A crucial element within the project is the creation of a so-called Living Lab. In these research environments, which have already been tested as a model in the Netherlands, scientists and nursing practitioners work closely together. They analyze and work together on the challenges of everyday nursing care. Local working groups are set up to identify specific topics for each retirement home district that can be addressed scientifically. This is where the so-called “linking pins” come into play, which act as connectors between science and practice.

The Living Lab approach not only promotes the exchange of knowledge, but also ensures that employees of retirement homes benefit from new insights and can reflect on their everyday practice. At the same time, scientists receive practical research questions and the opportunity to gain direct access to long-term care. The neighborhood concept, which closely links inpatient care facilities with outpatient services, aims to create more flexible, tailor-made care options for older people in their residential area. This is an important step in the development of needs-based care services that includes all those affected, including: BMBF health research describes.

The cooperation between the University of Cologne and the Krefeld municipal retirement homes is part of a comprehensive network that also includes the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg and international partners in Maastricht, Leeds and Graz. This network is committed to the integration of nursing research into practice at a European level and thus promotes high-quality further development of nursing practice.

Overall, the “PraWiLab” project shows the great potential that lies in the collaboration of theory and practice in order to sustainably overcome the challenges in care and improve the quality of care for people in need of care.