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DCU academic involved in finding solutions to nursing care as part of COST Action programme
DCU academic involved in finding solutions to nursing care as part of COST Action programme

DCU academic involved in finding solutions to nursing care as part of COST Action programme

The launch of the COST-funded project ‘RATIONING – MISSED CARE: An international and multidimensional problem’ took place on 20th September 2016 in Brussels. 

Ireland is participating in the Action through the School of Nursing and Human Sciences in DCU and the School of Nursing, Midwifery and Health Systems at UCD.

Dr Marcia Kirwan (DCU) and Dr Amanda Phelan (UCD) are both members of the Management Committee of the Action and will be part of Working Group 4.

Dr Kirwan has been elected as the Vice-Chairperson of the Working Group which is intended to build on the evidence of the implications of missed care on patient outcomes, and examine the implications for the nursing curriculum.

There is increasing evidence that the prevalence of rationing of nursing care is high in acute care hospitals internationally and is consistently associated with negative patient, nurse and organizational outcomes.

The Rationing of Care (RANCARE) Action aims to facilitate discussion about rationing of nursing care based on a cross-national comparative approach with implications for practice and professional development.

This will be achieved by advancing collaboration and networking, and exchange of expertise and knowledge both at European and international level, and by integrating different disciplines and approaches including nursing, ethics, health care studies in general, economics and social policy.

The RANCARE Action was one of the 26 successful proposals (out of 260 applications) from all EU countries. The chair of the project is Dr Evridiki Papastavrou, associate professor at the Cyprus University of Technology (Nursing Department); the same university is the Grant Holder.

The Action has participants from 28 countries (EU and International) from across disciplines: nursing, psychology, philosophy, ethics, health economics, health management with a range of experts such as academics, professionals, policy makers, educational trainers, and patient groups. The activities of the Action will be run via four working groups and two horizontal committees that will oversee the various activities planned during the four-year lifetime of the project.

Each working group will focus on a different area: conceptualisation, organisational and methodological issues (working group 1); evidence-based interventions and designs (working group 2); ethical dimensions of rationing of nurse care (working group 3); educational issues and training (working group 4). The expected outcomes include advancing the knowledge of how care is being rationed, the factors contributing to this phenomenon, and the development of policies that aim the delivery of safe care to patients.

For more information please see: http://www.cost.eu/COST_Actions/ca/CA15208