We feel that it is important to collaborate in research and evidence based practice strategies in order to connect with our members and have outcomes that improve on global health and the healthcare profession. The European Region continues to deliver on their Strategic plan moving towards 2020.
This session will give insight into the work of our International collaborative research which is being undertaken by the Sigma European research committee and Nurse Education interest Group. This is pivotal in connecting our members across Europe and raising the awareness of the following important research topics.
In 2015, the net migration had reached 244 million, with 22 million people migrating to and within Europe, the continent hosts the second largest number of international migrants worldwide.(1) Health services appear to be ill-equipped to deal with the problems caused by mass migration; attention to migrants' healthcare needs is a fairly recent topic of integration policies in many countries.(2) Ensuring the physical and mental health of the migrant population is not merely important to the individual, but a societal concern.
The Sigma European Research Collaboration in order to obtain a proper overview of the barriers and enablers set itself the task to systematically synthesize available literature related to migrants´ experiences of health care and their health care seeking behaviours. It intends to continue its research into healthcare for migrants.(3)Following on from that our aims are to look into the differences and similarities of migrants’ healthcare experiences in different European countries. The migrants’ healthcare experiences might not only be influenced by the cultural diversity of the migrants but also by the cultural diversity of the host countries.
The Nurse Education interest Group is looking at a prominent issue across the European Nursing education programs. Healthcare systems need good leadership to be able to deliver continuous improvements to the services they provide. Leadership is not in essence about managing but about advocating, encouraging, promoting and sometimes challenging the norm. Our Nurse Education Interest Group want to research this important topic. Our question is whether leadership qualities among undergraduates is already present or should it be taught within the programs. Otherwise is leadership a term for preparedness to take on the role of a graduate nurse position when qualified and are undergraduate nursing students prepared for their role as nurse leaders?
Sigma Europe is now in its 4th year of hosting the Virtual Ph-D Connect Up Conference. The Virtual Conference is hosted entirely over the Internet. It allows our members and interested participants to attend live meetings and events from their computers from all over Europe. In the virtual Ph-D Connect Up Conference Ph-D students get the chance to present their work and get advice and feedback from the attending Sigma members. The advice and feedback from the European wide Sigma research members has provided new insights and possible new lines of inquiry for the Ph-D studies.
The work that we are doing to reach out to members and potential members through our social media will be mentioned. On Facebook we are offering not only event information but also access to seminal scientific papers to discuss. In our newsletter in order to be considered on the cutting edge we have topics such as Step forward Innovations and Nursing Hot spots.
By following our Strategic plan 2020 we are on track to spread the knowledge gained from our various innovations and collaboratives. We want to serve our members and help develop the nursing practice and nursing profession here in Europe and globally. Through this presentation we seek to provide a clear picture of how Sigma Europe is actualizing Beth Tigges’ call to action, not just at the local and regional level but also at the international level.
See more of: Oral Paper & Poster: Research Sessions