Since June 2022, 91 nurses from EUHA hospitals have had the opportunity to exchange best nursing practices through EUHA Focus Visits. Guided by fellow EUHA nurses in a different hospital setting, participants spend a day shadowing colleagues in the wards, gaining firsthand insights into diverse nursing approaches while fostering mutual learning and professional growth.
The EUHA Nursing Network, established in 2021, brings together nursing representatives from all EUHA members with the aim of making nursing an attractive, independent profession and academic discipline. The network is dedicated to developing a sustainable workforce capable of meeting both current and future healthcare challenges, while also driving innovation and strengthening the voice of nursing in European policymaking.
Since its creation, the network has been actively involved in various initiatives, including mapping nursing research across EUHA hospitals, analysing nurse-to-patient ratios, and successfully securing Erasmus+ funding for the EUCARE project.
One of the network’s most significant activities is the EUHA Nursing Focus Visits. Hosted by an EUHA member, these visits enable nurses from across EUHA to spend two days in a different EUHA hospital, shadowing local colleagues on the wards. This hands-on experience provides valuable insights into diverse nursing practices while fostering mutual learning and professional development.
EUHA Nursing Focus Visits
In June 2022, the Nursing Network held its first Focus Visit at Erasmus MC University Medical Centre, bringing together a group of EUHA nurses eager to explore best practices in pressure ulcer care. Since then, a total of 91 EUHA nurses have participated in Focus Visits at Universitätsklinikum AKH Wien – Med Uni Wien, Karolinska University Hospital and IRCCS Ospedale San Raffaele, focusing on oncological symptoms, pain management, delirium, and falls.
EUHA Focus Visits have become a well-established practice, led by the EUHA Nursing Network, which organises one visit per year at an EUHA hospital. Through this professional exchange, EUHA strengthens nurses’ professional identity, encouraging them to observe and discuss firsthand the shared responsibilities and skills of nurses in different hospital environments. This experience fosters a strong evidence-based approach to their daily nursing practice.
As mentioned by Susanne Maassen, chair of the EUHA Nursing Network:
The Nursing Network is by and for nurses. The core of nursing takes place at the patient’s bedside not in a boardroom. If you want to learn from each other, it makes sense to go and see where the work takes place. That is the essence of a focus visit.
Additionally, EUHA Focus Visits create opportunities for continuous learning—not only for the participants themselves but also for their colleagues back home, with whom they will share key insights and lessons learned from their experience. Focus Visits are not only beneficial to the participants but also benefit EUHA members, who can adapt ways of working to make them more sustainable, and contribute to the retention of nurses within our institutions.
For example, reflections from the visit to Karolinska University Hospital in December 2023, which focused on pain and delirium, led to the decision to establish expert nursing groups in these areas at Aarhus University Hospital. These groups were formed to ensure the highest quality of care for all patients across departments, creating a more standardised, crosscutting and uniform approach to managing pain and delirium in the hospital. Additionally, these groups have also planned for interdisciplinary involvement and implementation, ensuring a holistic approach to pain and delirium management. This guarantees that the initiatives, while anchored in nursing practice, become part of a broader clinical strategy integrated throughout the patient’s care journey.
As mentioned by Alexander Lang, Coordinator of the Nursing Network:
Focus Visits actively support EUHA’s goal of best practice exchange. They enable our nursing experts to broaden their knowledge of how nursing-sensitive quality indicators are implemented in Europe’s top university hospitals. By bringing back this knowledge, they contribute to organisational learning, expand their expertise, and help drive the best possible quality outcomes for our patients.
Hearing from the Nurses Themselves
But don’t just take our word for it—hear directly from the nurses who have participated in EUHA Focus Visits. In the video below, nurses from Karolinska University Hospital share their experiences from their Focus Visit to IRCCS Ospedale San Raffaele in November 2024, reflecting on the invaluable insights gained, the impact on their professional growth, and the significance of cross-hospital collaboration.
Video: Fredric Möller Eklund (Karolinska University Hospital).
Editor: Martina Garriga Ferrer.