ISKK takes part in the project ‘From Cure to Care’ (hereafter FCTC), DIGITAL EDUCATION AND SPIRITUAL ASSISTANCE IN HOSPITAL HEALTHCARE, which has been co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Commission with the aim of enriching the curriculum of future health professionals (nurses, social workers etc.,) introducing the subjects ‘Digital Competences’ and ‘Spiritual Assistance’ for better responding to the patients’ needs.

The Covid-19 pandemic brought worldwide paradigmatic changes within health systems and prompted reflections on the crucial role played by nurses and health professionals in providing empathic and existential relief to their patients.

The narrative reported by the media, alongside a plethora of personal accounts, well captures the fact that during the pandemic health professionals recognized the importance of supporting the existential and personal needs of their patients – and of their families – during such a dramatic phase of life. During patients’ isolation in intensive care, in fact, nurses – alongside other health professionals – facilitated the contact between patients and their families, using mobile technologies such as tablets and smartphones and a variety of video tools, such as WhatsApp.

As a consequence, designing a new training curriculum on ‘Digital Competences’ and ‘Spiritual Assistance’ in healthcare is now particularly timely. More specifically, FCTC adopts a multidisciplinary perspective which makes the FCTC curriculum innovative. FCTC involves 5 academic institutions in 4 countries: University of Torino (Italy), University of Dublin (Ireland), Universidad de Extremadura and Universidad Internacional de la Rioja (Spain), and finally Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski University in Poland (Poland).

You can follow the development of the FCTC project and the upcoming events on the Website www.fromcuretocare.unito.it of the project and on its Facebook Page “From Cure To Care” https://www.facebook.com/From-CURE-to-CARE-183218977138620