"We were the first School in Spain to launch our own doctoral program in Nursing".

The IX Lecture of the Chair María Egea -created by the School of Nursing of the University of Navarra in 2007 and aimed at promoting the research in this area- has counted for the first time with an expert from Navarra, Dr. and professor of the School for 44 years María Isabel Saracíbar, who promoted the doctoral program in Nursing which has been taught since 2011: one of the first in Spain to be launched by a nursing School .

Under degree scroll "Innovation for person-centred care: integrating the research and the internship"Professor Saracíbar, a native of Olazagutía, explained during the Chair lecture how the group of research , which she directs, has developed: "At present, there have been great scientific and technological advances that have had a great impact on health organisations and on people, and have influenced the nursing profession. In this context, nurses often find themselves in a situation in which they have to deal with the challenges of the future. health care environment focused too much on curing and not so much on care. For this reason, at group we saw the need to look again at the object of nursing, the person, and to place him/her back at the centre of care".

"In fact", stresses the expert, who is just retiring this year but will continue to direct several doctoral thesis , "we are empirically verifying how this person-centred internship transcends the professional practice of nursing itself and creates an environment of healing-healing that is transmitted to the other members of the healthcare team; this results in the well-being of all healthcare professionals and of the people/families, recipients of the care". The nurse," continues Professor Saracíbar, " is the professional who is always in the midst of the patient and the rest of the environment, as has been well appreciated with the COVID. As professionals, we must be aware of this and act accordingly, because this role places us in a position of leadership in care".

The model of Nursing University of Navarra

Professor Saracíbar - who directed the School between 1997 and 2005, and 2011 and 2014 - is also the author of the "model of interpersonal relationship between the nurse and the person/family cared for" (model de Enfermería de la Universidad de Navarra). A model which, through the publication of its impact on the research and on the internship, is becoming known nationally and internationally.

"From 1974 when I started my degree program as an ATS at the School of Nursing to today's School of Nursing - with a Master's Degree and a doctoral program already established; three groups of research publishing in leading journals; and several professors doing postdocs in universities in different countries - Nursing has gone from being a profession eminently internship to a discipline with a solid theoretical basis and a powerful research ", recalls the teacher of several dozen generations of nurses.

"In reality, the model de Enfermería UNAV," he stresses, "is based on a scientific and humanistic concept of our profession. In a way of doing our own thing - which I got to know well during the 11 years I worked as a nurse at the medical area at the CUN alongside Dr. Eduardo Ortiz de Landázuri - which we complemented with everything we learned from the international reference letter centres we knew and from my own research" ". President -In the USA - such as New York, Boston or Washington - and in England - in Glasgow, Durham, Edinburgh or London. Centres that already had doctorate programmes in Nursing since the 1960s and where our professors did their doctoral thesis when these programmes did not yet exist in Spain", recalls Dr. Saracíbar among the elements core topic to configure the refuted model of the School.