A team from the School of Nursing of the University of Navarra, made up of professionals from different fields (academic, researcher, clinical and management), has received the award for the best poster presented at a congress of Family Health Nursing. They are professors Cristina García-Vivar, Ana Canga and Navidad Canga; and nurses Maite Echeverría, Olalla Moriones and Begoña Flamarique. The event brought together family and community health nursing specialists from 17 countries, including Spain, in Porto (Portugal).

The winning poster presents the protocol of an intervention study, subsidized by the Ministry of Economics and Competitiveness for a period of three years (2013-2016). The goal of the study, according to Professor Cristina G. Vivar, is"todesign, implement and evaluate the effectiveness of a training program, based on the framework of family nursing, and aimed at train to professionals in the sector to work with family caregivers of dependents".

This program will start in January 2014 and will begin with a sample of registered nurses working in the areas of Primary Health Care, Mental Health and Gerontology of the Community of Navarra.

A family-centered model
In García Vivar's opinion, dependency derived from aging or a chronic process has a great impact on the family unit, which would justify the need for health services and, specifically, nursing professionals to offer family-centered care.

For this reason, she recommends that professionals receive training in models with a family systemic approach , such as the Calgary Nursing model of evaluation and Family Intervention. "This model provides an organizational framework for the synthesis of data, so that the strengths of the family and its problems can be identified by the nursing professionals," explains the expert. And she adds, "once the assessment has been completed, the nurse and the family determine what intervention is necessary depending on the family's particular circumstances".