A team from School of Nursing at the University of Navarra has designed a training intervention program, pioneer in the field of Family Nursing, aimed at train to professionals in the sector to work with family caregivers of dependent persons.

The group is composed of Professors Cristina García-Vivar (principal investigator of project), Ana Canga and Navidad Canga, and nurses Begoña Flamarique, Maite Echeverría and Olalla Moriones. The program has been subsidized by the Ministry of Economics and Competitiveness for the period 2012-2015 and was the subject of a award for the best poster presented at an International Family Health Nursing congress .

As Ana Canga explains, "this project has its raison d'être in the great impact that dependency, derived from aging or a chronic process, has on the family unit, which would justify the need for comprehensive care by the health services and, specifically, by nursing professionals". In his opinion, these should receive training in models with a family systemic approach .

The model proposed by the researchers of the School of Nursing is that of evaluation and Calgary Family Intervention, which makes it possible to identify the strengths of the family and its problems, and to determine between the nurse and the family what intervention is necessary according to the particular circumstances of the latter. In other words, "it becomes a tool to promote, improve and sustain the effective functioning of the family in status of vulnerability, such as dependency", emphasizes Professor Vivar.

The sample of the intervention will be made up of registered nurses working in the areas of Primary Care, Mental Health and Gerontology of the Autonomous Community of Navarra. To this end, the University of Navarra is calling on all those with more than one year of professional experience, who have worked or work with families facing the phenomenon of dependency, to participate as volunteers in this study that will begin in January 2014. Those interested can contact contact at the email enffamiliar@unav.es

Short, medium and long term benefits deadline
For the researchers, this intervention can have a significant impact in the short, medium and long term deadline, "since it comes at a time of development of the Dependency Law and of the programs of study of Degree and postgraduate program in Nursing, and when several specialties, including Family and Community Nursing, have just been approve ".

In the short term deadline, the knowledge on the effectiveness of this subject of training programs will help to empirically support whether the training offered meets the needs of these professionals, and to program new training interventions if deemed necessary. On the other hand, it will allow the development of knowledge on the applicability of training for clinical internship , thus contributing to the quality of training in the degree program nursing professional. And, finally, it will lead to the wellbeing of caregiving families and to the improvement of the quality of care for people in status of dependence.