Jesús Martín, researcher of the School of Nursing of the University of Navarra, states that "more than 50% of Spaniards cannot access palliative care". He points this out in relation to the Atlas of Palliative Care in Europe 2013, an international study conducted by the ATLANTES program of the University of Navarra's Institute for Culture and Society at partnership with the University of Glasgow and association European Palliative Care.

Based on this work, which shows that palliative care services in Spain have increased from 250 in 2006 to almost 400 at present, Martín points out that "in other European countries such as Ireland and Belgium, this specialization program is highly developed with almost 20 services per million inhabitants. The United Kingdom, Sweden, Holland and Austria can have up to 16 services per million inhabitants, while in our country we have only 8 programs per million inhabitants". Thus, highlights the researcher, "the lack of development of this specialization program in Spain places us in the European tail, even behind Romania".

This was stated by Martin in the roundtable entitled "Master and doctorate: new avenues of employability" which opened the VI conference Guidance for Academic and Professional development in Nursing (JOP). The event was also attended by María Pueyo, nurse specialist in Intensive Care at Clínica Universidad de Navarra and the professors of the School Nursing Maddi Olano and Navidad Canga, who also moderated the colloquium.

About 100 people attended this first session focused on the training of postgraduate program. The different public and private grant and scholarship programs of postgraduate program and research and the "Chair María Egea", a specific financial aid for Nursing, were also presented.

research added value in today's Nursing

For Martín, former student of the Master's Degree in Palliative Care Nursing of the University of Navarra, "the research is fundamental to contribute to the development of the discipline, since it allows you to know and use scientific evidence in patient care and adapt it to their needs and preferences". In addition, he added in his speech, the training of postgraduate program "enables you to face difficult situations such as accompanying the patient and his family until his or her death".

María Pueyo, a former student of the Master's Degree in internship Advanced and management in Nursing of the same academic center, considers that the training of postgraduate program "gives you a broader and deeper vision of the profession and the discipline". "Our goal is to improve the quality of life of our patients and, thanks to the research, you can detect deficiencies in care and propose new models of attendance".

Maddi Olano insisted in the same line, for whom "the day-to-day care needs lead you to investigate new solutions to better serve the patient". "The continuous training and the research help you to go deeper in the knowledge of the internship of Nursing and to better respond to the current social needs", concludes Professor Olano.