The work at the Institute for Nursing Science concentrates primarily on issues that are grouped around the following main topics:
Development, testing and evaluation of scientifically supported nursing concepts, assessment instruments and methods for special tasks (e.g. methods for quality assessment) play an important role in the Institute's work. The activities of the Institute focus primarily on professionalizing nursing care and promoting the expansion of nursing activities.
Changes in the problems and needs of people in need of care who are looked after in long-term inpatient care facilities bring along completely new challenges for care. Reforms in connection with the new definition of the need for long-term care, measures to promote staffing levels and new methods of quality assurance are also having an impact. Far-reaching changes can also be observed in acute inpatient care. Tasks of consultation, case management and interface management as well as professionally demanding tasks are gaining more and more importance for nursing care and quality assurance.
The aim of the activities pursued with this programme priority is to accompany these processes on the level of research and to use the acquired knowledge for contributing to the development of innovative concepts and supporting the realization of care that satisfies the needs and requirements.
In recent decades, the importance of outpatient care has grown continuously. Particularly as a result of the developments initiated with the Second Care Strengthening Act, but also owing to other reforms, the scope of tasks and requirements of outpatient care has changed significantly. It has become very complex and ranges from technology-intensive and medical care services to educational measures and everyday assistance. Outpatient care must also become increasingly involved in providing care that is tailored to the needs of the neighbourhood.
The aim of the IPW's activities in this area is to develop solutions for the associated structural and conceptual challenges and thus to contribute to the strengthening and qualitative further development of the care sector internationally known as Community Health Nursing.
In health and social policy debates, high expectations have been emerging for a long time on innovative technologies being able to support care processes. There is an increasing tendency to discuss questions of the qualitative advancement of care in connection with technical solutions. It is an important task of nursing research to add well-founded scientific findings to the discussions. However, recent experiences show that sophisticated technologies - as assistance technologies in everyday life or as work tools for caregivers - still encounter acceptance problems and, in some cases, unresolved adaptation difficulties. In addition, the role of nursing as a professional group that supports chronically ill people and those in need of care in coping with their everyday lives and care is still unclear in many respects with regard to the use of new technologies.