Universitat Rovira i Virgili

Lines of Research

The Advanced Nursing Research Group (CARING) carries out research in different fields and mainly develops the following lines of research: 


1. ADVANCED CLINICAL PRACTICE

This line aims to frame research and practice based on evidence, clinical leadership and consulting, mentoring, collaboration and interprofessional relationships, expert clinical judgment, educational leadership, quality management, clinical safety, and care management, autonomy for professional and competence practice, health promotion, and the protection and defense of the rights of the patient responding to the current demands and high therapeutic complexity of health users and their families, both in the field of primary care and hospital care. Likewise, it aims to integrate studies in the area of Big Data, such as the digitization of health, intelligent health communities, and person-centered care. As well as research in the field of undergraduate and postgraduate teaching.

Line Goals:

1. Promote research in the evaluation of health interventions at the community and hospital level, which allows to develop the decision-making of professionals in the field of health and reduce variability in clinical practice.

2. Promote epidemiological research, which allows the study of biological and social phenomena that affect the health of the population, from diagnosis, treatment, causation, expression of the disease, detection of new factors, as well as indicators of mobility and mortality, among others.

3. Study the causal relationship of risk factors and associated factors, as well as their effect and distribution in a wide range of diseases, and design strategies in the field of health promotion. Encourage and carry out biomedical research in different areas and pathologies, including biomarkers or clinical indicators to improve the detection and prevention of diseases.

4. Promote mixed research in the clinical and academic fields, which provides a more holistic vision in the understanding of diseases, including biopsychosocial factors.

5. Promote research in the field of caregiving, dependence, and chronicity together with health professionals from different fields.

6. Perform clinical leadership, consulting, and mentoring studies, as well as exercise the teaching role while promoting a context conducive to effective learning.

7. Study the autonomy for professional practice, rational use of appropriate pharmacological and non-pharmacological interventions, clinical diagnosis, referrals to other professionals, treatments and/or therapies. As well as the lifelong care of the different levels of care of the health system.

8. Contextualize health disorders from the perspective of the health system, specialized care, as well as gender perspectives.

9. Critically evaluate concepts, theories, and models of care in order to develop innovative care approaches based on available scientific evidence. Conduct studies in collaboration with other professionals with the aim of optimizing the results of direct and/or indirect care, which incorporates critical thinking in the making of relevant decisions.

10. Likewise, it aims to integrate studies in the area of Big Data, such as the digitization of health, intelligent health communities, and person-centered care. As well as research in the field of undergraduate and postgraduate teaching.

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2. PUBLIC HEALTH AND COMMUNITY NURSING CHALLENGES IN THE 21ST CENTURY

This line of research is structured on the basis of two axes: public health and community nursing. In both axes there is a consolidated research trajectory of more than 10 years, with the participation, as members of the research and work team, in different competitive research projects funded.

Line Goals:

1. Encourage research that challenges and encourages social participation and community involvement in the design of actions to improve their level of health with an ethical and equitable perspective.

Actions such as the mapping of health assets, work by levels of care with a health-genetic approach where health assets and co-production are promoted, the recognition and strengthening of social and community networks, among others, must allow working with a model of complex health determinants, which, following Dahlgren and Whitehead (1991), goes beyond individual lifestyles and unique biological determinism, and where living conditions: political, socioeconomic, cultural and environmental, are also taken into account when designing, implementing policies and concrete actions in health.

2. Implement research that prioritizes sustainability and efficiency, considering integrated models of health promotion and disease prevention. A research that is framed in the interface between the social sciences and the health sciences. In line with the Sustainable Development Goals: Health and Welfare (SDG 3), Gender Equality (SDG 5), Clean Water and Sanitation (SDG 6), Reduction of Inequalities (SDG 10), Climate Action (SDG 13) and Life in Terrestrial Ecosystems (SDG 15).

3. Converge with the public health priorities established by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2021, and the four strategic lines proposed in the Health Plan of Catalonia (2021-2025) which are: equal opportunities in health throughout life, healthy environments, integration of health care, cross-cutting levers of change; also with the One Health "a health" approach of the WHO, the FAO and the OIE from which it is considered necessary to work together environmental health, human health and animal health.

Seek research into current public health challenges, which involves fostering, first and foremost, research into public health emergencies, in the management of epidemics, such as SARS-CoV-2 and other zoonoses. Secondly, for the attention to demographic changes and their implication in the field of health (greater aging, dependence, neurodegenerative diseases, and chronic diseases). Thirdly, for the recognition of the role of social inequalities in health - social class, poverty, precariousness, and access to decent housing as determinants of health (Wilkinson and Marmot, 2003); gender inequalities: gender violence as a public health problem, the medicalization of women's health. Fourthly, e-health, m-health, and the potential uses of big data in health. And finally, the new ethical and bioethical dilemmas that derive from these challenges.

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3. METHODOLOGIES AND APPLICATIONS OF RESEARCH IN MENTAL HEALTH AND ADDICTIONS

The Line integrates research in Psychosocial nursing care from the perspective of Positive Mental Health (PMS) and Health Literacy.

Line Goals:

Encourage international research in the field of mental health and addictions.