© BMBF
Cluster „Zukunft der Pflege“
Ensuring that people receive nursing care is one of the greatest challenges facing our society. Millions of people in Germany are dependent on nursing care daily, with the number continuing to rise. This poses new challenges for the nursing sector. It applies equally to acute hospitals and rehabilitation facilities, inpatient and outpatient care for the elderly, as well as home care nursing.
Technical innovations can relieve the workload of nursing staff and caregiving relatives and improve patients’ quality of life. Nursing care technologies have the potential to make everyday life considerably easier for people working in nursing homes, hospitals and home care. This way, intensive and palliative care nursing can be improved.
The Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) supports the development and research of new nursing care technologies. As part of the “Zukunft der Pflege” cluster, social and technical innovations in nursing care are brought together: research, industry and nursing practice work together with users on new products that are intended to make everyday nursing care in Germany easier and better. As the first component of the nursing care cluster, a Nursing Care Innovation Center (PIZ), the only one of its kind in Germany to date, began its work in June 2017. Here, engineers research new technologies together with nursing scientists. Since the beginning of 2018, there have been nursing practice centers (PPZ) in Freiburg, Nuremberg, Berlin and Hanover, where new nursing care technologies are tested in everyday nursing care. The four centers test the practical suitability of various technologies in clinical, inpatient and outpatient care areas. The nursing practice centers also transfer their know-how to nursing training and further education, thus ensuring the innovative strength of the industry.