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Transcending Responsibility. Developing a new interdisciplinary educational program

Aim of the proposal and urban challenge it addresses* (max 200)The aim of this proposal is to develop an educational program with the provisional name ‘Care and Law’. The aim of this multidisciplinary educational program is to increase the knowledge of future professionals working at the intersection of health, wellbeing and law in the urban environment of Amsterdam.In the Amsterdam metropolitan society, legal and healthcare professionals (including social workers) are increasingly confronted with issues at the intersection of (health)care and justice. Special areas of interest are the problems surrounding people suffering from a mental illness, youngsters that cause nuisances of themselves on the streets and homeless people. The approach to this kind of problems requires a multidisciplinary approach. This means that healthcare, social welfare and legal professionals have to work together, for instance to apply for involuntary care. However, these professionals all have their own perspective and responsibility in these situations which often results in tensions among the professionals and as a result a delayed provision of care (van den Hooff, 2015).External partner(s) (if applicable) Project description abstract (max 750 woorden)We like to develop a new educational program in which students from different faculties work together on real time cases. At this moment, students at the Faculty of Applied Social Sciences and Law and the Faculty of Health are primarily trained in a monodisciplinary manner. They may be better equipped for their future work, if they get interdisciplinary training and courses. They need to learn what is meant by ‘Transcending Responsibility’; which means to be open to the perspective of the others professionals and to create a new shared responsibility (van den Hooff, 2015).In this project, we like to work together with and learn from the expertise of other members of the consortium to enhance the quality of this educational project. The focus of the present project is to develop a new multidisciplinary educational program surrounding legal and care related themes. The idea is to familiarize students with the legal contexts in which they have to operate (for instance themes related to pressure and coercion) as well as the welfare and care context in which the client/patient is situated (the care from neighborhood teams, youth care teams or mental health care teams). In addition, student might jointly develop integrated approaches based on case studies from the professional field.We like to be inspired, informed about and discuss innovative approaches which make interdisciplinary educational programs possible. Maybe it is possible to develop an international educational program with members of the consortium.

Customised care

Physiotherapy, Dietetics and Occupational Therapy have been collaborating over recent years to develop an optimal healthcare programme for patients with Post Intensive Care Syndrome (PICS). This case is an example of PICS symptomatology and focuses on the collaboration between Physiotherapy and Dietetics. What is PICS? Owing to healthcare improvements, more and more patients are surviving the intensive Care Unit (ICU), and recovery during and after ICU stay has been receiving more attention [1, 2]. Approximately 30% of the patients admitted to an ICU have persistent symptoms including muscle weakness, reduced walking ability, fatigue, concentration deficits, memory problems, malnutrition, sleep and mood disorders sometimes even years after discharge [3-8]. Since 2012, this combination of physical, cognitive and psychiatric manifestations and reduced quality of life after staying in an ICU has been recognised as Post Intensive Care Syndrome (PICS) [9]. The impact of PICS is often not limited to the patient as it may also impact the mental status of the patient’s immediate family. This is known as PICS-Family (PICS-F) [10-12]. Treatment of PICS: Approximately 80% of PICS patients need primary care physiotherapy. Physiotherapists and GPs are often the only primary care professionals involved in the recovery process of these patients after hospital discharge [13, 14]. Both patients and healthcare professionals report a number of difficulties, e.g. limited transmural continuity in healthcare, coordination of multidisciplinary activities, supportive treatment guidelines and specific knowledge of pathology, treatment and prognosis. Patients report that they are not adequately supported when resuming their professional activities and that medical and allied healthcare treatments do not fully meet their needs at that time [15-18]. The REACH project: In order to improve the situation, the REACH project (REhabilitation After Critical illness and Hospital discharge) was started in Amsterdam region in the Netherlands. Within REACH, a Community of Practice – consisting of professionals (physiotherapists, occupational therapists, dieticians), those who live or have lived with the condition and researchers – has developed a transmural rehab programme. A special attribute of this programme is the integration of the concept of “positive health”. The case in this article describes the treatment of a PICS patient treated within the REACH network.

Informal care and diversity explored in interdisciplinary research

An interdisciplinary statement of scientific societies for the advancement of delirium care across Europe (EDA, EANS, EUGMS, COTEC, IPTOP/WCPT)

Background: Delirium is a geriatric syndrome that presents in 1 out of 5 hospitalized older patients. It is also common in the community, in hospices, and in nursing homes. Delirium prevalence varies according to clinical setting, with rates of under 5% in minor elective surgery but up to 80% in intensive care unit patients. Delirium has severe adverse consequences, but despite this and its high prevalence, it remains undetected in the majority of cases. Optimal delirium care requires an interdisciplinary, multi-dimensional diagnostic and therapeutic approach involving doctors, nurses, physiotherapists, and occupational therapists. However, there are still important gaps in the knowledge and management of this syndrome. Main body: The objective of this paper is to promote the interdisciplinary approach in the prevention and management of delirium as endorsed by a delirium society (European Delirium Association, EDA), a geriatrics society (European Geriatric Medicine Society, EuGMS), a nursing society (European Academy of Nursing Science, EANS), an occupational therapy society (Council of Occupational Therapists for European Countries, COTEC), and a physiotherapy society (International Association of Physical Therapists working with Older People of the World Confederation for Physical Therapy, IPTOP/WCPT). Short conclusion: In this paper we have strongly promoted and supported interdisciplinary collaboration underlying the necessity of increasing communication among scientific societies. We have also provided suggestions on how to fill the current gaps via improvements in undergraduate and postgraduate delirium education among European Countries.

Health care and technology

Transitions in health care and the increasing pace at which technological innovations emerge, have led to new professional approach at the crossroads of health care and technology. In order to adequately deal with these transition processes and challenges before future professionals access the labour market, Fontys University of Applied Sciences is in a transition to combining education with interdisciplinary practice-based research. Fontys UAS is launching a new centre of expertise in Health Care and Technology, which is a new approach compared to existing educational structures. The new centre is presented as an example of how new initiatives in the field of education and research at the intersection of care and technology can be shaped.

Interdisciplinary Research Project ‘AI Shield’

In the modern day and age, cybersecurity facesnumerous challenges. Computer systems and networks become more and more sophisticated and interconnected, and the attack surface constantly increases. In addition, cyber-attacks keep growing in complexity and scale. In order to address these challenges, security professionals started to employ generative AI (GenAI) to quickly respond to attacks. However, this introduces challenges in terms of how GenAI can be adapted to the security environment and where the legal and ethical responsibilities lie. The Universities of Twente and Groningen and the Hanze University of Applied Sciences have initiated an interdisciplinary research project to investigate the legal and technical aspects of these LLMs in the cybersecurity domain and develop an advanced AI-powered tool.