wE-c@re: supporting care professionals in developing digital skills
In the innovation and implementation project named wE-c@re, the Belgian care organisation Curando aims to respond to challenges and changes in the field of care for vulnerable elderly people. Movisie contributes to this project, together with other Dutch and Flemish partners such as the Competence Group, Zorgnet-Icuro and In4Care. Also involved are a care facility and a homecare organisation from Poland. wE-c@re receives funding from the European Social Fund (ESF).
(Social) care organizations are facing important changes brought on by an aging population, changes in regulations and budgets, as well as rapid advances in technology. This enables new possibilities for both care consumers and professional care givers. Examples of challenges and changes we are facing are the digital exchange of client data, social media (mis)use, digital literacy, social apps and robotics, eHealth, mobile health, wearables, virtual reality interventions and more.
21st century skills
The wE-c@re project creates an innovative learning environment in which professional caregivers are stimulated to develop 21st century skills, more specifically digital literacy. To achieve this goal, wE-c@re focuses on three important elements: a healthcare lab, innovative learning methods and a user-friendly and accessible digitization of the working and learning environment.
DEBBI@Curando: the digital lab
The digital lab, named DEBBI@Curando, is a digital experience box, from which innovative care technologies are presented and offered to experiment with. Sponsors are sought to contribute their products, devices, gadgets and apps to the lab. A visit to DEBBI@Curando will give caregivers the opportunity to explore the future of their own work context.
Innovative learning methods
Based on the need for 21st century skills, a lack of time to organize a lot of classroom education for caregivers and a growing belief in the combination of different learning methods, we want to use innovative learning methods to develop these skills. We will develop E-learning modules.
Digitization of the working and learning environment
We aim for user-friendly and accessible digitization of the working and learning environment. Smart screens will be installed on the work floor. We are exploring whether QR-codes could be linked to the webcam of the smart screens and used for 10-minute lessons on digital skills.
Results
When the project ends, in November 2019, the wE-c@re team aims to deliver a useful toolbox that will be made available to both Flemish, Dutch and other interested parties in Europe. We welcome professionals and policy makers in the field of elderly care and social work to review draft versions of this toolbox throughout the project. Also, we would like to get in touch with organizations that already have experience in strengthening the digital skills of their care and welfare professionals. This will help us to create a toolbox with even more impact.