E4Nursing.eu Project

In this context, CIDESI-ESEP evolved to the development of an educational application – e4nursing (“enhancing expertise and empowering education for nursing”) -, a multilingual educational software, that operates in a plug-and-play web-based environment, created through a collaborative effort between ESEP and the software company VirtualCare®, which incorporates NursingOntos into its backend, and is specifically designed for training nursing students in the complex processes of care planning and clinical decision-making.

This educational platform integrates an expert knowledge structure founded on “restriction” or “advising” relationships, serving as a valuable resource for designing decision support systems. Through e4nursing, students can choose various nursing domains, select pertinent assessment data for diagnosis identification, define objectives, and prescribe interventions. The platform facilitates the automatic creation of a nursing care plan based on the generated information.

Introduced in 2020, this software is presently employed across 64 teaching units, spanning from the initial phase of pre-graduation courses to the concluding phase of postgraduate courses. Its utilization extends to more than a thousand students per semester, highlighting its widespread adoption within the nursing curriculum. In this context, the e4nursing software has achieved a notable level of maturity, positioning itself at Technology Readiness Levels (TRL) 7-8. This maturity is attributed to its continuous operational workload for almost four years, indicating a robust and well-established technological readiness.

These advancements have positioned ESEP as an integral part of a broad consortium of institutions within the Health from Portugal (HfPT) agenda. The primary mission of this consortium is to enhance the competitiveness of the national health value chain. This is achieved by emphasizing the knowledge generated and accessible in higher education institutions, research institutes, hospitals, and companies, all within a framework that prioritizes development, sustainability, and the overarching goal of achieving more and better health for all.

Subject to funding, in the context of the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF), this health cluster aspires to establish itself as a dynamic force, acting as a “mobilizing, aggregating, and catalyzing agent” within the health ecosystem. With a strategic emphasis on innovation, digitalization, and the “data economy,” the goal is to position Portugal as a world reference hub in the design, development, and production of advanced solutions for health markets. This positioning will be achieved through a commitment to innovation and technology.