18th International scientific conference of the FZAB
On Thursday, 5 June 2025, the 18th international scientific conference of the Angela Boškin Faculty of Health Care (FZAB) took place in Bled, once again bringing together Slovenian and international stakeholders from the field of health care. This year, the conference focussed on the visions and challenges of current and future practises in nursing and care. A special part of the event was dedicated to the final session of the ARIS project Digital transformation of health and social care: Welfare technology acceptance and knowledge among current and future healthcare and social care professionals, led by Dr. Simona Hvalič Touzery.
Three papers resulting from the project were presented. In the plenary session, Jerneja Laznik presented the paper Adoption of telemedicine among nurses: quantitative study, which presented the results of an online survey. In the thematic session on education, innovation, and new technologies, Mojca Šetinc presented the paper Attitudes towards telecare, telemedicine, and socially assistive robots among nurses and nursing students: qualitative study, presenting the results of focus groups. Finally, Dr. Simona Hvalič Touzery presented the paper The interplay between knowledge of telemedicine, experience and willingness to use it in nursing: a mixed-methods study, which combines quantitative and qualitative data from the project. All three papers are published in the conference proceedings.
The presentations were followed by a round table discussion entitled Digital health technologies in nursing: How to integrate them into education and practice. Moderated by Dr. Simona Hvalič Touzery and Dr. Vesna Dolničar, the discussion focused on the challenges and opportunities of integrating digital health technologies into nursing and social care. The participants included Dr. Sanela Pivač, Dean of the Angela Boškin Faculty of Health Care; Anton Justin, head of the nursing care at the Functional Diagnostics Department at Jesenice General Hospital and member of two important bodies on digitalization in nursing (Digitalization working group in nursing and midwifery at the Nurses and midwives association and Working group on digitalization of the nursing at the Ministry of Health); and Anja Novak, head nurse of the Internal Medicine Department at Jesenice General Hospital, also a member of the first mentioned working group.
The event marked the near completion of the project Digital transformation of health and social care: Welfare technology acceptance and knowledge among current and future healthcare and social care professionals and provided an excellent opportunity to present our findings to stakeholders from the healthcare sector. The round table once again confirmed our research insights – that registered nurses and nursing students play a crucial role in introducing digital health technologies into nursing and care, and that early exposure of nursing students to these technologies through study courses and clinical practice is essential.