Infermera virtual [Virtual Nurse] celebrates its tenth anniversary with itinerant academic and awareness-raising activities

Infermera virtual [Virtual Nurse] is celebrating its tenth anniversary in great shape as one of the leading websites and apps in the entire Spanish State dedicated to health promotion and education made by and for nurses. It is a model of nursing knowledge which has been achieving milestones and evolving technically to respond to the needs of the public and nurses which use them in their day-to-day lives.

2019 is a year of celebration for Infermera virtual, since 20 May sees the tenth anniversary of the launch of the online portal. The health education and promotion portal emerged from the COIB with a clear objective: to help provide the best nursing care possible while also training people to take decisions on their own health. It is a tool for nurses and also an effective tool for guaranteeing the continuity of care, while complementing face-to-face care.

To celebrate the anniversary, Virtual Nurse has designed a series of academic and awareness-raising activities which are designed to inform the two principal users (nurses and members of the public) as to the tool’s existence: The starting point will be the academic day on 20 May, where the focus will be the tool itself, its development and the individuals who made it possible, including nurses and specialized nurses who produced over 8,000 pages of health content especially for Virtual Nurse.

The academic day is the first in a series of activities which will take place throughout the year, consisting of two principal activities:

– The so-called Scape Box consists of a challenge for the nurses who take part: to unlock a care trolley, in a manner similar to the well-known escape rooms, by answering questions and solving puzzles in order to open it. The Scape Box will be located at the COIB for three weeks, starting on 3 June, with the intention of having it visit other centres upon request.

– La Salu, the itinerant bike featuring workshops and activities. La Salu is an itinerant bicycle specially designed for Virtual Nurse which will carry out workshops and activities related to health for audiences of all ages. It will hold workshops on many topics, such as how to stop smoking, how to perform CPR, how to prepare a healthy packed lunch, how to read food labels, and information on specific diseases like diabetes or Crohn’s, for example. The workshops are designed to be both fun and educational in order that people can make better decisions in their day to day lives in order to feel better and healthier.

La Salu will also include activities involving tablets, for example, such as Històries dels Bonsu [Bonsu Stories], to provide information on good posture or show how the lungs work, and a whole lot more.

La Salu will visit different parts of Barcelona and various cities around the capital. The calendar of events can be found in upcoming editions of the magazine and in the usual online places, such as the Virtual Nurse and the COIB websites.

A tool in continuous development

Over the course of these ten years, since the portal went online, the project has evolved constantly in terms of its content and the demand for information, and in its ability to meet the technological needs which have arisen during this period.

The Virtual Nurse portal, which is constantly evolving, has undergone two major changes since it was created. The most recent, last year, involved a redesign of the access to the portal, to better meet its users’ needs and the demands of the search facility, thus improving access to the content. With more than 300,000 annual visits to the portal, it is worth noting the significant number of visitors from Latin America to the Spanish version, representing more than 70% of users, meaning the tool is making an impact beyond the geographical area it was originally intended for.

Virtual Nurse has coexisted alongside two critical phenomena during its growth: the rise of social media as a means of communication and the appearance of mobile apps. Both are keys to the way the portal currently operates and how information is spread.

The portal has been a pioneer in many initiatives, such as contributing to the creation of healthy environments through health advice provided by city councils, health centres and private entities, and in promoting  healthcare advice to certain groups.