Spirituality in the Undergraduate Curricula of Nursing Schools in Portugal and São Paulo-Brazil

Spirituality is considered a dimension of nursing care, which is often recognized as being neglected, mainly due to a lack of education. Several studies have addressed nursing students’ perceptions and skills for providing spiritual care, but there is little evidence on how spirituality is addressed in undergraduate nursing curricula. This study comprised Portuguese and Brazilian nursing schools (from São Paulo) and describes how spirituality is addressed in undergraduate nursing curricula. It is descriptive and the survey research was performed in 2014–2015. The questionnaire was composed of closed and open-ended questions and was sent by e-mail. A total of 129 answers were obtained, mostly from Portugal. Results indicated that several curricular units include spirituality, although having different contents. The learning outcomes are consistent with improving nursing students’ integral education, developing the clinical reasoning regarding spirituality, and improving the assessment of the patient across the life span. Nevertheless, it seems that spirituality is poorly addressed in clinical practice. Few nursing schools have courses or curricular units specifically dealing with spirituality, but they do provide some form of teaching on the subject. No standard curriculum exists, but teachers believe that it is a very important subject that should be included in the courses taught.

E-Procurement and Innovation in the Portuguese Municipalities: When Change Is Mandatory

Changing the traditional pattern of public procurement for an electronic paradigm is a radical innovation involving major organizational changes, the breaking up of traditional processes and practices, obsolescence of knowledge and skills. Going beyond the European Commission's recommendations, in 2009 Portugal pioneered in making e-procurement mandatory in the pre-award phase, in a European context of multiple technical standards and lack of interoperability of electronic platforms across the EU countries. Six years later, when the creation of a European e-procurement single market is a EU mission and a major legislative amendment is underway in Portugal, this study looks at the relationship between e-procurement and innovation in the Portuguese municipalities aiming to understand the extent into which the adoption of e-procurement embraced a real organizational change or, on the other hand, if it just represented a mere adaptation of the usual procurement practices. The study draws on data from an electronic survey to all municipalities in mainland Portugal and the analysis is mainly descriptive and exploratory. The paradigm shift in public procurement involves major organizational changes but, overall, the results suggest that most municipalities do not have a clear understanding of the innovative scope (depth and diversity) implied by e-procurement. E-procurement shows advantages over the paper-based model but an unbalanced perception of the innovation dimensions has influenced the implementation of e-procurement and the degree of organizational change.

Articulação saúde-escola: a intervenção em contexto comunitário

As perturbações psiquiátricas e os problemas de saúde mental infantojuvenil têm vindo a merecer especial atenção por parte da comunidade científica, não só pelo facto de se estimar que 10 a 20% das crianças apresentem um ou mais problemas de saúde mental, não só por estes valores terem tendência a aumentar, mas também pelo impacto humano e financeiro que acarretam para a sociedade. Em Portugal, o Plano Nacional da Saúde Mental 2007-2016 é categórico ao afirmar a necessidade de promover a saúde mental infantojuvenil junto da população e ao salientar a importância do envolvimento e articulação com outras estruturas comunitárias ligadas à saúde, educação e direito de menores. Este trabalho vai de encontro a estas linhas de orientação, na medida em que procura identificar, desenvolver e implementar diversos aspetos inerentes à vertente comunitária da saúde mental infantojuvenil. Numa primeira fase é realizado um levantamento das reais necessidades da população infantojuvenil do concelho de Odemira e é definida uma rede de articulação entre os serviços de saúde, escolas e outras entidades locais com competência nesta área. De forma a melhorar a prestação dos cuidados e a garantir respostas adequadas às necessidades identificadas, também se procurou o individual desenvolvimento de competências especializadas na área da saúde mental infantojuvenil. Por último, atendendo à importância da implementação atempada de medidas preventivas de determinados fenómenos psicopatológicos, procurou-se treinar e desenvolver a capacidade de sensibilização e reforço de competências de uma bolsa populacional específica: a comunidade escolar. De um modo geral, os resultados obtidos demonstram aplicabilidade na prática clínica dos cuidados, contribuindo para a melhoria dos mesmos. Algumas das estratégias utilizadas constituem-se como ponto de partida para projetos futuros, podendo ser replicadas e adequadas a outros contextos de intervenção; ABSTRACT: LINK HEALTH-SCHOOL: the intervention in the community context Psychiatric disorders and problems of youth mental health have been given special attention by the scientific community, not only because it is estimated that 10-20% of children present one or more mental health problems, not only because these values have tendency to increase, but also the human and financial impact to society. In Portugal, the Mental Health National Plan 2007-2016 is emphatic in affirming the need to promote the mental youth health within the population and to emphasize the importance of the involvement and coordination with other community entities related to health, education and minors rights. This paper follows these guidelines, it tries to identify, develop and implement various aspects related to the Community part of youth health. In the first phase is carried out a survey of the real needs of youth population of the Odemira County and defined a network between health services, schools and other local organizations with expertise in this area. In order to improve the delivery of health care and ensure appropriate responses to the identified needs, also sought the individual development of expertise in the area of youth mental health. Finally, given the value of timely implementation of preventive measures of certain psychopathological phenomena, it sought to train and develop the awareness and skills improvement of a specific population: the school community. In general, the results prove the applicability of the procedures in clinical practice, contributing to a practice improvement. Some of the strategies used are the Foundation for future projects, they can be replicated and adapted to other contexts of intervention.