The “Training health care teams in intercultural communication and patient safety” project addressed the complex issue of patient safety, failure of which results in millions of patient safety incidents each year, with severe consequences and unnecessary suffering for patients and their families as well as millions of public Euros in compensation. The project was a continuation of the other four projects carried out under the “Intercultural Education of Nurses in Europe” (IENE) topic initiative, which started in 2008 (www.ieneproject.eu). In order to match their skills to the competences demanded for safe patient care, this IENE5 project addressed the link between the levels of intercultural communication within members of MMHTs and patient safety and aimed to increase the knowledge and skills of members of healthcare teams, in three major areas: Intercultural communication, Working in multicultural teams and Patient safety. Partners from five European countries (Middlesex University of London, UK ; University College Lillebaelt, Denmark; Cyprus University of Technology; Nursing School Edunet, Romania; and Azienda Ospedaliera Universitaria Senese, Italy) brought relevant and complementary skills and human resources to create an innovative European Training Model, aimed at promoting knowledge and skills of intercultural communication, working in MMHTs and patient safety and develop training content, learning and evaluation tools, which are now available on the project website.The partners built a highly interactive platform MOOC (Massive Open On-line Course) based on co-learning and co-creation, containing learning and self-assessment activities and tools. After training 60 facilitators from the participating countries to support and guide the learners’ communities on the MOOC, 150 participants from the project’s partner countries and approximately 500 nurses and health care professionals from across the world were recruited to participate in the training on the created MOOC.To promote the intercultural communication culture and patient safety values, 5 national seminars were organized in the partners’ countries attended by the managers, training providers and potential users, who learned about the created resources and how to use the MOOC. In carrying out the project, the pedagogical approaches used were innovative and learner-centered, based on digital integration in learning. The MOOC’s approach to learning was highly interactive and its underpinning philosophy was that of co-learning through co-creation. Our MOOC was mainly provided in English with some translation and the students were able to conduct their discussions, write their blogs and prepare their outputs in Romanian, Italian, Danish or Greek languages. The multilingual aspect of this MOOC promoted co-operation, communication, team-working, respect of diverse opinions, sensitivity and tolerance to people from different cultures and backgrounds, as well as increased language competence, digital skills, flexibility and creativity. The main outputs of the project were the Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) and the Open Educational Resources (OER), available on the project web site (www.ieneproject.eu), report on the training needs, Innovative teaching and learning Model, Educational resources, curricula and materials, Guide for facilitators, Brochure about the learning methodology using the MOOC . The nurses and healthcare professionals who participated in the learning activities on the MOOC enhanced knowledge and skills about patient safety, deep appreciation of the benefits of effective communication and team work, confidence in dealing with patient safety. Our project contributed towards building culturally competent and compassionate teams. The learning which occurred during the MOOC will hopefully lead to a reduction in patient safety incidents and thus reduction in patient harm and levels of compensation. We hope that it has also contributed to higher levels of staff job satisfaction and improved quality of patient care.Our model, curriculum and learning/assessment tools are now embedded in the IENE platform and are freely available to be used and also developed using creative commons license. The course modules, learning outcomes, learning activities, assessment methods, reading lists, suggested content and on-line resources and links to outside resources etc. can be used freely for distance learning or some parts of them may be used as portions of a conventional or blended training. It is anticipated that our innovative model and the MOOC will become popular across Europe and continue to be provided by the partner organizations and be used by other organizations after the end of the project and the created resources may be adapted and set up in new wider-ranging MOOCs for education processes across Europe.

This proposal comes in the wake of the intense scrutiny of nursing and other healthcare services in the UK for failures of care (Francis 2010) and the conclusions we have drawn from our literature reviews as well as from conversations between colleagues who took part in our previous European projects (IENE1-3) can be summarised as follows:1. We know very little about how compassion is taught in the classroom, even less on how its learning is facilitated in practice, and nothing about how this is measured.2. Although all humans have the capacity to be compassionate, how this is demonstrated and understood varies between individuals and between cultural groups.3. Compassionate leaders make the best role models for nurses and other healthcare professionals in practice, who in their turn become compassionate role models to students.4. Compassionate care, leads to higher levels of patient/family satisfaction.5. Higher levels of satisfaction contribute to faster more effective healing, with higher levels of compliance and lower costs.This project aims to improve the quality of training for nurses and health care professionals in the delivery of compassionate and cultural competent care which responds to the healthcare sector needs.Specific objectives: 1. Systematically review empirical literature pertaining to universal components of compassion, as well as the measurement and practice of compassion;2. Construct, pilot and implement a self assessment ‘compassion measuring tool’ (CMT);3. Design new training and work based learning model, for the development of compassion skills of nurses and health care professionals based on an analysis of their needs; 4. Develop an intervention which will promote the learning, practice and support of compassion-in-practice; this will begin with the development of nursing and healthcare leaders;5. Evaluate the effectiveness of the intervention on service providers and users;6. Make all project tools freely available on a dedicated website;7. Hold an international conference;8. Establish a network of people working on ‘compassion’ projects for knowledge share and co-creation of knowledge.Institutions from seven countries will participate in this project: a) Middlesex University London, UK (co-ordinator), b) Edunet, Romania, c)Cyprus University of Technology, Cyprus, d) Marmara University Pendik Research and Training Hospital, e) Azienda Ospedaliera Universitaria Senese, Italy, f) University College Lillebaelt, Denmark, g) Universitat De Valencia, Spain. The partnership is a mixture of universities, VET institutions and hospital services The project will begin with a rigorous review of the literature around culturally competent compassion (theoretical and practical learning and measuring of it). The first stage will be followed by an analysis of the learning needs of those working in leadership positions in nursing and at least two other healthcare professions. The results of stages 1 & 2 will be used to develop the Delphi studies (to design a uniquely innovative measuring tool and an European model for the development of role models to promote and support culturally competent and compassionate care). Once the outputs of the Delphi studies are finalised the curriculum for the healthcare leaders as well as the learning tools for their educational intervention will be piloted and finalised. The intervention will address the critical role of senior managers and practitioners in setting values, expectations and behaviours which promote and support culturally competent compassionate care. Another innovation of this project is the adoption of the open educational resources (OER) approach to provide new learning opportunities which will be embedded in the online training platform and will support individuals to upgrade their existing skills, knowledge and experience as well as gaining new ones. Further, the proposed knowledge exchange network will bring together healthcare professionals from across Europe and possibly beyond, in order to share good practices and co-create knowledge tools during the project’s life and after the projects ends thus assuring its sustainability and long-term impact.The results of the project will be disseminated during national/local seminars and a European conference. In the long term, we believe that healthcare practitioners and service providers across Europe will benefit through accessing the project’s OERs.This project will impact on all five points outlined in the first section of this summary..

Objectives of the Assistive Living Technology and Skills (ALTAS) project: The ALTAS project addresses the shortfall of assistive living technology (ALT) training courses for health and social care staff that will ultimately enable their clients and patients to benefit from smart solutions to live independently, self-care and improve their health and well-being. Key objectives are to: (1) develop a recognised standard, curriculum, course and qualification that will give professionals an incentive to add to their knowledge and skills; (2) stimulate demand for and increase the uptake of innovation through stakeholder engagement and co-creation of course development ; (3) provide the opportunity to continuously update the curricula and standards by linking the professionals to a strong knowledge cluster. Strategic relevance: Across Europe, quadruple helix partnerships are striving to scale up smart solutions to address the demographic challenge of an ageing population. But, successful scaling of innovative solutions especially for the elderly with long-term conditions remain patchy. The difficulty in securing health and social care professionals’ engagement to utilize, help people to use and accept the adoption of assistive living technologies is a key obstacle to supporting people to live independently for longer. Partly, this is due to the shortfall of training opportunities for practitioners in assistive living technologies along with the lack of a recognised qualification for competence in their suitability and use. As a result, awareness of what assistive living technologies are available, what they can do, when they are suitable, who could benefit from them and in what way remains low amongst front line health and care workers and their managers. Moreover, at European level, it has been recognized that there is no standard nor consensus as to what should be taught. Methods and actions: The ALTAS project intends to plug this important gap. It will develop, test and evaluate ALTAS standards, curriculum and VET course that can provide health and social care professionals with the knowledge, skills and confidence to utilise, deploy and recommend appropriate ALT devices, technologies and related services. It will also create an accreditation scheme that will be a key step on the road to a national and European- recognised accredited qualification. ALTAS will be delivered in 3 phases: Design, Delivery and Evaluation. The design phase will define the standards, develop a curriculum and generate initial content for course delivery. Needs analysis and stakeholder engagement will support the development of the curriculum and alignment with specific cross-cultural and health and social care characteristics within each partner country and region will be a key principle. Using an iterative learning methodology, the delivery phase will develop an assessment framework, build the training course with the trainers and pilot an eCourse in one region. This phase will also develop and deploy a toolkit to support training course implementation. The assessment framework will form the basis for an accredited qualification, planned to lead to European wide accreditation. In parallel the course and e-course, developed by ALTAS training organisations, will be launched to VET trainers during a 5-day coaching session incorporating different modes of delivery. The course, once developed, will be deployed to 45 trainees each in UK, Spain, Norway and Denmark over 4 days during a 7 month period. In parallel, the eCourse will be deployed in one region to test the right balance for blended learning and assess the most suitable platforms for its deployment. The toolkit will be built on the project website. The third phase will focus on evaluating the course and assessing its impact on the target group and external stakeholders. During this phase, the curriculum and course will also be tested in a Central and an Eastern European country with differing cultural and health and care system characteristics. A sustainability plan laying the foundations for the future of the project and its intellectual outputs will be delivered towards the end of the project. Outcomes and impact: The ALTAS project will deliver a fit-for-purpose standards and curriculum, assessment framework and course materials for health and social care professionals. These deliverables will be supported by an eCourse, a course deployment toolkit and a comprehensive evaluation report. The ALTAS project is expected to (1) raise awareness and increase knowledge of ALT for front-line health and social care staff and their managers, (2) increase motivation in staff to take ALT courses, (3) increase staff willingness and confidence to promote ALT, (4) increase interest in the ALT workforce to exchange and share good practice across Europe and (5) increase collaboration and cooperation between training organisations and ALT suppliers.

As a result of the success of the Irish Digital Schools of Distinction award scheme, and enquiries from a range of EU countries regarding its implementation, the National Steering committee decided to investigate the potential of exploring its expansion into other EU countries. An analysis of European Commission reports and policy documents identified a number of common themes that dovetailed with the objectives of the partner organisations.The Digital Schools of Europe project was set up with a two-fold approach:1.To seek out best practice in the use of ICT in Schools throughout the partnership regions, to assess and share this best practice with each other and to disseminate this best practice to other countries.2.To analyse accreditation systems in the partnership countries, to assess the feasibility of introducing a nationally accredited award system in each country, similar to the Irish Digital Schools of Distinction Award, leading to the feasibility or possibility of an international EU accredited system. Our project also met many of the elements recommended for strategic partnerships: •Develop, test, adapt and adopt/implement innovative practices relating to: •learning and teaching methodologies and pedagogical approaches, especially those delivering key competences and basic skills, language skills, and focusing on the use of ICT; •new forms of learning and providing education and training, notably strategic use of open and flexible learning, virtual mobility, open educational resources and better exploitation of the ICT potential;•Carry out joint research, surveys, studies and analysis;•Facilitate recognition/certification of skills and competences at national level by referencing them to European and National Qualification Frameworks and using EU validation instruments.Of the eight participating countries a) three were successful partners in the Comenius 3 Network 'Roots & Wings' b) six (including the previous three were successful partners in the Comenius 3 Network 'Wide Minds'. Both Networks put a strong emphasis on the integration of ICT into learning and teaching. Over the years 2002 - 2013 the partners developed a trusted and valuable working partnership that has stood the test of time. Two 'new' partners were chosen with great care, and based on their track record on best practice in the field, in particular for the strength of the local and regional networks they represent. All participating partners identified the objective of Successful Integration of ICT into Learning and Teaching as worthy of investigation, in tandem with the shared exchange of innovative and proven practice in associated schools in relation to the use of digital technologies in schools. The expertise of the group has been exceptional throughout this project. All partners have very high personal ICT skills levels, are very experienced in the area of promoting the development of ICT in Education as a teaching and learning tool, and all have direct links to schools. Responsibilities allocated to each partner ensured they contributed significantly to the success of the project. Each organisation had the responsibility for including affiliated schools in project activities.The main activities of the Digital Schools of Europe project include the following:•Eight transnational meetingsAt each transnational meeting there was a full programme of work and activities. At each meeting the following activities were mandatory.•Management of meetings involving all the coordinators where each aspect of the project was reviewed, updates from all participants were expected and were given and modifications of the programme in the light of developments between meetings were discussed and agreed•A feasibility meeting with members of local authorities where the feasibility of establishing a digital schools award system in the host region was discussed.•School visits – participants visited selected schools in groups. The practice and good practice that was observed was discussed and was compared to practices in participants’ own countries. During the course of the project schools were visited in all partner regions, generating valuable discussion and modifications to practice where improvements were possible.•eTwinning – a workshop on eTwinning was delivered at each meeting •After the conclusion of formal activities participants explored cultural, educational and artistic experiences in each host region.-A full description of intellectual outputs is available in section 5.3 of this report.-A full description of multiplier events is available in section 5.4 of this report.Population of the website in particular with regard to Best Practice -A full description is available in section 5.3 (Output 3: DSoE and section 5.3 (Output 5: Best Practice)Further information on Results and impact attained and longer term benefits available in Dropbox.