Appropriate care (‘passende zorg’, the Dutch policy approach to value-driven care) in district nursing is getting its own academic research line. The focus will be on developing ways to gather, share and apply knowledge. “This will help us speed up the shift towards appropriate care in district nursing and give us a clearer picture of which care truly contributes to health and daily functioning,” says programme leader Nienke Bleijenberg.
ZonMw is awarding the five regional Academic Collaborative Centres for District Nursing (Academische Werkplaatsen Wijkverpleging) €3.5 million for this work. UMC Utrecht is the lead applicant for the grant.
“The question of which care truly adds value is becoming ever more urgent,” says Bleijenberg. With a double ageing population, increasingly complex care needs and staff shortages, healthcare faces a major societal challenge. More and more care will take place at home, while the number of people able to provide that care is declining. Care workers, (district) nurses and nurse practitioners, as well as clients and their loved ones, play a key role in meeting this challenge.
“District nursing has a central position in the shift towards appropriate care,” says Bleijenberg. “This shift can be strengthened and accelerated if we know which care contributes to appropriate care and which does not. That requires research, new knowledge and a strong national knowledge infrastructure in which practice, education, research and society work closely together on the care of the future.”
Five regions: one national network
The grant ‘Appropriate Care Line for the Academic Collaborative Centres for District Nursing’ supports the five regional Academic Collaborative Centres for District Nursing in the shift towards appropriate care. Together, the five centres form a national network: a knowledge infrastructure in which partners from healthcare, client representation, research, vocational, higher professional and university education, policy and the Dutch Nurses’ Association (V&VN) work together. The project will start on 1 November 2026.
