CNWL Volunteer Services goes to Europe

Nuria de Miguel, CNWL Volunteer Services Manager is one of twelve health care professionals invited by the Spanish Ministry of Health to participate in the Nota de Prensa Programa HOPE 2024.

The exchange programme has been created with a focus on understanding the health and hospital systems in the European Union, The Ministry of Health aims to use this initiative to promote cooperation, the exchange and free movement of health professionals.

During the stay, Nuria is sharing CNWL practices on volunteering whilst visiting various communities along with other participants from Belgium, Finland, Italy, Portugal, Serbia.

Nuria reflects how the programme is going:

“The welcoming we have had from Spain Ministry of Health and the various hosting hospitals, including Hospital Universitario de Navarra (HUN) has been unbelievable. 

We are learning not only about best practices at national level, but also at hospital and service level on how to keep our workforce.

I have been visiting different hospital services and wards, and spending a lot of time with the Mental Health senior leadership team and specific services in hospital and the community.

This is a rich programme where I am also sharing CNWL practices on volunteering and the many ways they can support staff and patient experience, including involving ex-service users and patients in supporting service delivery and engagement, which has generated a lot of interest from staff. 

Today (Friday 24 May) marks the 25th anniversary of Volunteer services at HUN. A part of the celebrations there will be a panel discussing the humanisation of healthy and hospital services in which I’m presenting the many ways CNWL bring support, friendship, listening, and hope, to our patients.”

The training program runs from 13 May 13 to 9 June, centered around the theme 'Keeping our health workforce'.  Find out more about the HOPE Exchange programme.