The Medical University of Gdańsk, the Medical University of Łódź, and the Medical University of Warsaw have joined forces to deliver a pioneering project that is transforming the education of future nurses in Poland. For the first time, the country’s three leading medical universities are collaborating to implement innovative solutions in the digital planning and documentation of nursing care, addressing the challenges of modern healthcare systems and their ongoing digital transformation.
The digital transformation of healthcare requires the preparation of medical professionals to operate in environments driven by data, interoperable information systems, and clinical decision-support technologies. Contemporary nursing practice increasingly relies on data analysis, standardised documentation, and digital tools that support clinical decision-making. In response to these challenges, the international E4N.EU project has been launched, aiming to develop and validate innovative solutions for nursing education based on knowledge ontologies and advanced information technologies.
Central to the project is the e4Nursing platform – an advanced web-based educational tool developed by the Escola Superior de Enfermagem do Porto in collaboration with European partners, including medical universities in Poland. The platform provides a modern learning environment that supports both students and academic staff in planning nursing care and making clinical decisions. Its uniqueness lies in the integration of a nursing ontology (NursingOntos), the ICNP® terminology – the International Classification for Nursing Practice, recognised as a global standard – and the nursing process model, encompassing assessment, diagnosis, planning, intervention, and evaluation.
The platform guides users through the entire clinical decision-making process, offering ontology-based diagnostic suggestions, support in selecting goals and interventions, automated generation of structured care plans, and tools for analysing outcomes and evaluating care effectiveness. This approach goes significantly beyond traditional teaching methods, incorporating elements of clinical simulation and enabling work within an environment closely resembling real-world electronic health record systems.
The e4Nursing solution is based on the concept of ontology-driven nursing practice, which involves the use of formal knowledge structures to support clinical practice. The application of ontologies enables semantic interoperability of data, standardisation of nursing documentation, improvement in the quality of clinical decision-making, and population-level data analysis. This approach forms the foundation for the development of modern electronic health records and artificial intelligence-based solutions in healthcare.
Within the project, nursing students acquire practical skills in using future-oriented tools already during their studies. They learn to plan patient care in a digital environment, document nursing interventions in accordance with international standards, utilise advanced clinical decision-support systems, and work with the ICNP® classification, widely recognised as a global standard for professional nursing documentation.
The project is implemented through a comprehensive process, beginning with the establishment of international collaboration and expert teams, followed by the translation and validation of the NursingOntos ontology into Polish and the training of academic staff in the use of digital tools in education. The next phase involves integrating the platform into the curriculum, where students engage in clinical scenarios and develop care plans within a digital environment, simultaneously strengthening both clinical and digital competencies. The process concludes with system evaluation and quality assessment of the generated care plans, enabling further data-driven research development.
The project is carried out in collaboration with centres accredited by the International Council of Nurses (ICN) as the ICNP® Research and Development Centres, ensuring high academic standards and compliance with international frameworks. Partners include institutions from Iceland, Norway, Switzerland, France, Ireland, Poland and Portugal. In Poland, the project is implemented by the three medical universities – Medical University of Gdańsk, the Medical University of Łódź, and the Medical University of Warsaw – with the support of the ICN-accredited ICNP® Research and Development Centre based at the Medical University of Łódź.
This structured collaboration represents a unique model integrating education, research, and implementation, enabling the effective deployment of innovative solutions in nursing education. The E4N.EU project stands out through its integration of ontology and education, use of international standards, development of future competencies, and application of a simulation-based approach in which the platform functions as a digital clinical simulation environment.
The implementation of the e4Nursing platform contributes to the modernisation of nursing education, enhances the quality and standardisation of care documentation, prepares graduates to work in electronic health record environments, and strengthens competencies in evidence-based practice. At the same time, the project responds to the evolving needs of healthcare systems, where digitalisation, interoperability, and data-driven care management are becoming increasingly important.
This initiative marks a significant milestone for academic nursing in Poland and sends a clear signal that Polish medical universities are ready to jointly shape the future of healthcare education at the highest European level. It demonstrates that inter-university collaboration can effectively overcome structural barriers and create new standards in medical education.
