Department of Public Health and Primary Care

Most Important Projects of UCVV

Here you can find an overview of ongoing or recently completed projects for each research domain.

Oncological care

  • (P)Revalidation programme for patients with bladder cancer. This research will develop, implement and evaluatie a pre- and revalidation programme for patients with bladder cancer who are treated with radical surgery.
  • Needs and support needs of patient(s) and caregiver(s) required in the guidance of low anterior resection syndrome (LARS). This research is carried out in 8 hospitals in Flanders and focuses on needs and support needs of patients with the LAR-syndrome and their caregivers. A second part focuses on the long-term quality of life.  .
  • Supporting patients with cancer and their environment through tele-counselling and tele-monitoring: the digi-onco-poli (DOP). A digital oncological platform is developed, implemented and evaluated to support patients with cancer and their loved ones. Patients with cancer, their relatives, care providers, technology developers and hospitals are working in close collaboration in this project. This project has won the Agoria eHealth award in 2016 for best innovation project.De Regge, M., Decoene, E., Eeckloo, K., & Van Hecke, A. (2019). Development and Evaluation of an Integrated Digital Patient Platform During Oncology Treatment. Journal of Patient Experience.
  • CONTACT-studie: COllaborative Network to Take responsibility for oral AntiCancer Therapy. This study will develop a care path for patients treated with oral anti-cancer drugs in 6 Flemish hospitals and evaluate the impact on patients and care providers. 

Midwifery care

  • Advanced midwifery practice (AMP). Midwives at the crossroads of advanced practice, research and innovation. The aim of this research is to gain insight into the situation of AMP in Flanders, to explore the conditions for implementation and to develop AMP-specific outcomes to assess healthcare provision by AMPs.
  • Preconception care in Flanders. This research explored determinants and practices with regard to preconception care in both women and primary care providers. On the basis of these results, an intervention was developed. A second objective is to examine the incidence, factors and outcome of unplanned pregnancies. Goossens, Joline, Delbaere, I., Dhaenens, C., Willems, L., Van Hecke, A., Verhaeghe, S., & Beeckman, D. (2016). Preconception-related needs of reproductive-aged women. MIDWIFERY, 33, 64–72.
  • Parenting stress in mothers of singletons and twins up to one year postpartum. This project investigated differences in the level of parenting stress, co-parenting and social support between mothers of a singleton or twins. Risk factors for elevated parenting stress levels were also identified. De Roose, M., Beeckman, D., Eggermont, K., Vanhouche, E., Van Hecke, A., & Verhaeghe, S. (2018). Level of parenting stress in mothers of singletons and mothers of twins until one year postpartum : a cross-sectional study. WOMEN AND BIRTH, 31(3), E197–E203.
  • Research into the knowledge, attitudes and practical experiences of Flemish midwives regarding miscarriage. This project examined the knowledge on miscarriage of Flemish midwives, explored their attitudes regarding their role in the care of couples with miscarriage and investigated to what extent midwives are confronted with these couples. De Roose, M., Tency, I., Beeckman, D., Van Hecke, A., Verhaeghe, S., & Clays, E. (2018). Knowledge, attitude, and practices regarding miscarriage : a cross-sectional study among Flemish midwives. MIDWIFERY, 56, 44–52

Education

  • Contribution to the manual “Verpleegkundige ondersteuning bij zelfmanagement en eigen regie” (editie 2018; ISBN 9789036818674) in the chapter on support of self-management in chronic illness.

Mental healthcare

  • Patient participation in multidisciplinary team consultations in mental healthcare. This projects will develop, validate and implement a questionnaire to explore the perception of care providers and patients about this subject. The effects of patient participation on therapy complicance, sense of involvement,… will be evaluated.
  • Mental health nurses’ role and contributions in the interdisciplinary care for individuals suffering from suicidal ideation. This research aims to develop a theoretical model grounded in nurses’ and patients’ perspectives regarding the role of nurses in suicidal ideation. Based on these insights, a set of nursing indicators will be developed and implemented.
  • The added value of patient expertise in nursing practice. This projects will gain insight in dynamics and processes that sustain patient expertise to become a complementary source of knowledge in the daily nursing practice.

Skin care

Nutritional care

  • Indicators for measuring the quality of meals and meal care in residential facilities for elderly. This research developed and validated a set of structure, process and outcome indicators to monitor and evaluate the quality of meals and meal service in residential facilities. Van Damme, Nele, Buijck, B., Van Hecke, A., Verhaeghe, S., Goossens, E., & Beeckman, D. (2016). Development of a quality of meals and meal service set of indicators for residential facilities for elderly. JOURNAL OF NUTRITION HEALTH & AGING, 20(5), 471–477.

Other research domains, focusing on self-management, patient participation, care relationship and organization or family care.

  • Scientific support and evaluation of pilot projects on integrated care for chronically ill patients in Belgium. Twenty pilot projects were selected to develop integrated care for chronically ill patients within the plan “Integrated care for better health” (Integro).  The FAITH.be-consortium (Federated consortium for Appraisal of Integrated care Teams in Health in Belgium) is responsible for (1) the evaluation of effectiveness of integrated care programmes from different perspectives (patients, providers, government), (2) an implementation analysis and (3) support of the projects in self-evaluation.
  • Participation of patients and family members on micro level in hospitals: what is it and how can we improve? This research explores current practices in patient participation: influencing factors and perspectives of patients and care givers on information transfer are mapped out. In a second phase, the Tell-us cards will be evaluation on usefulness and effectiveness to increase patient and family participation.
  • Research of the broad implementation of lean management within healthcare. This project investigates whether Flemish health organisations are prepared to evolve to a lean thinking culture. It will focus on the conditions that are needed for a Lean organization. A tool will be developed to determine the ‘Lean maturity’ of organisations.
  • The role of patients, informal and formal caregivers in clinical decision making for elderly in primary care. This project focuses on the early detection and recognition of symptoms in elderly in primary care, supported by knowledge and experience of family and informal caregivers.
  • The impact of Bedside Shift Report on Flemish nursing departments. This project investigated to what level the bedside shift report affects patient participation and the communication between nurses and with the patients. Malfait, Simon, Eeckloo, K., Van Biesen, W., & Van Hecke, A. (2019). The effectiveness of bedside handovers: A multilevel, longitudinal study of effects on nurses and patients. Journal of Advanced Nursing, Jan 21.
  • Transgressive behavior in health care: insight in perception, origin and implications for nursing practice. This study provides insight in the origin and perception of transgressive behavior in the care relation and investigated intervention and implementation to support care. Vandecasteele, Tina, Van Hecke, A., Duprez, V., Beeckman, D., Debyser, B., Grypdonck, M., & Verhaeghe, S. (2017). The influence of team members on nurses’ perceptions of transgressive behaviour in care relationships : a qualitative study. JOURNAL OF ADVANCED NURSING, 73(10), 2373–2384.
  • Experiences and needs of family members of patients older than 50 years with cancer of Turkish and Northwest African descent. Based on 32 interviews this research provides insight in the experiences and needs of family members of  older adults with cancer of this origin. A guide for care providers is developed based on these findings. van Eechoud, I., Grypdonck, M., Leman, J., Van Den Noortgate, N., Deveugele, M., & Verhaeghe, S. (2016). Caring for family members older than 50 years of Turkish and Northwest African descent: the meaning of caregiving. CANCER NURSING, 39(1), 51–60.