The Florence Network https://florence-network.org/ Just another WordPress site Wed, 14 Jan 2026 16:27:46 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 https://florence-network.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Florence-icon2-389x389-3-150x150.png The Florence Network https://florence-network.org/ 32 32 About us https://florence-network.org/2022/04/21/about-us/ Thu, 21 Apr 2022 19:41:34 +0000 https://florence-network.org/?p=1598 The Florence Network is one of Europe’s oldest nursing and midwifery networks established in 1995. The Florence Network compromises 51 Universities (Higher Educational Institutions) from 22 European countries. The Florence […]

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The Florence Network is one of Europe’s oldest nursing and midwifery networks established in 1995. The Florence Network compromises 51 Universities (Higher Educational Institutions) from 22 European countries.

The Florence Network is a European Higher Education co-operation of Nursing and Midwifery Departments of European Universities with the aim of identifying and developing educational, scientific, practice and pedagogical commonalities. The Florence Network, while respecting existing variations of ideologies, strategies and visions of Nursing and Midwifery education across Europe, nonetheless, the Florence Network strives to identify commonalities, to enable convergences and to promote mobility between Countries and Institutions as required by European educational treaties.

The objective of the Florence Network is to develop and improve the quality of European higher education in nursing and midwifery by means of international co-operation in the field of education, scientific research and development. In this way the Network aspires to improve the image of the Nursing and Midwifery professions and to improve the quality of European health care.

The main goals of the Florence Network are:

  • To raise the profile of European Nursing and Midwifery
  • To stimulate and organise the exchange of students between Florence Network members
  • To stimulate and organise the exchange of lecturers between Florence Network members
  • To contribute to the quality development of curricula in European Nursing & Midwifery Education
  • To identify common nursing and midwifery research interests and develop research collaboration
  • To develop and organise common projects, and intensive Nursing and Midwifery programmes and/ or activities within ERASMUS+ and other programmes

The Florence Network welcomes Nursing and Midwifery schools from all European countries, is democratically structured and is inclusive of both faculty and students.

Florence Network Permanent Board

President of the Florence Network  
Laura Visiers Jiménez
Campus San Rafael. Escuela de Enfermería y Fisioterapia San Juan de Dios. Universidad Pontificia de Comillas, Madrid, Spain
University Center Spain [email protected]
Vice –president of the Florence Network
Mirjam Palsma
Hanze University of Applied Sciences, The Netherlands
[email protected]

Academic Committee of the Florence Network

Maria Malliarou
University of Thessaly, Greece
[email protected]  
Renzo Moreale
Udine University, Italy   [email protected]
Ronald Ars
NHL/Stenden, Leeuwarden, The Netherlands
[email protected]

Visibility Group of the Florence Network

Sara Rodriguez Martin
Edinburgh Napier University Scotland
[email protected]

Claudia Bacatum,
University of Lisbon, Nursing School, Portugal
[email protected]
Elpiniki Laiou,
University of Ioannina, Greece 
[email protected] 

Research Group of the Florence Network

Mirza Oruč
University of Zenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Department of medicine and nursing
[email protected]
Federica Canzan
University of Verona, Italy
Department of nursing
[email protected]
Inge Tency
Odisee, Belgium
Department of midwifery
[email protected]

Student Board

The Student Board (SB) is composed of five elected members, hereunder a President and Vice-President and three additional board members. SB members are elected by the students present at the SB Annual Meeting and there is one student vote per institution. Our aim is to promote the visibility of the network among the students, encourage students’ exchanges between the institutions and facilitate the discussion about nursing and midwifery educational and professional issues across Europe.

Furthermore, the Student Board has an important responsibility to prepare and organize the student programme for the Florence Network Annual Meeting (FNAM).

Student Board of the Florence Network

PresidentVice-presidentAcademic CommitteeVisibility student groupNewsletter Editor
Marc Folkers
Hanze, Groningen, The Netherlands [email protected]
Johannes Smids, NHL/Stenden University of Applied Sciences, Leeuwarden, The Netherlands
[email protected]
Kanusiya Shanthirakumar Zürich University of Applied Sciences ZHAW – Switzerland [email protected]
Ruth Barrera Gibello Comilla’s University – Spain

[email protected]
Vittoria Francesca Perez Humanitas University – Italy
[email protected]

(other) Student Board Members

Ginevra Canciani 

Elmir Mesïć 

Udine University – Italy 

University of Zenica – Bosnia and Herzegovina

[email protected]

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Annual meeting https://florence-network.org/2022/04/15/annual-meeting/ Fri, 15 Apr 2022 18:39:50 +0000 https://florence-network.org/?p=1588 Introduction The Florence network is one of Europe’s oldest nursing and midwifery networks and is to date still an active and welcoming network which is reflected in a membership of […]

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Introduction

The Florence network is one of Europe’s oldest nursing and midwifery networks and is to date still an active and welcoming network which is reflected in a membership of 51 partner institutions of higher education.

Academic staff, managers and students meet each other at the what we call Florence Network Annual Meeting, in short, the FNAM. This annual gathering of partners is organized each year by one of the member institutions. The FNAM is aimed at, among others, establishing, maintaining and enhancing the depth and levels of cooperation in partnerships. During each yearly gathering a theme is chosen to discuss also on content level, which benefits the sharing of ideas that will facilitate the process of learning from each other.

The hosting of the FNAM should be discussed and announced at the General Assembly at least one year prior to the coming FNAM. It is also possible for more than one institution to co-host a Florence Network Annual Meeting.

In close cooperation with the permanent board and the student board, the host institution(s) are responsible for the agenda, organisation, administration, program, and minutes of the FNAM.

Themes

The annual meetings deal with the present challenges and needs of students, academic staff, researchers and managers.

Examples of previous themes are:

  • The theme for FNAM 2024 in Thessaly, Greece was “Strengthening resilience through educational and digital innovations”.
  • Nursing and Midwifery education: a new era after the pandemic (2022). This FNAM was virtually organised in İzmir, Turkey.
  • Global Human Security (2021). This Florence Network Annual Meeting was the first virtual meeting in the history of the network. SARS-CoV-2 challenged us to organise this digitally and we successfully succeeded!
  • In 2019 the theme was “Future Forward: The Future of Nursing & Midwifery in a Changing Health Arena”.
  • In 2018 it was “Cha Cha Cha in care – Changes, Challenges, Chances!”
  • And a last example from 2017 where the topic focused on Mental Health: Global Challenge – Local Actions.

FNAM 2026

Welcome to the Florence Network Annual Meeting 2026!
Hosted by the University of Zenica in Zenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina, this event will bring together nursing and midwifery students, educators, and professionals from across Europe to promote collaboration, innovation, and cultural exchange in healthcare education.
We look forward to seeing you there! 13rd of April until 17th of April 2026.

The theme for FNAM 2026 is “Back to Our Roots”.

Registration

Please find all needed info on FNAM26 – 33rd Florence Network Annual Meeting and you might also want to check our socials like our FB group, instagram.

Registration link: FNAM26 – REGISTRATION

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