The Nursing School of Coimbra (ESEnfC) is a public higher education institution dedicated to nursing education and research. As a higher education institution, ESEnfC defines, programs, and implements strategic plans, activity plans, projects, services to the community, and other scientific, educational, and cultural activities. It has scientific, pedagogical, cultural, administrative, financial, and patrimonial independence. The broad autonomy granted to higher education is based on the belief that its institutions have the critical mass necessary to fulfill their missions. However, higher education institutions are complex organizations, living systems that, in addition to having clearly defined objectives, must develop self-regulatory systems that allow them to make the necessary adjustments to correct deviations and meet their social responsibilities. For this reason, ESEnfC has developed an Internal Quality Assurance System (SIGQ), coordinated by the Quality and Assessment Board (CQA), which promotes and controls ESEnfC’s and its courses’ quality and assessment.
With a long history of self-evaluation and peer evaluation, the ESEnfC is committed to establishing a quality assurance policy based on systematic result monitoring and evaluation processes in all areas of its strategic development to promote continuous improvement.
ESEnfC is a public institution that pioneered nursing education in Portugal. Today, the School is committed to promoting global health and sustainable development and is recognized nationally and internationally as an institution certified for its quality and social responsibility.
ESEnfC’s mission is to provide comprehensive nursing and health education, develop research and innovation, offer services, and create and disseminate a culture that supports the development of nursing as a science and a profession. The School’s work is based on four (4) transformative strategic axes: AXIS 1: EDUCATION AND TRAINING; AXIS 2: RESEARCH AND INNOVATION; AXIS 3: EXTENSION AND PROVISION OF SERVICES TO THE COMMUNITY; and AXIS 4: DIRECTION, MANAGEMENT, AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT, and is supported by its technical, administrative and information services.
ESEnfC aims to involve the entire academic community and other stakeholders in its continuous improvement processes by encouraging their participation in the definition of strategic guidelines and institutional evaluation processes (internal and external). To this end, the School has a policy of transparency that disseminates evaluation results and a constructivist approach to development that encourages everyone to discuss, reflect on, and suggest improvements to these results.
Quality is fundamental in all ESEnfC processes and is a key requirement in:
- The qualification of the teaching staff – ESEnfC promotes the continuous improvement of the scientific and pedagogical training of its teaching staff;
- The qualification of non-teaching staff - the School strives to promote the continuous training of non-teaching staff in order to meet not only the desires for personal development but also institutional needs;
- The qualification of the student body – the School works to create a student-centered learning community with a conducive, vibrant, and encouraging environment that fosters the ethical, scientific, technical, cultural, and civic development of students as individuals;
- The training offer - the School strives to create conditions that ensure continuous improvement in training processes and outcomes, earning the recognition and respect of the community and the labor market and achieving greater student satisfaction. ESEnfC also seeks to diversify its educational offer to train professionals capable of responding to social needs in health and nursing, producing knowledge in nursing, and addressing the challenges of health management;
- The research conducted at the School - ESEnfC has created the conditions for the development of Scientific Research, Innovation, and Development by supporting and disseminating scientific projects and promoting scientific cooperation with national and foreign research centers;
- The systematic and combined integration of teaching, research, and extension and service provision to the community aimed at optimizing teaching and student activities, improving the quality of education, scientific production, and implementation of knowledge from research, and effectively contributing to nursing development;
- The optimization of technological resources, educational spaces, and other means necessary for teaching, student, and non-teaching activities - the School promotes the optimization of educational spaces and resources in order to continuously improve the conditions for educational, scientific, technological, and administrative activities, prioritizing the use of advanced technological resources to meet the challenges of an information- and knowledge-based society;
- Student support mechanisms and social action - the School strives to implement student support and comprehensive social action mechanisms, including school health, health monitoring, and prompt response to acute episodes of illness, to promote students’ life and study conditions;
- School life – ESEnfC promotes cultural, sports, and social events/initiatives among the members of its academic community in the belief that sociability highlights the limits and opportunities of the School’s various stakeholders in teaching, learning, training, and research activities; the School also promotes self-esteem and recognition of the work of each member of the ESEnfC community, which is fundamental to its success.
