Keep on learning! Fostering continuous learning and improvement in long-term nursing care

Long-term care is facing several challenges, including a large staff shortage, a high workload and increasing complexity of care as older people continue to live at home for longer. These circumstances require from nursing staff that they keep on learning and improving to come up with innovative solutions. Previous research has shown that the workplace is the most important place for learning and reflection. The more learning becomes part of daily working practice, the greater the likelihood of continuous improvements in the quality of care. A crucial aspect is a bottom-up approach, where nursing staff are given the opportunity to determine and shape their own learning process. To achieve this, we have developed and implemented the Learning Innovation Nurses Climate (LINC) approach. This approach enables nursing staff to effectively address the challenges they face during their work. In doing so, they can decide for themselves which improvements they want to make and how they want to achieve their goals, based on data from the organisation.