At the end of June 2024, on the 20th and 21st, the IMAGINE consortium held a project meeting in Rethymno, Crete, coinciding with the project’s midpoint. The meeting was organized by our partner, the University of Crete, led by Prof. Christos Lionis. Carl Llor, the project coordinator, emphasized the “excellent organization that facilitated very productive outcomes.” The two-day meeting was successful, with most participants demonstrating a strong commitment to the project through their active participation and fruitful discussions.
The meeting was busy and content-rich, achieving significant advances, including the preparation of intervention workshops scheduled for the final trimester of the year across all eight IMAGINE countries. These workshops will involve nursing home staff from participating facilities. In this regard, the consortium was positively surprised by the high level of involvement from the nursing homes in all countries, participating in all activities that are part of IMAGINE and helping the project design an intervention with them and for them, following the Participatory Action Research approach. Special acknowledgment is extended to the Greek nursing home that visited us during the meeting to share their first-hand experiences and thoughts.
During the meeting, the consortium also reviewed the results of the first audit registration on hygiene and infections over the three-month period and agreed on the algorithm for antibiotic inappropriateness. Plans were also laid out for forthcoming publications highlighting initial findings and revealing notable disparities among nursing homes across different nations. The results presented clearly indicate significant room for improvement, which we aim to achieve through the intervention we will implement in the autumn.
“We can only acknowledge the hard work of all partners in this consortium and appreciate their valuable inputs and expertise, as well as the friendly environment that keeps pushing us forward towards the IMAGINE goals,” said our coordinator, Carl Llor.