The NAT-CARE project, an EU-funded initiative on nature prescription in healthcare, has concluded. Its results are now available to health professionals: the NAT-CARE Nature Prescription in Healthcare Settings course, a ten-step prescribing workflow, and the NAT-CARE Toolkit and Workbook.
How do you turn the idea of prescribing nature into something that can be used in everyday healthcare? That was the question at the heart of NAT-CARE. Now, with the project concluded, the answer is taking shape in a form health professionals can put to work: a dedicated training program, a practical prescribing toolkit, and a framework designed to become part of healthcare education and practice.
NAT-CARE is the first EU-funded training program focused on healthcare and nature prescription. It brings together the clinical, educational, and practical elements that health professionals need to incorporate nature-based interventions into their work. The project also does not end with the funding period. The course and resources are designed to keep the work moving, including through integration into the educational offerings of several universities.
Why Nature Prescription Needed Practical Tools
The case for nature-based interventions has been growing for years. But evidence alone does not tell a nurse what to do when a patient is sitting in front of them.
FTHub Training Director Manuela Renzi explains:
“When we started NAT-CARE, the evidence for nature-based interventions was already strong. What was missing was something much more practical: a way for a nurse standing in front of a patient on a Tuesday morning to know who is suitable, what to prescribe, how much, and what to do next.”
That practical gap shaped the entire project. The needs assessment carried out by the NAT-CARE team found that health professionals in Spain and Portugal were broadly receptive to nature prescription but lacked a common framework for putting it into practice. There were open questions around eligibility, safety, assessment, documentation, referral, and follow-up, and there was no shared process that could fit naturally into existing clinical work.
“So rather than building another awareness campaign, we built the missing infrastructure: a training curriculum and a toolkit,” Manuela says.
A Ten-Step Nature Prescription Workflow, From Assessment to Follow-Up
The NAT-CARE approach is built around a ten-step prescribing workflow that takes a professional from the first assessment to ongoing monitoring. The framework covers the questions that make nature prescription more than a general recommendation:
- Is this person a suitable candidate?
- Are there contraindications?
- How much support do they need?
- Which protocol fits their needs?
- What should the prescription include?
- How should it be documented?
- What happens after the prescription has been made?
The accompanying toolkit turns those questions into practical resources, including assessment grids, support-level guidance, protocol selection tools, prescription and instruction forms, referral templates, and monitoring resources.
“It looks and works like any other clinical pathway,” says Manuela, “because that is precisely the point.”
If nature prescription is to become part of routine care, professionals need to be able to assess, prescribe, document, and follow it up. An informal suggestion to “spend more time outside” does not meet that standard.
The NAT-CARE Course: Nature Prescription Training for Health Professionals
The new NAT-CARE: Nature Prescription in Healthcare Settings course takes this framework into a structured learning environment. It is designed for nurses and other health professionals who want to bring nature prescription into their work in clinical settings, local care services, or education.
The course is also a useful bridge for professionals working alongside healthcare services. This includes people certified through the FTHub Certified Forest Bathing Guide and FTHub Certified Forest Therapy Practitioner programs who need to understand the clinical language of prescription, documentation, and outcomes.
Across eight core modules, participants explore:
- the foundations of nature prescription
- clinical assessment and safety
- intervention design
- integration into health systems
- local resources
- behavior change
- adherence
- monitoring and evaluation
The emphasis goes beyond concepts. Participants apply the ten-step workflow to real or simulated cases from the start, which moves them from theory to the practical decisions involved in creating and monitoring a nature prescription. The course also looks at how nature prescriptions can sit alongside approaches such as nature-based social prescribing, green exercise, and Forest Therapy.
A Free Nature Prescription Toolkit and Workbook
One of the most important outcomes of NAT-CARE is the NAT-CARE Toolkit and Workbook. It is designed as a working resource rather than a document to read once and put aside. It brings together what professionals need to move through the prescribing process, from initial assessment and safety considerations to choosing an intervention, creating the prescription, supporting adherence, and monitoring outcomes.
For Manuela, making these resources openly available is an essential part of the project’s legacy:
“The toolkit and the training materials will be made publicly and freely available, so that any professional or institution interested in adopting them can do so.”
That means the project can keep reaching beyond the people who took part in the pilot phase. FTHub’s free resource collection also brings together the NAT-CARE toolkit with research, reports, and other materials on nature-based health and practice.
Pilot Training in Burgos and Lisbon Brought to Everyday Practice
The framework was not developed on paper alone. The NAT-CARE pilot training in Burgos and Lisbon gave participants the chance to work with the methodology, explore case studies, test the tools, and experience the practical side of nature-based interventions. Manuela reflects:
“The pilot trainings in Burgos and Lisbon were where the framework stopped being a document and started being tested.”
New clinical frameworks need to be worked through, questioned, and adapted before they become part of professional practice. The pilot phase brought together nurses and other professionals from different backgrounds. It showed how the framework worked in real learning environments and how it could fit different healthcare contexts.
Nature Prescription in University and Continuing Education
The next step is perhaps the most important one: making sure the knowledge does not stay inside a completed project. NAT-CARE’s training is being positioned for integration into the offerings of several universities. This creates a pathway for nature prescription to reach future health professionals through their formal and continuing education.
That opens the door to a much broader shift. Nature-based health would no longer be something individual professionals discover through personal interest. Instead, the skills and frameworks for prescribing nature can become part of professional learning.
The course is also available outside university settings. It combines online learning, live sessions, practical tools, readings, and applied cases. It ends with a final assignment in which participants develop a complete nature prescription, from assessment through documentation and follow-up. Participants receive access to the NAT-CARE Handbook, the Toolkit Workbook, and practical learning materials. They also receive an FTHub NAT-CARE Specialization Certificate on completion.
What Comes Next for NAT-CARE?
NAT-CARE has created a common language, a structured workflow, and a set of practical tools. Together, these can help health professionals explore where nature prescription fits within prevention, treatment, and rehabilitation. There is still work to do. Adoption depends on healthcare organizations, educators, and professionals adapting the framework to their own contexts. It also depends on them building the local pathways and partnerships needed to make prescriptions possible.
But the foundations are now in place. Manuela explains:
“From here, we hope to see the framework taken up more widely in nursing education and professional training, and to keep working with health institutions on what it takes to embed these pathways into everyday practice.”
Explore the NAT-CARE Course and Free Resources
The NAT-CARE course gives health professionals a structured route into nature prescription, combining evidence, clinical decision-making, and practical application. For those who want to start exploring the approach right away, the NAT-CARE Toolkit and Workbook are available as a free resource. Get yours now!
Frequently Asked Questions
What is nature prescription?
In the NAT-CARE framework, nature prescription is a structured clinical process. A health professional:
- assesses whether a person is a suitable candidate,
- checks for contraindications,
- selects a protocol,
- writes and documents the prescription, and
- follows up.
It is designed to work like any other clinical pathway, not as an informal suggestion to spend time outside.
What does the NAT-CARE course cover?
The NAT-CARE: Nature Prescription in Healthcare Settings course has eight core modules:
- the foundations of nature prescription
- clinical assessment and safety
- intervention design
- integration into health systems
- local resources
- behavior change
- adherence
- monitoring and evaluation
Participants apply a ten-step workflow to real or simulated cases. The course ends with a final assignment in which each participant develops a complete nature prescription.
Who is the NAT-CARE course for?
The course is designed for nurses and other health professionals who want to use nature prescription in their practice. It is also useful for professionals who work alongside healthcare services. This includes FTHub Certified Forest Bathing Guides and FTHub Certified Forest Therapy Practitioners who need to understand the clinical language of prescription, documentation, and outcomes.
Is the NAT-CARE toolkit free?
Yes. The NAT-CARE Toolkit and Workbook is available as a free resource in FTHub’s resource library. It includes:
- assessment grids
- support-level guidance
- protocol selection tools
- prescription and instruction forms
- referral templates
- monitoring resources
Together, these take a professional from initial assessment to follow-up.
Where was the NAT-CARE framework tested?
The framework was tested in pilot training in Burgos and Lisbon. Nurses and other professionals from different backgrounds worked with the methodology, explored case studies, and tried out the tools. The pilot showed how the framework works in real learning environments and how it can fit different healthcare contexts.
