NAT-CARE, Integrating Green Prescription into Nature-Based Healthcare Education for Sustainable Wellbeing, is a EU-funded project developed in collaboration with universities focusing on the design and development of a recognized higher education course that operationalises pathways for Nature Prescription, connecting healthcare community systems with professionals trained in nature-based health and wellbeing approaches.
Through this work, the project contributes to building the necessary structures for nature to be prescribed in a coordinated and practical way within existing care models.
Through the integration of nature-based health interventions into higher and vocational education for nurses and healthcare professionals, NAT-CARE strongly advances the growth of nature-based health and well-being as a complementary pathway within healthcare systems, focusing on strengthening professional training frameworks that allow healthcare professionals such as community nurses to promote nature-based activities within traditional healthcare services.
At the same time, the initiative strengthens professional opportunities for trained nature-based practitioners, as the professionals who design and facilitate nature-based activities. By supporting their integration into healthcare and community wellbeing ecosystems, the project helps reinforce more preventive, community-oriented, and sustainable models of health support.
A key component of the project is the development of a Nature Prescription training pathway designed to support nurses and healthcare professionals, strengthening their capacity to connect patients with self-paced activities as well as with professionals who offer nature-based activities and interventions ..
To support this pathway, the project is implementing several coordinated actions. These include mapping knowledge gaps and institutional barriers within healthcare systems in Spain and Portugal, developing an evidence-based hybrid curriculum aligned with European nursing standards, creating a multilingual Digital Toolkit to support patient assessment and outcome monitoring, and delivering pilot workshops in collaboration with a university institution to train diverse cohorts of nurses.
The training design has been informed by sector research, including focus groups and stakeholder consultations, ensuring that the materials respond to real operational needs within healthcare environments.
As within the broader European context, NAT-CARE advances structured Nature Prescription pathways, the project helps strengthen preventive, community-oriented, and sustainability-aligned healthcare approaches, while supporting the professional integration of nature-based health practices within emerging European wellbeing strategies.
Aja agora: inscreva-se nas nossas formações de Guia de Banhos de Floresta e Profissional de Terapia de Floresta. Vamos crescer juntos, adquirindo as habilidades essenciais para conduzir experiências significativas na natureza.
