HEAL is an acronym for "internsHips in futurE hospitALs". The project is supported by the Erasmus+ programme cooperation partnerships.

The “Hospital of the Future” will bring a shift away from the traditional inpatient facilities and processes, and health care providers have made substantial research in how to create the best outpatient structures and processes. This leads to a situation where patients stay only a few days in the hospital, followed up by remote monitoring and the responsibility of care transferred to other local health care providers, being closer to the individual citizen.

This situation makes it increasingly difficult for the university hospitals to embrace the high number of health care students that need practical internships while studying in university or university of applied sciences. Internships are a very important part of the health care educations, as they prepare the students for the big responsibility they will have after graduation, where they will be working directly with patients. It is therefore of outmost importance that internships are of high quality, building trust within the students, preparing them for the transition from theory to practice, and ensuring that the students do not experience a “practice chock” when they start working in the clinic.