Opinion Lab

Welcome to the Opinion Lab!
Working together for a better quality of life in old age – alleviating pain. Providing holistic empathic care.

Opinion Lab is more than just a project - it is a real-world laboratory for high-quality health and nursing care.

A unique collaboration between the Caritas St. Peter nursing home and the Institute of Nursing Science at the Medical University of Graz is creating a space where science, nursing practice, and humanity come together.

Opinion Lab stands for: Open Innovation Nursing Lab – an innovative research approach in which nursing is not only investigated scientifically, but also developed in collaboration with people in the nursing home.

Shaping nursing together – in real life

The focus is on the Living Lab approach:

User-oriented research – research together with people, not about them: Residents, relatives, and nursing staff are actively involved in the entire research process.
Weekly presence in the nursing home – researchers are regularly on site to accompany and support developments directly in everyday life.
Co-creation instead of top-down decisions – solutions to current issues are developed in close cooperation with all participants.
Real-time evaluation – new measures are tested, reflected upon, and further developed in everyday life.

The structure of cooperation: linking pins

The Opinion Lab thrives on close, continuous collaboration. This is ensured by the so-called linking pins – key liaisons between research and practice:

Two scientific linking pins – representing the Institute of Nursing Science, coordinate research and ensure scientific quality.
One Nursing Home Linking Pin – representing the perspective of the nursing care facility, ensure feedback and integration into everyday life.

These roles create trust, reliability, and communication on an equal footing – the basis for genuine innovation in the context of health and nursing care.

Changing care together

Opinion Lab stands for:

Participation: residents and caregivers play an active role in shaping care.
Scientific rigour: robust, evaluated, transparent.
Humanity: dignity, closeness and enjoyment of life despite pain.
Innovation: rethinking care – pragmatically and effectively.

The Opinion Lab focuses on non-pharmalogical measures for pain relief that can be purposefully applied in the everyday lives of older people.

The toolkit – evidence-based and practical

The core of the project is the “toolkit” for non-pharmacological pain management:

an evidence-based catalogue of measures that offers nursing staff concrete options for alleviating pain without medication - in a mindful, activating, and individual manner.

The aim is to empower nursing staff, to highlight alternative options, and to ~~enable~~ achieve a sustainable improvement in the nursing home residents' quality of life.

Toolkit German

Toolkit English

Collaborations

In addition to the collaboration with the Caritas nursing home in Graz-St. Peter, there are also partnerships with other Lliving Llabs beyond Austria's borders. The Living Lab in Ageing and Long-Term Care is located in the Dutch region of Limburg, the Living Lab NICHE-Leeds is located in Leeds (England), and the Living Lab PraWiLab is located in Halle and Cologne (Germany). All Living Labs are in regular contact and meet once a year at the Living Lab Symposium.