Advanced Practice Nurse Katrin Flügge receives Hanse Care Award 2025
APNs bring new scientific findings into everyday ward life: Katrin Flügge (right) in conversation with her colleague Melanie Nünning. Copyright: Carolin Korth/MHH
Sometimes a degree course ends not only with a successful degree, but also with a special honor. This was the case for Katrin Flügge: the Advanced Practice Nurse (APN) from the neurosurgical anaesthesiology intensive care unit 34 was awarded the Hanseatic Nursing Prize 2025 for her master's thesis in health and nursing science. The prize, which is endowed with 2,000 euros, is awarded every year by the Scientific Association for the Promotion of Clinically Applied Research in Intensive Care Medicine (WIVIM e.V.) at the Intensive Care Medicine + Intensive Care Symposium in Bremen.
For Katrin Flügge, it was always clear that she wanted to work in direct patient care. “Nevertheless, I'm also interested in science,” says the 29-year-old. So she added a part-time degree course to her training as a nurse. This also included an internship on an intensive care unit in Basel. “I got to know Advanced Practice Nursing there and found the combination of science and practice ideal,” explains Katrin Flügge. APN refers to an in-depth and specialized nursing practice. APNs take on special tasks on the wards with a focus on patient care. For example, they accompany and advise certain patient groups and their relatives, conduct nursing research, promote interprofessional collaboration and incorporate new scientific findings into patient care.
In her master's thesis, Katrin Flügge examined the question of how patients and their relatives experience the time after a stay in an intensive care unit. The focus here is on post-intensive care syndrome (PICS). This refers to the possible long-term consequences of a stay in intensive care. PICS includes physical, cognitive and psychological symptoms. As an APN, Katrin Flügge specializes in patients with subarachnoid haemorrhage (SAH) and their relatives. A SAH usually occurs as a result of a burst aneurysm and is located between the meninges. This group of patients can also be affected by a PICS. Together with the ward team, Katrin Flügge aims to improve intensive inpatient care and the aftercare process for those affected and their families.
An APN trainee program has been available at the MHH since 2019 www.mhh.de/pflege/pflegewissenschaft/apn-trainee-programm
Text: Tina Götting