The New Cycle of the ERASMUS+ Blended Intensive Programme “Breastfeeding and Early Interaction: Basic and Beyond” Has Started

On February 10, 2026, a new cycle of the international educational programme Erasmus+ Blended Intensive Programme (BIP) “Breastfeeding and Early Interaction: Basic and Beyond” began. The programme will last three months. Students and lecturers from Austria, Belgium, Estonia, Finland, and Ukraine are participating, creating a unique international learning environment and fostering professional and intercultural exchange.

For the Educational and Scientific Institute of Nursing of Ternopil National Medical University, international cooperation within this programme began in 2025, marking the second consecutive year of participation in the project.

The online component of the programme will take place on the Moodle platform of Tallinn Health Care College and will conclude with a final online examination on April 17, 2026.

The development of the educational materials, including the section on breastfeeding support for mothers with special needs, involved lecturers of the Educational and Scientific Institute of Nursing, Yuliia Danylevych and Yuliia Kotsaba.

After successfully completing the online phase, participants will take part in the contact week, which in 2026 will be held from April 20–24 in Tallinn, Estonia.

The in-person component of the programme provides for active exchange of professional and educational experience, direct communication among students from different countries, intercultural interaction, and teamwork within an international educational environment.

An important part of the contact week will be practical skills training in modern simulation settings, modelling various aspects of breastfeeding support and real clinical situations. After each simulation scenario, a structured debriefing session will be conducted, during which participants will analyse their actions, discuss clinical decisions made, and exchange experiences regarding specialist training and educational approaches in different countries.

This year, the Ukrainian team is represented by second-year students of the Educational and Scientific Institute of Nursing: Anastasiia Stelmakh, Lina Boichuk, Yuliia Palka, and Svitlana Vlasova, who demonstrated strong interest in the programme and successfully passed the competitive selection process.

Throughout the programme, participants will deepen their theoretical knowledge of breastfeeding and early mother–child interaction, and acquire practical skills to address the most common breastfeeding-related challenges in accordance with current international guidelines and evidence-based medicine.

Participation in the Erasmus+ BIP programme is an important step in the professional development of future nurses and contributes to the further integration of Ukrainian nursing education into the European educational space.