Dr. rer. cur. Andrea Kuhn will assume the professorship in Applied Nursing Science at htw saar; she will join the Faculty of Social Sciences in mid-October. She currently serves as acting professor of Nursing Science with a focus on clinical nursing across the life span at the University of Trier and heads the Health Research Network at the Ludwigshafen University of Business and Society. On September 30, 2026, she attended an introductory meeting at the Ministry of Finance and Science.
Building on many years of professional experience in intensive care at maximum-care hospitals, Andrea Kuhn completed her academic training. She studied Nursing and Health Promotion (B.A.) and Nursing Science (M.A.) at the Protestant University of Applied Sciences in Darmstadt. She earned her Ph.D. at Vinzenz Pallotti University in Vallendar; her dissertation, “The Ethical Mandate of Nursing Boards: Development of a Program Theory from the Perspective of Health Promotion” intertwines professional development with the ethical dimension of the healing profession of nursing and, based on this, develops a program theory for health promotion aimed at nursing professionals and people in need of care.
Andrea Kuhn’s research focuses on the professionalization of nursing, nursing ethics, health policy, and health promotion. She examines interdependent factors, intersections, and supportive resources within these fields with the goal of developing effective, theoretically grounded, and practical programs for nursing care.
Other focal points of her work include employability, “New Work,” and the professional expertise of nursing. The employability of professional nurses must go hand in hand with the organizational development of hospitals and nursing facilities so that human resources and organizations can serve the well-being of both employees and people in need of care.
Internationally, the expertise of academic nursing is scientifically proven, politically recognized, and extensively utilized to ensure healthcare provision for society. In Germany, this potential has largely remained untapped thus far; it is essential to tap into and utilize it here as well in the future.
Andrea Kuhn will contribute to the development of the new Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.) degree program in nursing at htw saar, which is scheduled to begin in the winter semester of 2027/28. Students will acquire nursing science and medical competencies to manage and design highly complex nursing processes in the face of increasing healthcare demands. The combination of nursing science knowledge, high professional competence, and critical reflection skills enables the development of new forms of care and the implementation of evidence-based nursing practice. The program concludes with a Bachelor of Science degree and the state examination for professional licensure as a registered nurse. Students receive compensation for the entire duration of the program. Graduates are equally qualified to provide the population with professionally sound, responsible, and humane care, as well as to further develop the nursing profession within the healthcare system in a manner that meets current needs. In the future, they will play a key role in closing the often-cited theory-practice gap.
In her new role, Andrea Kuhn intends to focus on three key areas for education, cooperation, and research at htw saar: the implementation of a modern skills lab for practice-oriented, simulation-based teaching and learning formats in the nursing program; the establishment, coordination, and further development of a sustainable network of cooperation with practice partners from hospitals and nursing facilities; and the scientific support of university-level nursing education, which will be an essential component in ensuring efficient, high-quality healthcare in the Saarland.