The 3rd Forum of Nurses and Nursing Assistants from the perspective of an IEU representative
What would happen if 125 passionate Ukrainian nurses were brought together in one place? Within three days, nurses, doctors, college students, representatives of projects, the Ministry of Health, and the National Health Service of Ukraine not only dreamed but also asked bold questions and suggested specific changes.
Will nurses become visible rather than shadows of doctors? If so, how many signs on doctors’ office doors already bear their names? Indeed, they perform a significant portion of the work.
Will nurses be able to obtain licenses and provide independent care at home? Some of them already do this and are ready to come out of the tax shadows. Autonomy should not only be declarative but also legally formalized.
Attendees also focused on some tricky questions, which have only been figured out in the richest countries so far:
– Do we need a system of nurse assistants?
– What is the role of community nurses?
– How can nurses monitor the quality of the doctors’ work using checklists?
Besides, the forum was attended by the school nurse who recalled a case involving a “blue schoolboy” and quickly diagnosed the problem: the clothes faded. Unfortunately, the school nurse is a product of vertical systems created at the intersection of several ministries. Therefore, there are difficulties that cannot be resolved interdepartmentally. We need horizontal, non-totalitarian, and non-Soviet systems.
During the session on quality, Vladyslav Odrynskyi stressed that the healthcare system should work for people. However, no one measures the experience of the main consumer – the patient. He also pointed out that everyone limits healthcare to only known levels (highly specialized, specialized, primary medical care), forgetting about community assistance and self-help.
One of the participants, a trainee nurse, said that her colleague abroad had two mentors: one who was a step ahead in terms of skills and another who was a senior nurse with a high level of competence.
The most interesting part was the closed session on the development of professional standards. The old 78th reference book of qualification characteristics described positions and responsibilities, while the new professional standards focus on competencies, skills, and results relevant to modern practice.
Although more than 6,000 suggestions have already been received for the Professional Standard, only about 3% of them actually move the system forward. Most are attempts to preserve the current situation. At the same time, a decision was made: the process will be open, with the composition of working groups and the draft document being made public.
Vadym Vus, an IEU lecturer, has already participated in working group meetings and made specific offers for upgrading the document and making the standard development procedure more transparent. Nevertheless, there is still plenty of work ahead, and it is the participation of progressive nurses, lecturers, patients, and other stakeholders that will determine the quality of changes.
Enabel in Ukraine
Development of Medical Education Ukrainian-Swiss project
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