Turning West NIS Nurses Into Leaders

Another important program that has brought about positive organizational shifts in all healthcare systems in the West NIS region is the Nursing Leadership Program. Since the establishment of AIHA partnerships in these countries, more than 140 nurses have learned not only methods for delivering high-quality medical services, but also the skills needed for teaching and the basics of clinical management—which have substantially enhanced their role and made nursing a prestigious and promising profession throughout the region.

Proof of this is the creation of nursing departments at institutions of higher medical education in Belarus, Moldova, and Ukraine, which have often been established with the aid and support of nurses who participated in AIHA partnership programs. These nurses were also among the first in their profession to receive diplomas from departments of higher education and they are now helping to reorganize nursing in their countries by training new middle-echelon leaders.

Elena Stempovskaya, head of the Moldova Nurses Association, who presented a report on nursing program successes in the NIS, noted that training 18 partnership nurses through the International Nursing Leadership Institute (INLI) was a very important project for creating a progressive nursing corps. "Thanks to this opportunity, it was possible to advance projects in Belarus, Moldova, and Ukraine developed by graduates of INLI in the areas of upgrading clinical practice and creating teaching programs and nursing associations," she said.

Reflecting on the results of these initiatives, Stempovskaya emphasized that the new leadership had made it possible for the nursing movement in these countries to begin to develop at a faster pace. To date, tens of thousands of nurses have joined the national nurses associations created in West NIS, something that was not seen just several years ago. Moreover, the nursing movement, initiated in six Ukrainian oblasts, rapidly extended beyond those oblasts where partnerships existed, resulting in the creation of regional nursing associations in 19 Ukrainian oblasts in recent years. "These organizations are a vital tool for the dissemination of advanced clinical practice and management methods," Stempovskaya noted. By way of confirmation, she reported that new patient care standards, adopted by the 13,000-member Moldova Nurses Association, have made it possible to reduce the frequency of postoperative pulmonary complications in the country's hospitals from 12 to 5 percent in just one year. "The role of nurses, as well as the benefit they bring to the community, is enormous, and we are grateful to AIHA for the knowledge and resources that have given us the opportunity to demonstrate this in practice," she declared.