Volunteer Nurses Committee

This manuscript is one of a dozen written by nurses as a project for AIHA's International Nursing Leadership Institute (INLI). Larisa Musayeva, chief nurse in the physiotherapy department at Mir Kasimov Republican Clinical Hospital in Baku, Azerbaijan, recently received an international membership in the American Organization of Nurse Executives (see "Nurses from the Caucasus and Russia Receive International Membership in AONE," above). As part of the INLI program, each nurse participant is required to develop and implement a yearlong program addressing the needs of her community (See "INLI Begins Class III Training", "INLI Holds Session 2 in Tbilisi" and "INLI Hosts Final Session of Class III in St. Petersburg").

Background and demographics
The collapse of the former Soviet Union challenged the people of the newly formed Republic of Azerbaijan beyond local resources. The creation of a new country generated the need for an infrastructure, currency, government, and healthcare system to meet the needs of a growing population. The local war in the Nagorno-Karabak region left thousands homeless and in need of basic resources, such as food, housing, and healthcare services. We now have a large socially vulnerable population in Azerbaijan, numbering 1 millions persons. In addition, we have large numbers of children in orphanages and a growing elderly population. Our local resources are insufficient to meet this growing need.

Impact on Public Health
As a nurse, I visited the refugee camps in Saberabat Region and saw firsthand the extent of the situation, which included lack of water, food, and generally poor health conditions. These conditions can only contribute to health problems such as pneumonia, tuberculosis, brucellosis, dysentery, and hepatitis B.

I shared my visit with my nursing colleagues, and we decided to take action to benefit our neighbors. Thus, the Volunteer Nurses Committee (VNC) was developed. The VNC theme is "Help your neighbor." This group was developed by nurses and all volunteers are nurses. We know that in order to grow and to get the support of the local government and citizens we need to reach out to a broader volunteer community. The purpose of the VNC is to organize visits to orphanages, homes for the elderly, and to refugee camps. We will create a telephone hot line to handle emergency calls from the organizations we support. This support will be both emotional and material because meeting the physical needs of the population is not enough. Having been displaced into refugee housing, the residents have many social, economical, and psychological problems. We plan to establish a financial account and to generate interest on the part of nurses, graduates and students of the International Nursing Leadership Institute (INLI). INLI, a one-year nurse leadership development program, is sponsored by the American International Health Alliance (AIHA) with funding from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

Our Successes
Thus far, we have generated tremendous interest on the part of local nurses, who have volunteered their time, energy, and enthusiasm. We know that by disseminating information about this very important project, through advertising-local newspapers, flyers, and word of mouth-we can enlist the support of additional volunteers and perhaps generate funding.

We also selected key management staff to plan our strategy and our next steps. Local INLI students promoted the program through the Association journal. We presented at local meetings and developed annual and quarterly work plans. We have collected used clothing and household goods, which we plan to distribute during our next visit to the camps.

In addition, we created a child adoption program to encourage local residents to adopt institutionalized children and to provide homes and a future for them.

We know that by teaching health promotion and disease prevention techniques, the overall well-being of the vulnerable population will be improved. We have established an educational program to promote healthy lifestyles and to improve the psychological conditions of the local people. The curriculum includes smoking cessation, prevention of alcoholism, hand washing and other infection control techniques, nutrition counseling, family planning, and the need to avoid drugs.

Future Plans
Our future plans call for increasing public awareness of the tremendous challenge we now face.

We need to attract more volunteers, gain additional support, and advocate on behalf of the task force and the citizens we serve. Nurses are the appropriate people to support this type of voluntary initiative. Nurses care for, and about, people. This particular population truly needs our services, our support, our time, and our energy. By involving our nursing colleagues in the United States and throughout Azerbaijan, we can improve our status and meet our goals.

We plan to publish the VNC bulletin quarterly and maintain our hotline to be responsive to the growing need of our communities. Our volunteers are critical to our success, and they too require psychological support. To provide refugee care is challenging and we realize that we need to encourage our nursing volunteers to work hard, to get enough rest, and to continue to try to serve this vulnerable population. Azerbaijan has experienced great change since the collapse of the former Soviet Union in 1992. Hopefully, the work of the VNC will have a great impact on the health and welfare of our people. By restoring health and wellness, we can ensure a healthy future for our country.