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Russian Nurses Take Part in Leadership Exchange, Learn About Association-Building and Community Health
Originally published in AIHA's Connections, November 2002.A delegation of 40 nurse leaders—eight each from the Russian oblasts of Chelyabinsk, Kurgan, Sakhalin, Samara, and Tomsk—visited five counterpart communities in Indiana, Minnesota, Nebraska, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, October 16-25, to engage in a process of professional training and development geared toward enhancing their leadership potential and expanding their role in improving healthcare services for the people of Russia. The nurses were brought to America through AIHA's new Community Leadership Development (CLD) Program, which is sponsored by the Library of Congress through its Open World Program at the Center for Russian Leadership Development.
Since its launch, the Open World Program has recognized the fact that women play an integral role in efforts to build civil society. Encouraging women to expand their leadership potential, is a focus of the program. AIHA's efforts in this area center on building a coordinated approach to meet the challenges facing the nursing profession in Russia. To this end, the delegations visited pre-selected US communities where they examined the process of nurse training and education, professional development, and association-building, as well as learned more about American customs and culture by staying with host families.
The CLD nursing leadership exchange began with two days of orientation and targeted training on nursing leadership in Moscow, October 14-15. Participants then traveled to their host communities where they spent eight days witnessing effective nursing programs and services first-hand and working to develop a shared vision of ways to promote healthier public policies back home. The program concluded October 24-25, in Washington, DC, where participants met with nurse leaders and health policy-makers, visited the US Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Nursing Services, and developed a plan of action for their own professional development as nurse leaders.
