Primary Healthcare Nursing Module

AIHA Recognizes Need to Raise Status of Nurses

As new primary healthcare centers and systems were being established in the region, a simultaneous need also arose for well-trained healthcare professionals—specifically, nurses—who had not only the clinical skills to be able to conduct patient assessments, but also a clear understanding of this new way of providing services and their role in it.

Helpful Resources
	Development of the Primary Healthcare Nursing Curriculum
	St. Petersburg Nurse Finds Her Niche in Primary Care (AIHA Success Story, English / Russian)

Under the Soviet system, nurses operated at a much lower level than they do in the United States and many other Western countries. For the most part, they did not conduct basic clinical assessments such as taking a patient’s blood pressure or checking his or her heart rate with a stethoscope. In fact, nurses had very limited interactions with patients and didn’t even take medical histories or provide information and education about managing a chronic ailment or adopting a healthier lifestyle. As a result, there was a rich resource of committed individuals who were working below their potential and capacity and the entire healthcare system suffered because of it.

AIHA and its partners utilized several approaches to expand professional development and enrichment resources available to nurses and to raise the status of nurses in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, including establishing NRCs, forming professional nursing associations, developing curricula, and offering skills-based training.

Since 1999, nearly 500 partnership nurses have attended workshops and received training in performing primary healthcare tasks such as physical assessments, communication skills, health promotion activities and models of patient education.

Continue reading about AIHA's Primary Healthcare Nursing program.