Continuous Training of Nursing Staff as an Integral Part of Improving the Quality of Medical Care

What We Do › Nursing › Other Resources › NIS Nursing: A Revolution in Progress › Russia and Transcaucasus › Continuous Training of Nursing Staff as an Integral Part of Improving the Quality of Medical Care

by Tatiana Mikheeva (in collaboration with Yakov Nakatis)

In the new working environment, Sokolov Medical Center is facing the task of achieving high-quality patient care to reduce the length of stay in the in-patient department. Improving the quality of nurses' work and adopting international standards have been identified as a new priority for the Center.

The first steps in this direction included starting the first Russian-American advanced post- graduate nursing course at Sokolov Medical Center as well as exchanges between Russian and American nurses as part of the AIHA partnership. In 1994, an experimental nursing unit and an admissions office headed by nurses were established. In 1995, the Nursing Training Department was set up. Together with the St. Petersburg Vocational Training Center at Sokolov Medical Center, the department designed and implemented a series of specialized programs for training nurses with varying skill levels.

Nursing education was further developed by setting up nurse training courses based on the improved curriculum of third-year nurses at the Department of Higher Nursing Education at St. Petersburg Medical Academy. Through the process of improving nursing education, the need for training junior nursing staff responsible for patient care was identified. The Education Department then developed and implemented appropriate programs.

The analysis of the work shows that the on-going nursing training in Sokolov Medical Center helps to improve the quality of patient care.

There are other positive outcomes: the growing interest of nurses in improving their professional skills and their active participation in educational and scientific work. Existing programs are being improved and new ones are being developed. Coordinating the system of nurse training with the system of quality evaluation is a promising prospect for future development.

Tatiana Mikheeva, RN, is Head of the Nursing Training Department at Sokolov Medical Center, Medical Sanitary Unit #122
St. Petersburg, Russia
tel: 7 (812) 558 98 10
fax: 7 (812) 559 96 73

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