From the Executive Director

What We Do › Nursing › Other Resources › NIS Nursing: A Revolution in Progress › Contents › From the Executive Director

The role of nurses in the NIS has changed dramatically since my first trip to Ukraine in 1992. I vividly recall seeing nurses in Kiev, Odessa and L'viv, busily making beds, fetching pharmaceuticals for physicians and doing other supportive, but clearly auxiliary, tasks. It was equally clear from conversations with those nurses that they could, if given the opportunity and encouragement, make a much greater contribution - to their patients, their institutions, and most importantly, to their own lives.

In my recent visit to Ukraine, I noticed that those same nurses now have prominent roles as surgical and infection control nurses, as institutional leaders and as respected health educators. They have shaped the first AIHA- and WHO-affiliated Nursing Learning Resource Center, formed a Ukraine-wide association of psychiatric nurses, created a model program for educating expecting parents and have been key players in establishing new standards and procedures for infection control.

This impressive transformation has occurred not only in Ukraine, but throughout the NIS. Nurses have taken leadership roles in improving patient care and education, bolstering clinical skills and revamping nursing education. Of all the changes brought about by the partnerships, the revolution in nursing has had the most dramatic impact. The introductory piece in this brochure describes the changes that nurses are making all across the NIS.

As hospital administrators seek to improve quality of care and limit expenditures, the new role of the nurse will help shape a workforce transition. Using nurses as highly-skilled "physician-extenders" will reduce the need for more expensive physicians. This shift to a higher nurse-physician ratio (currently 1:1 in many NIS hospitals) will yield a more efficient cost structure.

To illustrate the achievements of NIS nurses, this publication includes the abstracts submitted for AIHA's Third Annual International Nursing Conference in Kiev in April 1997. Each abstract offers a unique look at nursing accomplishments - and a foundation on which to build future nursing successes.

« Go Back