Continuing Professional Development of Russian Pediatric Nurses: An Interprofessional Approach
BACKGROUND. The modernization of healthcare in the Russian Federation is primarily designed to strengthen the material and technical base, provision of information technologies, and the professional development of pediatric healthcare professionals. For this purpose, the Russian Board of the Union of Pediatricians decided to hold practical-scientific forums of Russian pediatric nurses within the framework of the Annual Congress of Pediatricians. The aim of this article was to report the feedback of Russian pediatric nurses after forum type events and to discuss the importance of such activities for nurses’ work. MATERIAL AND METHODS. An anonymous questionnaire, developed by the researchers, was distributed to the first forum delegates, i.e., nurses (N=250) from children’s medical and educational institutions from 4 regions of the Russian Federation in 2011. After the third forum in 2013, the same questions about professional disadvantages in nurses’ work and proposals for improvement were distributed to 250 participant nurses from the same 3 regions, excluding 1 region. RESULTS. Most pediatric nurses reported low salaries and professional stress as disadvantages at work. One-fourth of the nurses from Moscow region were lacking career perspectives. After the 3 forums, the proportion of the nurses who reported the lack of information decreased by 10 times in Arkhangelsk region (from 49.0% to 4.8%) and by 3 times in Krasnodar region (from 34.0% to 13.2%). The opinion of the respondents about limited career perspectives also improved in Arkhangelsk region (from 47.0% to 4.8 %) and in Krasnodar region (from 41.0% to 11.0%). CONCLUSIONS. Professional development sessions, organized for Russian pediatric nurses in the form of 3 national forums, helped identify the main disadvantages at pediatric nurses’ work and possible solutions for improvement. Interprofessional collaboration allowed joining the efforts of pediatricians and nurses to improve the factors for nurses’ work.
Correspondence to E. Biryukova Federal State Budgetary Institution “Scientific Centre of Children Health” under the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, Lomonosovsky pr. 2 bld. 1, 119991 Moscow, Russian Federation. birukova@nczd.ru