During summer 2018, the first meetings of the three working groups of the project component related to improvement of the
professional nurses’ environment were held in both entities.
Working groups for creation of the nursing profession regulating mechanisms
In order to provide conditions for nursing profession regulation, in situation when the efforts to establish nursing chamber in Phase 1 of the project did not yield a success, working groups will identify possibilities for a creation of a transitional solution to help incorporate necessary mechanism.
The ultimate goal of regulated nursing profession is public safety i.e. patient safety. Only regulated nursing profession can guarantee safe nursing care based on ethical principles, provided by competent and qualified nurses. Regulatory mechanisms primarily involve development and improvement of nursing practice standards, creation of ethical code, functional licensing system for license issuing and renewing, and licensed nurses’ registry.
Working group for developing rulebook on compulsory nursing documentation
Nursing documentation is a dataset that serves for quality control of the planned and performed health care activities, and is an integral part of the patient’s medical file. A nurse is obligated to record all the procedures performed while providing nursing care. Precise and timely nursing documentation is an indispensable support for good communication within a multidisciplinary team. The documentation offers evidence of the services provided and is an important professional and medically justified request of the nursing practice.
In order to determine the scope, content and type of nursing documentation forms at all levels of health care, working groups will develop a rulebook on compulsory nursing documentation at all levels of health care as a precondition for further development of the nursing documentation.
Working group for creation of a reference book with the standard operating procedures (SOPs) and algorithms
Nursing standards, guidelines and protocols improve the quality of nursing care, consistently introducing the best practice in nurses’ everyday work. Internationally, they are considered as useful tools that enable dutiful and rational use of the currently best evidence in decision making in nursing care. They should enable nurses to provide services regulated by procedures in the same way, safely and without a negative impact on patient’s health, staff’s health or environment.
During Phase 1, the Project supported creation of the first part of the handbook with SOPs and sets of algorithms for primary health care level in the Federation BIH. In Phase 2 the Project will, via working groups, continue to support the development of SOPs, including also the secondary level and the Republika Srpska. The project aims to make all the SOPs, developed as a part of this project activity, available to all nurses working in primary and secondary health care facilities.
