The Strengthening Nursing in BiH project will continue, within Component B, activities on the expansion of the improved model of community nursing in new 13 municipalities in  Republika Srpska. In this regard, the ProSes project will provide support to relevant partners to improve community nursing and make it available and accessible to all. This particularly applies to vulnerable and socially excluded population groups, with a focus on ensuring the sustainability of all achieved results.

The Ministry of Health and Social Welfare of Republika Srpska is currently working on the selection of 13 new municipalities that will be supported to improve community nursing in the third phase of the ProSes project.

As part of this activity, the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare of Republika Srpska, with the support of the ProSes project, held a workshop for representatives of 26 primary health care centers (PHCCs), in Doboj on March 4 and 5, 2023. Out of these 26 PHCCs, 13 will be selected to participate in the third phase of the project. The workshop was also attended by representatives of eight PHCCs already involved in project activities.

The objective of the workshop was to present the planned project activities and assess the interest and readiness of the representatives of the PHCCs to actively participate in these activities.

On the first day of the workshop, representatives of the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare of Republika Srpska emphasized the importance of introducing the community nursing in the primary health care centers in Republika Srpska and the role of the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare. In addition, they presented the findings of the survey on participation in activities to improve community nursing. On the second day of the workshop, representatives of eight PHCCs already involved in the project shared their experiences and achieved results in the field of community nursing.

The concept of the community of practice in community nursing was also presented at the workshop. Community of practice is about bringing together municipalities, health and social professionals who share aspirations to provide essential health and social services to the citizens of BIH, aiming to ensure sustainability and further improvement of community nursing at the municipal level. In addition, specific project activities related to community of practice that will encompass all PHCCs involved in project were presented.