Although Fami Foundation continuously establishes cooperation with new local communities through Strengthening Nursing in Bosnia and Herzegovina project, one of the key activities is providing support to municipalities from the previous project years.

In view of this, a working meeting was held in Kozarska Dubica with representatives of the health and social sectors of the municipalities Kozarska Dubica, Novi Grad, Gradiska and Kostajnica. The purpose of the meeting was supervision of the activities implemented so far, in order to ensure the sustainability of the achieved results, but also to improve the provision of community nursing services — especially to vulnerable and socially excluded people.

During the meeting, the progress made in the development of the community nursing model, the challenges faced in practice and the possibilities of further coordination improvement between health institutions and social services were discussed. Representatives of the municipalities emphasized that the results of the project so far are visible through better recognition of the community nurses role, increased availability of health services and better cooperation with local institutions.

A particularly outstanding example of good practice in Kostajnica is that trained community nurses independently carry out a range of activities:
• conduct socio-medical diagnostics of entire families,
• maintain relevant databases of populations and patients in need,
• plan and implement healthcare in cooperation with social workers and other healthcare professionals.

Primary Health Care Center Kostajnica is also the first to fully align the nurses job classification with the Book of Professional Competencies, a document developed with the support of the Strengthening Nursing in BiH project. This step represents an important example of how standardization and investment in nurses’ professional development contributes to better and more efficient provision of community nursing services.