Danijela Ovcina is a registered nurse, born in 1976 in Sarajevo. She graduated from the Nursing Faculty in Sarajevo. She is currently holding a position of Expert Associate for standardization in nursing at the Quality Department at the Primary Health Care Center in Sarajevo Canton. At the age of 16, she started working in a military hospital "Camil Maric" in Hrasnica. She believes that the vocation of a nurse is one of the most humane, because it makes people become better and satisfied by helping others.
Describe your profession in three words... SUPPORT, TRUST, HELP…
An experience in your career that you will always remember... There are a lot of them, considering that my career started at my early age and I worked in different positions. However, I would single out the first, opening day at vaccination site in Zetra, Sarajevo. It was a time when patients were afraid of mortality rates and immunization represented the light at the end of the tunnel. All health institutions (public and private) of Sarajevo Canton, including the University Clinical Center Sarajevo, offered their staff regardless of a shortage of health care providers due to infections. We stood in the middle of the hall in different uniforms, from completely different workplaces: surgical, pharmacies, gynecology departments, the Primary Health Care Center, all institutes, the General Hospital, various clinics... Everyone was there united for their patients. In a few hours, all the staff functioned as if they had been working together in shifts for years, regardless of the fact that they all come from different levels of health care. This is where I see the strength of healthcare workers - in unification and mutual support.
What would you change in the Institution you currently work at? The institution is good, the health system still puts curative treatment before prevention, and therefore we cannot focus on prevention and promotion before treatment. I would globally change primary health care policy and give it much more importance.
About the position of nurses in Bosnia and Herzegovina... I think that nurses are in a good position in Bosnia and Herzegovina. They have the authority, but also the trust of the health system. Maybe there is a shortage of staff everywhere, so some qualities cannot come to the fore, but I believe that this will be overcome in the future.
How important are nurse-patient and nurse-doctor relationships? It is very important that the nurse instills confidence in the patient, and builds up authority. In this way, the patient will listen to the nurse and participate in the improvement of his/her health. I believe that this is how we develop a relationship, and educate patients who then actively participate in the treatment and prevention of complications.
A nurse is a doctor's closest co-worker. Nowadays, a nurse has her/his place in the health care system, and the growing responsibilities. Nurse’s knowledge makes her/him a doctor’s co-worker, and they both work on partnership in order to be a team. Teamwork is most important for both the staff and the patient.
How to prevent nurses’ outflow from Bosnia and Herzegovina? Nurses in Bosnia and Herzegovina are educated, but mostly get the positions of caregivers. They are mostly overqualified and the demand for health personnel is high. In addition, our educational system allows nurses much more than Western European ones, so that they go to these countries with valuable experience, which unfortunately they cannot always use. The job of a nurse is demanding and she has to bear the consequences of her actions at all times. That's why you can see that there is a demand for health personnel, because there are not many new ones who would do this job in the western world, and there are jobs that are easier and better paid. I think there is high demand for other professions as well, but not enough attention is paid to them.
The most frequent problems nurses in Bosnia and Herzegovina encounter... People in BiH get ill in general. We have a lot of cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, malignant diseases, endocrine diseases, etc. There is an increasing influx of patients, but there are not enough health personnel.
What attracted you to this profession... The opportunity to help others, the purity, the feeling that I am useful to others, and therefore also to myself.
About the trainings for nurses... The importance of the trainings organized by the Fami Foundation and the Federal Ministry of Health is invaluable because they cover topics that we can use in the field, such as communication. Fami Foundation, through the Strengthening Nursing in Bosnia and Herzegovina project, introduced a revolution in the functioning of projects in this region; they managed to give us a sustainable project, documentation that is introduced in health institutions, which is useful and used. For me, trainings are a wonderful gift, which reminds me that I always have the opportunity to broaden my knowledge.
A message to future generations that choose to become healthcare providers... This job is an opportunity to always feel great because we bring others the most important for them – health! Along comes a good mood and happiness, and happiness is contagious.
