Promoting Evidence Based Clinical Practice: Strengthening Eastern European Nurses

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Vadim Zhitnikov and Lynn Clark Callister, RN, PhD, FAAN, Professor Emerita, College of Nursing

Nurses practicing in Eastern Europe do not enjoy the same opportunities as their counterparts in the United States. Resources to promote evidence based nursing practice are limited for nurses practicing in the former Soviet Union, yet these nurses have a strong desire to improve their nursing care. Most professional resources are available in English, and the majority of Eastern European nurses do not read English, which is a major barrier to accessing information. According to The Lancet, “the health statistics in Russia make grim reading. There is a large gap between Russia and other G8 countries in terms of health outcomes” (Womack, 2008, p. 711). International collaboration designed to improve the quality and safety of healthcare in Eastern Europe is essential (Callister et al., 2009). As a bilingual nursing student, I thought it would be a rewarding experience to engage in contributing to the promotion of evidence based clinical practice among Russian speaking nurses. The presentation reports on the translation of educational modules for nurses into Russian which will be available online without cost to nurses practicing in the former Soviet Union through the sponsorship of Sigma Theta Tau International and the Russian Nurses Association. In addition, I translated powerpoint presentations into Russian to be used in workshops in Eastern Europe which focus on promoting evidence-based clinical nursing practice.

Evidence based nursing practice integrates the best research findings available, along with clinical expertise and the values/preferences of the individuals, families, and communities who are the recipients of nursing care. Projects such as this should be made available for the Russian speaking nurses, in order to help them to enhance their nursing practice. It will also contribute to solving global health problems in Eastern Europe. This project was a challenging and rewarding. Through extensive research I was able to translate everything correctly. This project should encourage other students who are bilingual to translate useful nursing materials for the nurses in the countries where research materials are limited or not available in their native languages. The findings will be presented at the College of Nursing research conference in October, 2011.

Reference

  • Callister, L.C., Getmanenko, N., Garvrish, N. Marakova, O.E., Zotina, N.V. & Turkina, N. (2009). Outcomes evaluation of the St Petersburg Russia Women’s Wellness Center. Health Care for Women International, 30(3), 235-248.
  • LoBiondo-Wood, G. & Haber, J. (2010). Nursing Research: Methods and Critical Appraisal for Evidence- Based Practice (7th ed). St. Louis: MO: Mosby/Elsevier. Sigma Theta Tau International. (2005). Evidence-Based Nursing Position Paper.
  • Retrieved from http://www.nursingsociety.org/aboutus/PositionPapers/EBN_positionpaper.aspx Womack, H. (2008). Russia’s next president needs to tackle health reforms. The Lancet, 371, 711-714.