at the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation suggested redistributing some of the duties from doctors to nurses. The paper writes on Wednesday (May 10th) that this will increase the availability of medical care without loss of quality, according to the ministry. “Kommersant”.
The publication also cites the results of a survey, according to which the majority of doctors support this idea: almost half are ready to transfer even a medical appointment to the average staff. However, less than 10% of the nurses approve the intervention.
How do you plan to redistribute responsibilities?
It is assumed that some important tasks can be taken from the local therapist to delegate to staff with secondary medical training.
In particular, they plan to transfer to nurses the administrative tasks of preparing the lists of citizens for medical examinations and preventive medical examinations, as well as conducting the sanitary and hygienic education of the population.
We are also talking about direct medical functions, such as medical examinations, dispensary observation, evaluation of the effectiveness of treatment methods, visiting patients with reduced mobility at home, and organization of “health schools”.
According to the Organization and Informatics Research Institute of the Ministry of Health, from which they developed the relevant proposals, “Redistribution will increase the availability of medical care without loss of quality within the framework of available resources, including financial and labor resources.”
The institute explained that the essence of the redistribution of functions is to review the processes that have historically developed in a medical organization.
Such an approach can be applied “taking into account the current personnel situation” in individual matters of the Russian Federation, and even in each private medical institution, which are the authors of the opinion note.
“Nurses think they are doing enough for their patients”
In contrast, nurses indicated that they were not ready for increased functionality because they were already overloaded – this was the response of 63.7% of respondents surveyed by the Action Medicine service.
Another 18.9% believe that the current distribution of functionality between doctors and nurses is optimal. At the same time, 7.3% of patients fear that patients cannot trust both the nurse and the doctor.
According to the Ministry of Health, about a third (28%) of doctors in Russia are over 55 years old, while the proportion of young specialists is 31%.
At the same time, the share of young specialists among nurses is is 27%, older – 21%, indicated in the department.
They added that initiatives have been developed and implemented in many regions to attract and secure healthcare workers in the workplace. The best results in this direction were shown in the Belgorod, Leningrad, Moscow, Samara, Sakhalin, Tambov, Tyumen and Tomsk regions, as well as in the republics of Tatarstan, Chechnya and Yakutia.
Last year, the number of health workers decreased by approximately 50 thousand people, the level of providing health workers in 79 subjects decreased.
In August 2022, the government of the Russian Federation agreed to allow medical students who completed their fourth year to work in ambulance crews. And in January 2023, Russian President Vladimir Putin instructed residents from the second year to take the position of trainee doctor, recalls red blood cell.
We add that some important changes came into effect this year in the regulation on obtaining sick leave:
“Paid sick leave can now be taken by employees under GPC contracts. Self-employed persons are also entitled to temporary disability benefits. For sick leave, you no longer need a salary certificate from your last job, ”the portal writes. SberSova.