U.S.-Russian nursing conference on a spectacular cruise ship: St. Petersburg to Moscow August 7 to August 22, 1997

Connecticut Nursing News, Jun-Aug 1998 by Haloburdo, Esther

Twenty-four American nurses met with eleven Russian nurses and three Russian physicians for a conference on a riverboat. What an opportunity to meet colleagues, both U.S. and Russian, to share nursing knowledge and experiences, and to learn from each other as we cruised together from Moscow to Saint Petersburg. Although we had read information about what we might expect, the actual conference and experiences exceeded our expectations. We visited health care institutions and medical institutes where nurses are educated at various ports. We gave and listened to presentations by both U.S. and Russian colleagues. We participated in small seminars where U. S. and Russian nurses and educators discussed both common and unique concerns about nursing education, practice and research. This was indeed a historic event for all participants.

A highlight of the trip for me, as the president of our State Nurses Association at the time of the trip, was the privilege of meeting with the president of the All-Russian Nurses' Association and several of its members. Thanks to the excellent interpreters who participated in the conference and who were always available to us during our two week conference-cruise, Margaret Barry, president of the Massachusetts Nurses Association and I were able to interview these nurses on several occasions. In addition, they provided written information in English about their organization. As we talked, it became clear that we were, in many instances, struggling with similar issues. For example, they expressed concern about membership and resources for their organization.

Because their organization is young compared to ours, they were very interested in the structure and operation of our organizations at both the state and national level. In the reading materials we received and in our conversations with the Russian nurse leaders, we learned about the All-Russian Nurses' Association Development Project. The goals of the project are:

ADVOCACY-speaks on behalf of nurses to improve and secure nurses' social, professional and financial status.

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENTfacilitates [the] improvement of nursing care quality

- develops federal standards of nursing practice and [a] National Code of Ethics for Nurses.

CLEARINGHOUSE-supports Nursing Affairs Journal and publishes Newsletter of Russian Nurses Associations.

We were impressed by the courage and commitment of the president and members of the All Russian Nurses Association to improving the status of nurses and the quality of care for the people of Russia. Since June of 1992 when the idea for the Association was conceived they have grown from a group of nine nurses to 6,714. Although the membership in the Association is but a fraction of the total number of nurses, the project is for the benefit of the more than 1.4 million Russian nurses countrywide.

What they had to tell us is best expressed by some of the actual quotations from audiotaped interviews. Four persons were interviewed: Valentina Sarkissova, President of the All Russian Nurses Association and the leading nursing specialist in the Leningrad District, and three other leaders in either the national or local associations.

When we asked them their reasons for forming and joining the Association, these were some of their responses:

"I think that it is the fact that people want to be with other people and work on solving the problems which are basically very similar and much the same in the different regions. Until the present day, nursing problems were always pushed somewhere far back by the physicians. . . and the nurses understood only if we unite, if we are one body, one strong voice which is the voice of all of us together, only then shall we be able to achieve some important changes."

"For me joining the All Russian Nurses Association was like a second birth because before that the nurses were all so very separate. There was no way for us to get together to know about each others problems-to solve them together. But now it is similar to all the little rivers flowing into the big Volga River to form one strong stream. And so now the associations are together joined in one effort. That is why I am very happy that Valentina was invited on board this ship. I think this is very important for all of us. Myself as a member of this association, when I go back with new thoughts and learning new things I can then share them with my colleagues and bring these new ideas back to my region."

"I fully agree that the association which unites nursing. . . is a strong force and being together in this association with representatives of different districts and different areas can solve the many problems that are common for all of us. In my presentation, (as part of the conference on the cruise) I did not dwell on the problems that exist in Moscow. But they exist and they are the same as in other districts of Russia. And it is very hard for us to solve these problems on our own. And this is why I join the All Russian Nurses Association in order to become stronger and to help our nurses . . . especially after this conference."