In-country activities

Albania | Empowering the role of nurses in Primary Health Care

Improving the nursing care at PHC centers is of a crucial importance for a better quality of primary care in Albania. The SDC project, Health for All has constantly contributed in improving the infrastructure of clinical practice and public health functions provided at the level of PHC.  Health professionals have been supplied with medical equipment while the capacities of GPs and nurses have been strengthened through continuing education. 

HAP has recently supplied 1181 family nurses working in 80 PHC centers with the nurse bags.  The bag contains 15 nursing consultation-related tools that will help nurses perform better their roles. The nurse bag content was elaborated under the guidance of Ministry of Health and Social Protection, through a participatory approach with all relevant actors.

The delivery process was preceded by the training of 170 trainers on the appropriate use of nurse bag tools. A comprehensive “Manual on the use of the bag tools” has been developed and distributed to all nurses.  The manual describes the tools, their use and functions, the related clinical/diagnostic procedure and provides basic rules on the tools’ maintenance.  This ToT approach accompanied with mentoring and coaching allowed to upgrade capacities and skills of 80% of all nurses in the two regions covered by the project.  

The use of the nurse bag tools in the daily nursing care practice contributes to improving the quality of nursing care in the primary health care centers and home visits. The tools help nurses to perform better their roles and specifically conduct a more adequate and faster evaluation of patients, provide more effective mother and child services and contribute to better prevention, treatment and control on NCDs. Overall the nurse bag has influenced the rise of the prestige and status of nurses working in PHC and has set the ground for an increased and larger role and functions of nurses in PHC teams. Additionally, the process has had a significant impact in geographic terms as it has awakened and empowered the nurses working in most remote and distant areas.

Back in 2016, HAP distributed the doctor’s bag to 223 family doctors working at 80 PHCs in Dibra and Fier region. Following the evaluation survey carried out for the impact of the doctor bag in the primary health care services, nearly all family doctors stated that the doctors’ bag has greatly improved their quality of care. They reported that the high-quality tools enabled them to make more accurate diagnoses, to triage referrals from self-treatable cases, made them feel empowered, more motivated and self-confident (a testimonial video on the impact of the doctor’s bag can be viewed here).

Prepared by HAP team, April 2019