Education is a sine qua non of our work. Besides different forms of education, we also organise symposia, especially in recent years they have international participation. Each year we focus on one of the topical issues connected with the research findings of our research group. The themes which were thus presented were derived from research (violence, ethics, nurses in Slovenia, complementary and natural medicine, interdisciplinary cooperation between nurses and physicians in health teams etc.). We also regularly publish professional publications, especially miscellanies from symposia.
Educational contents which have been offered to our members in the last ten years are variegated and adjusted to the needs and wishes of the professional group: patient's rights, confidentiality of data, hospital hygiene, nursing care – yesterday, today, tomorrow…, care for oneself, one's health in general, healthy diet, care for the spine, herbal remedies; we have organised resuscitation courses, discussed the topic of managing differences in our profession, learnt about designing web pages, statistics, research etc.
Educational contents are constantly upgraded, supplemented and reviewed – communication and ethics have been thus recently supplemented by German and English language courses and workshops on supervision and self-help.
Since resources for education are always scarce, we support our members in self-education and maintain egalitarian criteria for allocating financial help for participation at different professional events at home and abroad.
In 2006 we also signed the (first) international agreement on professional cooperation with the Health Care Workers Association of Serbia, so the regular exchange of professionals from the field of nursing and midwifery care has been in place for several years.
Andreja Kvas, MA, professor of health education, education, research and publishing
