(01) 430 53 47info@drustvo-med-sester-lj.si

Education and research

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.

Ethics in Nursing and Midwifery Care

The Nurse and Midwifery Organisation of Ljubljana has been organizing seminars and training workshops in the field of professional ethics in nursing and midwifery care since 2004.

Education

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 are constantly upgraded, supplemented and reviewed

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.

Support in self-education

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

Research

The purpose of our research group’s work is to acquire, through evidence-based nursing, the quantitative and qualitative data on the basis of which we can introduce novelties in the field of nursing and midwifery care, solve the problems we encounter in our work, contribute to the reputation, status and visibility of the profession and our organization , thus becoming a profession per se.

Research group origin

The first activities of the research group within the Nurse and Midwifery organization of Ljubljana began in 1999, when Darinka Klemenc and Irena Špela Cvetežar researched workplace violence in nursing in Slovenia for their diploma thesis at the University College for Health Care in Ljubljana and for the purpose of the second professional meeting of the society. The study and some theoretical articles were published in the miscellany Workplace violence and sexual harassment in nursing in Slovenia.

The research group within the Nurse and Midwifery organization of Ljubljana was officially founded in 2001. At that time it consisted of eleven nurses of different academic levels and a sociologist from the University College for Health Care in Ljubljana – the assistant professor Majda Pahor, PhD. By 2006 eighteen members worked in the research group, these were nurses of different academic levels, professors of health education, organisers of work, a theologian and two sociologist. Due to the nature of issues we deal with and the demanding research methodology, we also cooperate with various professionals from other fields: physicians, statisticians, informatics experts in the field of humanities, professionals from abroad etc.

Research projects and studies

The research projects carried out by the research group within the Nurse and Midwifery organization of Ljubljana are:

Nurses in Slovenia (2001)
Nursing care in the light of ethics (2003)
Interdisciplinary cooperation between nurses and physicians in health teams (started in 2004 – underway)

In the study Nurses in Slovenia we researched our own professional group, its characteristics, stratification, values, professional socialisation and education in a sample of Slovenian nurses. The research project was presented at the professional meeting with international participation, the research results were published in the pertaining miscellany Nurses in Slovenia (2001).

The aim of the study Nursing care in the light of ethics was to find out how well Slovenian nurses know, understand and follow ethical principles in practice. The study was based on the principles of biomedical ethics and ethics of care. The results of the study Nursing care in the light of ethics were presented at the 4th symposium of the Nurse and Midwifery organization of Ljubljana and published in the miscellany Nursing care in the light of ethics (2003).
In 2004 we began with the research-development project Interdisciplinary cooperation between nurses and physicians in health teams, which is being carried out in cooperation with the organization of Slovenian Physicians and the University College for Health Care in Ljubljana; the project will, according to the plan, last several years. With this research we wish to emphasize the importance of cooperation or teamwork, as it considerably improves the quality of health treatment and thus adds to the satisfaction of patients and personnel.

The results of the quantitative part of the study were presented at the 6th symposium of the society with international participation in 2005. The pertaining professional publication was prepared during the 7th symposium with international participation in 2006; it was titled Cooperation between nurses in physicians in health teams: an opportunity to improve quality and the possibilities ahead.

Andreja Kvas, MA, professor of health education, education, research and publishing