The Medical Standard for "Healthcare Nursing" Has Been Promulgated

The medical standard for “Healthcare Nursing,” which regulates the work of professionals in this field, has been promulgated in the State Gazette.

The standard provides the possibility for up to 20% of the required number of nurses to be replaced by healthcare assistants with a professional training certificate. The measure aims to alleviate the nursing shortage and allow them to focus on more specific and highly qualified activities.

“Given the established long-term trend of nursing shortages in all healthcare structures, including hospital care, and the need for these highly qualified specialists to focus on performing their specific professional activities, it is permitted for up to 20% of the required number of nurses to be supplemented by a corresponding number of healthcare assistants with a professional training certificate,” the standard states.

Like every medical standard, this one includes requirements for medical staffing. It describes in detail the method for determining the needs for specialists in the “Healthcare Nursing” field at regional and national levels.

The document also specifies the activities that healthcare nursing specialists can perform independently or as prescribed by a physician/dentist—both in outpatient facilities and in mental health centers, skin and venereal disease centers, comprehensive oncology centers, medico-social care homes, and hospices.

The standard also defines the requirements for the results of professional healthcare nursing activities. These are grouped into quality criteria and indicators—quantitative performance indicators, evaluation criteria, timeliness indicators, and healthcare delivery outcomes. The scope and types of control over the activities performed are also specified.

The required number of midwives in obstetric-gynecological structures and delivery rooms is determined in the same manner as for nurses. A special rule has been introduced allowing the head of the respective hospital structure to determine the number of midwives based on the volume of activity, provided that at least one midwife is ensured per delivery room.

For the first time, the standard introduces a medical document—the “Patient Healthcare Nursing File.” In it, specialists will document the healthcare nursing provided. The file will have evidentiary value, as the details contained within it will guarantee the completeness of data, the timeliness of care, and the possibility for traceability and continuity of the activity.