Given the growing role of nursing in modern medicine, Kazakhstani universities have drawn attention to the need to increase the importance and understanding of the activities of nurses. In this regard, since the beginning of 2021, Kazakh medical universities, together with leading European universities, have launched a project to develop nursing at the master’s and doctoral levels in the higher education system in Kazakhstan – AccelEd (Accelerating Master and PhD Level Nursing Education Development in the Higher Education System in Kazakhstan) with the support of the European Erasmus+ program. In the first year of the project, the partners managed to hold master classes and training seminars aimed at improving the skills and knowledge of students and teachers in nursing. For a whole year, the events were held online, however, due to the recent easing of quarantine measures, the AccelEd participants decided to hold live meetings in the form of a round table to discuss the progress of the project in Nur-Sultan and a master class in Karaganda on modern methodology for the development of nursing services.
The round table “Strengthening the development of nursing education, research, practice and the use of evidence-based nursing in Kazakhstan” was held at the Astana Medical University on December 3, where Kazakh partners from the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the National Center for Health Development named after S. Kairbekova, Nazarbayev University, nurse practitioners and chief nurses of healthcare organizations, as well as European coordinators and project managers took part. The European side was represented by the chief project coordinator from the Lithuanian University of Health Sciences Jurate Macijauskienė and the project coordinator at the Jyväskulä University of Applied Sciences Johanna Heikillä.
At the round table, the participants were familiarized with the results of the project and exchanged views on topical issues of nursing education and science, as well as discussed ways to use the results of the project in order to ensure the sustainability and further development of nursing in Kazakhstan.
According to AccelEd partners, the objectives of the project are to strengthen nursing in Kazakhstan by improving the qualifications of teachers, taking into account contemporary challenges in the field of nursing around the world, building the capacity of the nursing faculty in research methodologies, creating sustainable structures and systematic processes for cooperation in the field of nursing research between medical universities and healthcare institutions in order to develop evidence-based nursing, make structural and institutional changes in the management of nursing education at the master’s and doctoral levels and ensure the quality of postgraduate education in accordance with the best European practices. To fulfill these tasks, activities are carried out within the framework of the project.
One of them is a master class “Service-design-approach in the development of nursing services”, which will be held at the Karaganda Medical University on December 6-10, 2021. It’s organized jointly with the Jyväskulä University of Applied Sciences (Finland) for the teaching staff of medical universities, medical personnel of university clinics, master’s and doctoral students in nursing science. The aim of the master class is to expand the knowledge and skills of participants to create and organize processes, ways of working, methods and interactions that lead to innovation and collaboration between different partners.
Thus, the participants of the AccelEd project expressed the hope that thanks to the work performed within the framework of the project, it will indeed be possible to reorganize for the better training in nursing science at the master’s and doctoral levels, which will also make it possible to increase the number of applicants to this specialty, and will allow nurses to grow in a professional plan.
