Zhuldyz Kuanysh, PhD student, Karaganda Medical University, KAZAKHSTAN

Inesh Meyermanova, Teacher, School of Nursing education, Karaganda Medical University, KAZAKHSTAN

Hanna Hopia, PhD, Associate professor, Principal lecturer, Jamk University of Applied Sciences, FINLAND

SERVICE DESIGN APPROACH AS A NEW WAY TO IMPROVE NURSING SERVICES IN KAZAKHSTAN

Karaganda Medical University and Jamk University of Applied Sciences organized a “Service design and its application for nursing development” seminar that was held in Karaganda in November 2022.

The idea of the event was to share, reflect, and act on the use of service design methods in Kazakhstan. Altogether 47 attendees, including academic staff from the nursing faculties of Kazakhstani medical universities, hospital nursing staff, chief and head nurses, as well as Master and PhD students, participated in the seminar, which also aimed to produce and disseminate teaching and learning material on service design for university faculty staff and healthcare providers for further use.

The seminar participants shared ten service design cases from Kazakhstani universities and healthcare organizations. Below are some examples:

• Eldor Yunusmetov from South Kazakhstan Medical Academy introduced the case Satisfaction of patients with the level of care provided in the cardiology department of the Shymkent Heart Center during diagnostic procedures.
• Inesh Meyermanova and Feruza Saduyeva from Karaganda Medical University introduced the case Long waits for medical documentation before and during hospitalization.
• Galiya Tau from Corporate Fund “University Medical Center” introduced the case The Shaving and preparing teenagers for surgery and their problems and
• Bakytzhan Kutybayeva, Ayaulym Askarova, Madina Elyubaeva, Mereke Alaidarova from Astana Medical University introduced the case Improving the quality of rehabilitation for patients with atopic dermatitis.

Participants agreed that there are clear benefits of using the service design approach to improve the outcomes of nursing activities and intervention. Firstly, the service design approach allows nurses to solve issues that occur in practice. This is a great advantage since there are numerous problems and challenges that nurses can identify and solve by themselves, as the participants noticed during the seminar. Secondly, the service design approach brings together a multi-professional team of physicians, managers, nurses, and academic staff, which gives room for fruitful collaboration and a deeper consideration of existing issues in clinical settings and healthcare practice. Furthermore, the service design approach is customer-oriented, which fits well with the principal of patient-centred care. For instance, the expected outcome of some piloted service design projects was to increase patient satisfaction of the services provided by nurses. Lastly, the service design approach is inexpensive, yet an effective way to improve nursing services in healthcare.

Healthcare and nursing do not happen in a vacuum. Service design tools can help professionals to break down silos in their organizations. Service design makes it possible to identify what needs to be changed because the approach puts people at the centre and helps visualise the problems and difficulties but also the opportunities for its users. A series of webinars, master classes, and the seminar on service design provided the participants with the opportunity to understand the contribution of nurses to outcomes. For the Kazakhstani health care and its nurses, this is an impetus for the development of nursing services as well as for cherishing nurses’ competence to identify, manage, and solve issues and problems in their own professional area.

Dear reader, are you interested in learning more about the service design approach and methods to improve nursing practice? If your answer is yes, remember that the AccelEd project has produced excellent teaching and learning material on service design to be used today and in the future.