Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #112127

Masayo Nishiyama, BSN, RN¹, Judith Lupo Wold, PhD, RN², Amanda Nickerson, BSN, RN¹, and Natela Partskhladze, MD, MSW³. (1) Woodruff School of Nursing/Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, 1520 Clifton Road, Atlanta, GA 30322, 404-252-9877, tenkiame@hotmail.com, (2) School of Nursing, Georgia State University, P.O. Box 4019, Atlanta, GA 30302-4019, (3) Partners for Health, 51 Iv Javakishvili St, Tbilisi, Georgia

Little is known about the competencies and physical facility resources of nurse administrators in former soviet republics such as Georgia. To understand the continuing education and resource needs of this population the following study was undertaken. Using a combination of descriptive and ethnographic research techniques, this study assessed the level of practice among Georgian nurse administrators in two modern hospitals compared to the International Council of Nurses (ICN) standards and identified interventions to improve administrative nursing practice. Survey results revealed no organized procedure to evaluate competencies of nurses regularly. Further, few chief nurses demonstrated utilization of clinical nursing practice guidelines to assist in answering nurses' questions. Results from the facility assessment and focus groups revealed scarcity of disposable materials, such as gloves and sharp containers. Even though most nurses had training about disposal of dirty needles and infectious waste, some still discarded them into regular trash due to financial limitations. Public health care professionals who aim to improve nursing standards as a part of an advanced health care system should be able to utilize results from this multidimensional study. Recommendations include establishing firm guidelines for nurse administrators to evaluate the competencies of their workforce regularly, studying the relevancy of existing nursing protocols and enforcement of their utilization, establishing effective inventory systems to distribute disposable materials throughout nursing units to sustain quality of care and safety, and enforcing safety education and establishing a system to reporting and follow-up system for all needles stick injuries.

Learning Objectives: At the end of this session, participants will be able to

• discuss the ICN competencies for the nurse administrator,
• identify the main gaps in Georgian nurse administrator competencies, and
• develop ideas for educating, training, and generating internationally competent nurse administrators from developing countries.

Keywords: Global Education, Nursing Education

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.