The Ministry of Health has developed a program to train doctors in “nursing” against the backdrop of a record low number of nursing staff

This is probably how they plan to “close the gaps” due to the shortage of doctors

The Ministry of Health has prepared a standard additional professional retraining program in the specialty “Nursing” for persons receiving or having higher education. “Vorstka” found the corresponding draft order of the ministry on the website of draft regulatory legal acts.

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Doctors will be trained in “correct reproductive behavior”

The goal of the program is to train doctors in additional skills. Thus, they will have to be able to conduct pre-medical care in an outpatient setting, including as part of clinical examination and clinical observation, create a safe environment for patients and staff (prepare rooms, sterilize instruments and medical products), provide pre-medical care to children in schools, help palliative patients among adults and children, provide emergency medical care and perform other duties of nurses.

In addition, training participants will be able to develop and conduct activities to prepare citizens for starting a family and teach them “correct reproductive behavior.” These programs will also be aimed at preventing early sexual activity among minors and the occurrence of sexually transmitted diseases and HIV infection.

Training of doctors in nursing is necessary to maintain payments from insurance companies to medical institutions

An anonymous official from one of the regional ministries of health explained to Vorstka that doctors, according to Vladimir Putin’s May decrees, should receive twice as much, and such training could be useful so that higher-paid health workers could, through part-time jobs, “fill in the gaps” due to the lack of other personnel, and insurance companies regularly allocate money to medical organizations.

“If the standard states that a nurse should do something, then this must be reflected in the report, otherwise the insurance company will not pay. Here is a recent example about an ambulance. You don't pay decent wages to paramedics and they quit. Accordingly, you have fewer teams, and fewer teams means fewer calls, since it is impossible to serve everyone,” explains the interlocutor of “Vestka”.

According to him, a decrease in the number of calls means a failure to meet the plan, which leads to a reduction in funding due to fewer services provided. “Less funding means even less money for medicines and salaries,” the interlocutor noted.

Previously, “Verstka” wrote that the number of nursing staff (nurses, nurses, obstetricians, paramedics, etc.) in Russia has been at a record low since 1960. In 2024, there were 1,407,500 mid-level doctors, or 96.3 health workers per 10 thousand population. This is the lowest number of nursing staff in the entire history of modern Russia and the period of the late USSR. According to Rosstat, this figure was lower only in 1960, when there were 69.2 health workers per 10 thousand population.

Photo: A nurse prepares to give an injection. REUTERS/Yuri Maltsev

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