04.05.2023

Almaty hosted the first International Forum of nurses working in perinatal Centres and maternity hospitals in Kazakhstan. The goal of the event is to draw attention to the special and very important role of nursing staff in saving and caring for newborn children in resuscitation and intensive care units. This will help improve the image of the nurse, improve the quality of care and reduce infant mortality.

More than 200 medical workers from public and private medical Centres from Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkey, Azerbaijan and Israel take part in the International Forum of Neonatal Nurses. It was organized by AYALA Charity Foundation with the support of its partner, Chevron, on the initiative of the Department of Mother and Child Health Protection of the RoK Ministry of Healthcare and the Congress of Obstetrician-Gynecologists and Neonatologists of Kazakhstan. This is the first professional event of this level and scale that is held for nursing staff in Kazakhstan.

“The Ministry of Healthcare supports and stimulates the constant growth and development of professional competencies of nursing staff specializing in neonatology. After all, it is the staff who experience an extreme physical and moral load when saving the lives of newborn children. The forum platform brought together the best professionals from Kazakhstan and other countries of the world in Almaty, who are ready to share with colleagues their unique knowledge gained over years of practice. I am confident that the intensive information sharing at this forum will be an excellent tool for further growth and improvement of the quality of neonatal services in our country,” noted Magripa Khamitovna Yembergenova, Director of the Department of Mother and Child Health Protection of the RoK Ministry of Healthcare.

For two days, speakers of the first International Forum of Neonatal Nurses will share practical experience in such areas as the prevention of infections in newborns associated with medical care, improving the quality of care in neonatal units, preparing a newborn for instrumental examinations, monitoring the state of vital functions in newborns, and organizational specifics of nursing staff work in neonatology departments. Foreign guests of the conference will talk about the specifics and achievements in the work of neonatal services in their countries related to reducing the level of infant mortality and disability.

“Nursing staff in perinatal Centres and maternity hospitals in Kazakhstan experience an enormous load. Currently, there are 6 newborns per neonatal nurse in the resuscitation or ICU. For comparison, in the European Union this indicator is one newborn per nurse. This enormous physical and emotional stress directly affects such important indicators for the country as the level of infant mortality and disability. Everything is relatively good with the infant mortality rate in our country, as the indicators are within the limits established by WHO. But the rates of childhood disability are off the charts. The number of children with disabilities at the end of 2022 has already exceeded 100,000, and over the past 5 years this figure has doubled. We attribute the increase in children’s disability, among other things, to the extremely large amount of work assigned to nursing staff in the neonatal service. We believe that the time has come to work out a new approach to determining the key functions and maximum workload of neonatal nurses. We hope that the forum organized with the support of Chevron, will be the first and important step for positive changes in the work of nursing staff in Kazakhstan,” noted Aidan Suleimenova, founder and president of AYALA Charity Foundation.

According to Zhanar Koshpanova, a representative of Chevron, public relations coordinator, the International Forum of Neonatal Nurses is a useful and efficient platform for sharing experience, which helps to further develop children’s healthcare in Kazakhstan and positively affects the quality of health and life of its young citizens: “Support for perinatology and neonatology is one of the strategic areas of Chevron’s social investments in the field of healthcare. Our slogan is: Healthy Children Mean Healthy Nation, and, hence, for more than 15 years we have been supporting projects of AYALA Charity Foundation aimed at solving topical issues of perinatal and neonatal diagnostics, quality medical care for the fetus and newborn, improving the material and technical support of perinatal and neonatal Centres, as well as improving skills of neonatologists and nursing staff.

For many years, Chevron jointly with AYALA Foundation has donated almost 300 units of specialized equipment to perinatal and neonatal departments and centres in the cities of Almaty and Astana; dozens of skills improvement courses have been conducted for doctors and nursing staff from all regions of our country. Also, with the support of Chevron, the online AYALA Academy platform was created, through the use of which neonatologists and nursing staff can improve their skills on the job. And today’s forum is part of this huge work carried out by AYALA Foundation with the support of our company. We are confident that the forum will provide all participants with unique opportunities to acquire new knowledge, share experiences and strengthen professional connections.