World Services' volunteers in Russia and the U.S. worked to expand the role of Russian nurses in cancer care through projects sponsored by Bristol Myers Squibb Foundation. The multi-year "Bridging Cancer Care" and "Moscow Oblast Cancer Care Center of Excellence" initiatives partnered cancer care nurse/physician teams, nursing educators, and health clinics in the Saratov and Moscow Oblast to enhance cancer care patient education, screening, and referral to oncology specialists.
It was exciting to see the project evolve over the past five years. Developing materials and providing prevention education were the initial focus. An increase in the women receiving mammography resulted in breast cancer being diagnosed at an early stage and fewer patients being diagnosed at the Stage 4 level. Nurses were pleased to be part of the physician/nurse teams to more effectively implement coordinated and more comprehensive care to patients.
We were happy to work with Gundersen Health System to develop on-going pre-service and in-service curriculum including creating quality improvement materials that included protocols for care and tools to measure outcomes that would support sustainability of the project. The University of Washington added a new dimension with presentations on evidence based nursing practice focusing on patient communication and family support.
To promote sustainability of the program, a 600 page manual was developed. It includes presentations from workshops that took place during the project years, prevention education materials, tools and protocols for models of care, and other resources that could support replication of the project at new sites. The manual will be available to be distributed to the ten cities in which the grant was implemented and to other sites in the Moscow Oblast that might be interested in replicating the project.
World Services is grateful for the many volunteers in the Coulee region who hosted the nurse/ physician teams who traveled to La Crosse; Gundersen Health System for their active leadership in providing the professional guidance and mentoring to our Russian partners; Viterbo University and Western Technical College for their assistance and support in curriculum review and teaching expertise;The University of Washington for nurse education modules on communication and prevention; and Bristol Myers Squibb for their support of this important cancer prevention initiative with our long-time health colleagues in Russia.