About the international workshop “Evidence-based nursing – introducing best practices” under quarantine

Author:
Laura Kassym
Semey Medical University

Difficulties mastered are opportunities won.
Winston Churchill

One of the frosty days of January.  Smell of the flesh brewed coffee in the office of Almira Akhmetova.  The rich aroma of coffee always accompanying our brainstorming sessions and planning meetings, forcing us to put together a bunch of thoughts and focus on the task - to conduct a master class on evidence-based nursing practice resulting in the work of our package in ProInCa project. Huge plans - to agree with the partners from Nazarbayev University  on holding an event within the walls of the School of Medicine, discuss the concept of a master class with European partners, draw up a program, discuss topics of presentations with speakers, send invitations to participants, approve the catering service and even think over a coffee break menu. Oh, then we didn’t even suspect that “a local infection somewhere in China” would make its own tough corrections to our great plans ...

The regional outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, which turned into a pandemic in a couple of weeks, became a test for all spheres of human life. Coronavirus infection tested the strength of both the health care system and the global economy, and even a simple human relation showed their fragility in the context of universal measures of self-isolation. Self-isolation, regional quarantine and working from home for weeks due to this virus required our project team to show the unity and innovative ways to come to solution.

In this condition it was wise decision to show that the COVID-19 will not stop life of our project and turn the master class in to the distance mood.  To say that we were worried is to say nothing! Although we had experience conducting educational classes with our students using Zoom or Skype conferences, our April master class meant the participation of more than a hundred practicing nurses, teachers of high medical colleges and universities, master students, employees of the administration of educational and medical institutions of Kazakhstan and Europe.  However, three days of intensive work showed that all the excitement and anxiety were in vain. More than 160 participants of the master class, 21 lectures, almost 20 hours of lectures, group assignments, discussions, exchange of opinions allowed us to improve our knowledge and skills on the key concepts of evidence-based nursing, learn about the successful implementation of evidence-based practice in the country and abroad. Coordinated moderation work of the Kazakh and European sides, the ability to translate reports into Russian and English, organization of group sessions, uninterrupted technical support became pieces of one puzzle - a workshop entitled "Evidence-based nursing – implementing the best practices."

The members of the work package 2.2 team would like to thank the speakers for the excellent presentations, and all the participants in the master class for their genuine interest in the materials presented. Special thanks to the School of Medicine of Nazarbayev University for providing a Zoom account with the ability to join a large audience and video recording of the session.

Temporary difficulties turned out to be great opportunities: the coordinated work of all the participants in the master class allowed us to become even more organized, even more friendly, even more technical in solving joint problems in the development of Kazakhstan’s nursing!