Russian And Soviet Health Care From An International Perspective

This collection compares Russian and Soviet medical workers – physicians, psychiatrists and nurses, and examines them within an international framework that challenges traditional Western conceptions of professionalism and professionalization through exploring how these ideas developed amongst medical workers in Russia and the Soviet Union. Ideology and everyday life are examined through analyses of medical practice while gender is assessed through the experience of women medical professionals and patients. Cross national and entangled history is explored through the prism of health care, with medical professionals crossing borders for a number of reasons: to promote the principles and advancements of science and medicine internationally; to serve altruistic purposes and support international health care initiatives; and to escape persecution. Chapters in this volume highlight the diversity of experiences of health care, but also draw attention to the shared concerns and issues that make science and medicine the subject of international discussion.

After the break-up of the Soviet Union in 1991, the countries that emerged from it faced myriad challenges, including the need to reorganize the organization, financing and provision of health services. Over two decades later, this book analyzes the progress that twelve of these countries (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, the Republic of Moldova, the Russian Federation, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan) have made in reforming their health systems. Building on the health system reviews of the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies (the HiT series), it illustrates the benefits of international comparisons of health systems, describing the often markedly different paths taken and evaluating the consequences of these choices. This book will be an important resource for those with an interest in health systems and policies in the post-Soviet countries, but also for those interested in health systems in general. It will be of particular use to governments in central and eastern Europe and the former Soviet countries (and those advising them), to international and non-governmental organizations active in the region, and to researchers of health systems and policies.

This volume explores the nature of health and health-care experiences in Russia by comparing societies and communities with different socio-cultural conditions. The unique use of longitudinal data collected over ten years, allows the authors to address key questions on Russians individual experiences of health care and their understanding of its influencing factors. They explore the methods of self treatment and illness prevention in combination with the effects poverty and treatment availability can have on the standards of living for the people surveyed. This pertinent issue follows a time of rapidly worsening health status amongst the Russian population and a grave decline in male life expectancy. The findings are set within the context of experience from Finland and the UK, allowing the authors to explore the challenge of the Russian health-care crisis to Western European models of health status and health care.

This very first book helps nurses and healthcare practitioners working in the field of HIV care across European to have practical examples of how they could improve/ adapt their services to improve outcomes for people living with HIV. It provides the reader with both knowledge on a variety of different HIV related topic areas and also helps them to translate this learning into a clinical setting. The main focus of the book is to share best practice in HIV nursing, with the aim of providing a practical guide from multiple countries to improve outcomes for people living with HIV. The book also acts as a resource to healthcare practitioners who are interested in working in many places in the world or carrying out research in HIV care.

Exploring the capacity and impact of decentralization within European health care systems, this book examines both the theoretical underpinnings as well as practical experience with decentralization.