National Representative Hungary:

(No name)

Work address: Hungarian Nursing Association PO Box 190, 1431, Budapest, Hungary
Telephone: +361-319-3456 
Mobile: +36-209-390-083
Fax: +361-319-3456
E-mail: hnamae@axelero.hu

Download Annual Reports Below:

Annual Report 2005

Nursing Research in Hungary 1997

Katalin Mucha
President of the Hungarian Nursing Association

Background:

Compulsory social insurance is the basic institution of social security in Hungary. Its two main components, health insurance and old-age pension, cover practically the whole population.

According to the information materials of the Ministry of Welfare, the total expenses of the National Insurance Fund were restricted from 8.35% of GNP to 6.18% between 1994-98.

At the same time the age of retirement has been raised from 55 to 62 for women and from 60 to 62 for men. This willl save some expenditure but will only be realized years later.

The health care service is undergoing a reform process: the number of acute beds are decreased, primary health care has been developed, and the number of chronic and rehabilitation beds and nursing homes are planned to be increased.

The number of physicians is 34,000 while the number of nurses and allied health personnel is 111,000.

Historical summary

The Hungarian Nursing Association was established in 1989. Hungarian Nursing Association is the first independent organization to represent the professional interests of Hungarian nurses.

The "ancient period" of nursing research goes back to the 70's, when nurses started to write about their experiences in nursing and organized meetings to exchange ideas.

The introduction of college level nursing education brought about an essential change in nursing. Nursing research has been included in the branch of study at the College of Health Workers. Also, there is a small part on nursing research in the recent curricula of Nursing Schools.

According to the special interests, there are 14 different sections working within the framework of the Hungarian Nursing Association. Most of them organize a "Yearly Meeting" where they introduce studies and lecture on the progress of their field and findings.

Annual Report for 1997 - Hungary

Education for and in nursing research

The Hungarian Nursing Association developed a new model for nursing education. The main points of that model have become a reality since then, except for the idea of university level nursing education.

A candidate can only be admitted to the nursing school with an advanced level General Certificate of Education. The programme of these nursing schools comply with the European norms and nursing research is included in the curricula. This programme enables nurses to find, to learn, and to use research findings, to collect data, to write essays, and to cooperate within research programmes.

Being involved in the PHARE programme "Restructuring the Health System in Hungary", the Hungarian Nursing Association suggested to extend the "Know-How Transfer" programme in addition to the family physicians for the nurses as well. The proposal was accepted and as a result two nurses have been admitted to the University of Exeter to a "Master's Degree Course in Educational Methods and Techniques" for one academic year.

Another type of continuous education was planned for family physicians, named "Train the trainers" with a second step of education for family physicians as mentors. Based on the suggestion of the Hungarian Nursing Association nurses get involved into these types of courses as well.

We have reanalysed our proposal made in 1990, in which we suggested the introduction of university level nursing education, since some executives of the Ministry of Culture and Education now tend to share our views. From this analysis it has become clear that our proposal needs a little modification which has been carried out.

Completed and ongoing research

Since no central registration exists, it is difficult to determine the amount of research that has been carried out. Research is done by individual nurses (mostly with a college degree) or in some cases by groups of nurses who perform these activities on their own initiative for their own interest. None of them are professional, nor are they employed as "nurse researchers" as this kind of status does not exist in Hungary. The themes of the research projects are of empirical nature and the observations are restricted to a relatively short period of time. Systematic collection and comparison of data are not yet widespread. Research takes place in hospitals, in other health institutions, and in Colleges of Health Workers in the frame of Medical Universities.

The research is coordinated by the Nursing Research Section of the Hungarian Nursing Association by means of the following procedure: the Hungarian Nursing Association announces the topic of the International Nurses Day to be researched on, and the best papers are presented at the celebration of the International Nurses Day in Budapest.

The "Yearly Congress of Health Workers" is another important event that takes place every year in a different city. The Hungarian Nurses Association assists to the setting of the research topics for these occasions as well as to the evaluation of the papers. Our members also give lectures at this Congress.

There are 14 professional sections functioning within the framework of the Hungarian Nursing Association (Section of Nurse Researchers, Nephrologic Nurses, Oncologic Nurses, PHC Nurses, etc.). These sections organize National Scientific Meetings every year or every two years, where they present the most recent findings of their special field of nursing.

During the period of this report five themes were announced for research. According to the health care reforms and the interest of health care providers and nurses and patients the most important one from the five was the "Impact of health reforms on nursing" with special emphasis on home care. This topic was announced at the "8th Biennial Conference on Nursing Research" in 1996 in Stockholm and was confirmed at the "19th Annual Meeting of WENR" at Bergendal.

This choice of subjects as well as the preparation for the "International Seminar on Home Care" (held in April, 1997) resulted in a marked upward trend in the nursing research work, which kept on after the termination of the Seminar, throughout the year, too. Because of the outstanding interest another seminar was organized in October on the same topic by the Hungarian Nursing Association and PHARE office.

By the outputs of these programmes we reached the possibility to scrutinize some particulars of the impact of the reform, and to develop the network of home nursing. We summarized the experiences in writing, on the basis of which we took measures and set up models to be followed.

We were recently engaged in nursing research with special interest of the "European Health Committee's Nursing Research Report and Recommendations".

Regarding research it is to be remarked that we need a decisive breaking through considering the methods, that it is being able to pursue systematic and more and more increased scientific nursing research. It is generally known that scientific research is very exacting in instruments and requires a lot of money, the knowledge gained in the frame of nursing education at college level is not enough to practice if the conditions are not available to go in for. The continuous activity of at least one independent co-ordinator at national level to organize the co-operation in the field of nursing research is indispensable.

Dissemination and utilization

The research findings are communicated in both written and spoken forms. At the meetings organized by the Hungarian Nursing Association on International Nurses' Day more than 1,000 health workers participate, just as many as at the Congress of Health Workers. At the meetings of the special sections hundreds of nurses are present which, considering all the 14 sections, eventually add up to several thousands of nurses.

In order to disseminate research findings in written form we have published a booklet in English and in Hungarian on the International Seminar on Home Care that was held in Budapest 25-26 April, 1997. This is important because those who cannot speak English also have the possibility to get acquainted with and to utilize the international results. The publishing of this booklet bears also importance because this is the first publication of its kind of the HNA. An international Editorial Board with the participation of Mally Ehrenfeld, RN, PhD, P.J. Madden, MA, RPN, Dr. Myriam Ovalle, and Lis Wagner, RN, PhD, took part in the preparation of the booklet, with the valuable contribution of the Spanish and Irish Nurses Organization.

We also disseminate the findings of the research in written form in the magazine of the HNA, titled "Ápolásügy".

Involvement of the Hungarian Nursing Association

From the above paragraphs it becomes obvious that the HNA is greatly involved in nursing research. The Nursing Research Section has a network covering the whole country. The Association encourages and co-ordinates nursing research by using this network and county-level organizations.

Unfortunately, we have no means to establish an accurate accounting of the research since no staff is available for this task due to moderate financial possibilities.

Next year the Hungarian Nursing Association will have the 10th Anniversary of its establishment. This provides the opportunity to revise our strategic plan for research set up 10 years ago and point our further goals.

Also, there will be elections in Hungary and we plan to contact the new government and establish cooperation in relation to the development of the nursing profession in which nursing research plays an essential role.

Funding

Last year we have managed to achieve progress in research activity. We have got valuable theoretical and some financial support from National Nursing Associations. With this contribution we organized a successful International Seminar on Home Care and were motivated to organize another seminar for Hungarian participants.

It is also a great progress that the Ministry of Welfare provided a modest financial support for the Association. A certain part of this money was used to cover the expenses of the abovementioned Seminar and the funds from National Nurses Associations contributed to the expenses of the booklet from the Seminar.

Another financial source that we could not use before was the PHARE project. This covered the expenses of "Train the trainers " and Mentor trainers" courses and the expenses of the Seminar in October. Unfortunately, the PHARE programme terminated on the 31st December, 1997.

The Association uses its own financial resources to cover the expenses of its magazine, "Ápolásügy", which is a major means of making the research findings widely known. This magazine is available for every member free of charge.

Future developments

On the basis of the analysis of the past ten years' experiences, we intend to draft a new strategic plan for nursing research:

  • We will utilize the knowledge of the two nurses returned from abroad with Master in Nursing degrees in our education and research. This process has begun since changes are in progress in some nursing curricula.
  • We reorganized the Nursing Research Section. We focus on the theses of health development for the 21st century.
  • The HNA makes efforts to increase the number and broaden the activity of the Professional Sections within the Association. This March the Section of Physiotherapic Nurses has been established.

Summary of key issues

  • Health care reforms and their impact on nursing.
  • Nursing research education.
  • Clinical practice.
  • Oncologic nursing.
  • Organ transplantation.
  • Katalin Mucha
  • President of the
  • Hungarian Nursing Association

References

  1. Health care reforms and their impact on nursing
  2. Home care Lectures of the International Seminar.
  3. Virágne Kaló Ágnes: The challenges of the health care reform.
  4. Godó Kristina: Stick for gymnastic.
  5. Morvai Tünde: Agria 2000 half-year old.
  6. Néméth Gábor: Home care in Salgótarján.
  7. Gál Andrea: Home care throughout the world.
  8. Kavalkó János: Holistic view in home care.
  9. Baloghné Paucsa Livia: Team-work at high level.
  10. 1/B. Changes in society.
  11. Nagy Edit: The effect of individualized psychology in nursing.
  12. Szabó JószeC: Aiding life activity of chonic psychotic patients.
  13. Dancs Jenö: The rehabilitation of stroke patients in the mirror of the Barthel Score
  14. Kocsis Istvánné: The nursing system needs innovation (Accrediation of hospitals)
  15. Csövári Juliann: The future of mouth hygienics in the dentistry.
  16. Nursing research education Mucha Márkné: Nursing research within the frame of the Hungarian Nursing Association.
  17. Doris M. Modly, PhD: College level nursing education in Hungary.
  18. Clinical practice Meixner Katalin: The role of the anaesthesiologic nurse during liver transplantation.
  19. Oncology nursing Siposné Csajbók Gabriella: Meek "Tropic of Cancer".
  20. Török Erik: The role of highly qualified nurses in the curing team, their role in the psychological management of cancer patients.
  21. On organ transplantation for nurses The authors of this booklet are nurses.

The Republic of Hungary is situated in Central Europe. The area of the country is 93,000 square kilometres. The number of inhabitants is 10.3 million. The official language is Hungarian. The capital is Budapest. From a strongly centralized management and economic system the country has stepped towards a democratic social system and has got closer to the countries of the European Union. Our joining the EU is in progress, considerable efforts are made in order to harmonize the different systems (e.g. laws, economy, banking, health care, etc.).

 

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