Pine River - Backus graduate Nicholle Bieberdorf has a better understanding of the Russian health care system and delivery thanks to a recent trip to Russia.
She shared her insights, recently, with a group of Pine River-Backus retired teachers at a luncheon at Riverside Villas in Pine River.
Bieberdorf, daughter of Merle and Roine Cunningham, of Pine River, graduated from PR-B in 1991 before earning her bachelor's degree in nursing from Luther College in Decorah, Iowa.
She and husband, Eric, have been living in Bemidji for 13 years and have three children. Nicholle teaches nursing and is an academic associate at Northwest Technical College (NTC) in Bemidji; she's been working with NTC for 10 years.
Three women accompanied Bie-berdorf on the trip: the director of NTC nursing, a former nursing faculty member; and a trip recorder.
Aside from studying the health care system and delivery in Russia, the travelers had other objectives: to understand how the Russian educational system educates nurses; to present at a nursing conference and work on a collaborative research project - despite the language barrier; and to experience the Russian culture and to share that culture with others.
From November until time of conference in mid-June the Americans worked on a collaborative research project with the Russians. A health data survey was given to all of the nursing students: NTC students and nursing students in Tomsk and Balakova, Russia.
For the American nursing students, the top five most common diseases they were diagnosed with in their lifetime included 1) Strep throat, 2) seasonal allergies, 3) depression, and 4-5) sexually-transmitted diseases or "not applicable."
For the Russian nursing students, the results were: 1) Hepatitis A, 2) Hepatitis B, 3) Hepatitis C, 4) Tuberculosis, and 5) seasonal allergies. Hepatitis and Tuberculosis are all infectious diseases.
The month prior to attending the conference the Americans sent out a PowerPoint presentation and narrative so it could be translated into Russian.
The language was translated back and forth in their headsets. "We felt very United Nations sitting there," she said.
On the second day of the two-day conference the Americans got to tour health care facilities in Russia.
In Tomsk, Russia, there were seven birthing centers exclusively for birthing babies, Bieberdorf said. For a city with a population of approximately 500,000, the number of birthing centers was surprising.
In Russia, the government pays for 90 percent of healthcare, according to Bieberdorf. In the birthing centers the patients are not allowed to have private rooms. Fathers don't come in the patient rooms; patients go to the lobby to see their guests.
While at a birthing center they saw six babies, one with jaundice under bilirubin light therapy. In the U.S. a premature infant would lie in an Isolette incubator under constant monitor. The Russian baby's unit was covered with towels so a nurse would have to lift the towel to see inside. The bottle sterilization was done with a hot plate and a tin pot, Bieberdorf noted.
The next hospital they visited was a 23-building complex; seven of the buildings were for Siberian State Medical University students to see patients. The complex together sees 25,000 people a day. Bieberdorf and her traveling companions noted that the hospital hallways were stark. Nurses wore booties covering their shoes, gowns and hairnets, but not gloves. "There was a mismatch of what they say they know as far as germ theory and what is in practice," Bieberdorf said.
One of the rooms they visited was a dialysis room with 15 patients lined up person-machine-person-machine all the way around the room.
In Russia there is no such thing as Health Information Privacy like we have in the U.S. The small rooms had no privacy curtains to shield patients. While the Americans were touring the hospital a Russian television crew showed up and were filming footage around the hospital.
Bieberdorf also observed a patient with Osteogenesis Imperfecta: a genetic bone disorder that causes fragile bones that break easily. The man was unable to sit upright for eight years before he came to the hospital. He had multiple fractures and was pinned into traction to straighten his bones and allow him to sit.
The travelers also toured the Siberian State Medical University. People they encountered during university tours loved having their pictures taken with the Americans. "It was very important for them to have international visitors; so we were truly very well taken care of," Bieberdorf said.
The Americans also studied what the role of nursing education is in Russia. Basically a Russian nurse is trained to file medical records, provide very basic patient care and provide house keeping - unlike the comprehensive training provided in the U.S.
Bieberdorf and her colleagues will document the findings for the cooperative nursing survey and the experience of working with the Russians through an interpreter.
They plan to host a Russian delegation in Bemidji at the end of October.
