Team studying health care for Ukrainian refugees

A team of ECU College of Nursing faculty and students have joined with colleagues from Poland and Ukraine to assess the nursing guidance needed to help provide quality health care to refugees from the war in Ukraine.

The study team includes principal investigator Kim Larson; Lucyna Płaszewska-Żywko at Jagiellonian University in Poland, Dr. Natalia Sira and registered nurse Anya Rozumna of Ukraine; and ECU honors students Lauren Briggs, Toby Bryson and Neha Makanangot; and doctoral student Marianne Congema.

Larson received the college’s first Fulbright Scholar award to support the research.

Millions of Ukrainian refugees have fled to Poland while others have joined family in the U.S., and a prepared and competent nursing workforce is critical to meet the needs of these refugees. A study, “Intercultural Nursing Care for the Health and Well-being of Ukrainian Refugees,” aims to design, deliver and evaluate intercultural nursing care guidance to sustain refugee health.

The study builds on an established partnership between nursing faculty at ECU and Jagiellonian University in Poland. The goal is to improve nurses’ knowledge, skills and attitudes in caring for refugees from Ukraine through a global health international virtual exchange course, in-depth interviews with nurses and refugees in Poland, and Ukrainian consensus building using the Delphi technique with an expert panel of nurses in Poland and Ukraine. The intercultural nursing care guidance will be available online to schools of nursing in countries that are caring for refugees from Ukraine.