As part of the continuous professional development of community nurses a workshop on one of the most common and also the most demanding subject in the daily home visits –treatment of chronic wound was held in Pale.

The workshop was attended by 20 nurses from eight primary health care centers of the eastern part of Republika Srpska: Pale, Sokolac, Vlasenica, Rogatica, Han Pijesak, Trnovo, Sekovici and Srebrenica. Such regional representation further enriched the exchange of experiences and offered the participants an opportunity to discuss different approaches to working with patients in the community.

During the training, the participants improved their knowledge on wound development, recognition of the most common types of chronic wounds, as well as modern methods of their treatment. Special emphasis was placed on the importance of an individual approach to the patient, teamwork and close cooperation between nurses, doctors, patients and their caregivers, which is the key to successful recovery and improvement of patients’ life quality.

The workshop was led by Smilja Marinkovic, Head Nurse of the Cardiovascular Surgery Clinic of the University Clinical Center of Republika Srpska, and a long-time project partner. Combining theory and practical examples from clinical practice, she passed on a valuable knowledge and concrete guidelines for everyday work in home visits to the participants.

We would like to thank all participants for their active participation, open exchange of experiences, constructive discussions and a pleasant atmosphere of joint learning. This kind of training once again confirmed how important continuous professional development is for strengthening community nursing capacities and improving health services for citizens.