Major health care challenges in the Russian far east: Khabarovsk

A combination of social, economic, environmental, and political factors has severely affected the overall health status of Russians. There are considerably less funds available to provide free medical services to their citizens. This lack of financial resources has led to dramatically decreased and sporadic monetary compensation to nurses and physicians resulting in a large exodus of health care providers from the health care profession thus exacerbating an already serious medical crisis. As a direct result of insufficient funds for medical care, people are now having to pay for services that had previously been free of charge thereby limiting access to “good” health care to the few who can pay. As the recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship, Dr. Rodgers was able to observe first-hand the current health care practices in a large city, Khabarovsk (population 650,000), in the Russian Far East. In order to gain an understanding about the current health care practices and public health issues, she conducted a phenomenological study to learn about the “lived” experiences of nurses, physicians, nursing students, and medical students. Dr. Rodgers has returned numerous times in order to validate her findings. During this presentation, Dr. Rodgers will share the findings of her study as well as show unique video/slides of practicing health care workers in hospitals and polyclinics. Health care practices in a country are very much impacted by its political, geographical, and cultural practices