Abstract
Background: With the adoption of the Astana Declaration on primary health care, modern approaches are being introduced in the Republic of Kazakhstan. The created national foundations of the nursing management system in Kazakhstan are a visible manifestation of a new organizational culture. In connection with the large-scale reform of nursing and the creation of a new position of nurses that meets modern social challenges and international requirements, the role of nurses in healthcare has increased significantly. In this study, we measured the actual scope of nursing practice among nurses in the medical organizations in the Republic of Kazakhstan. Methods: We performed a cross-sectional descriptive quantification study using electronic questionnaire on the actual scope of nursing practice in the Kazakh and Russian languages. The study group consisted of 146 registered nurses working in state organizations of the Republic of Kazakhstan. Results: Nurses from primary care organizations have demonstrated the high complexity of fulfilling the scope of nursing practice. There were minor differences in the performance of simple nursing tasks depending on the level of education. Nurses with postgraduate training and bachelor's education were significantly more likely to practice high complexity of actual scope of nursing practice than nurses with a college diploma. Conclusion: The overall mean of the actual volume of the nursing practice is 5.09. The actual scope of nursing practice of high complexity was performed more often by primary care nurses (5.65). Nursing education reform in Kazakhstan is demonstrating positive results. Keywords: Nurse training, Scope of nursing practice, Competencies of nurses, Nursing reform, Kazakhstan