Health care in the new Russia: a western perspective.

With the end of the Cold War and establishment of relations with Russia, the opportunity for nurses to meet their Russian colleagues is now available. The authors, with an international group of nurses, visited Russia to learn about their healthcare system and nursing practice. The authors found Russian healthcare system severely lacking in the technology and resources available in other industraialized nations. Within this system, the nurse's role is significantly different from nursing in the American healthcare system. Nurses practice within a system of severe shortages and provide nursing care dependent upon physicians.