We also saw a couple, both 96 years old, in the heavy traditional dress of rural Kosovo, who had run out of the medicines they brought with them when they fled. Now they live with their daughter, an attorney, and her children, in a small white house belonging to distant cousins who insisted they move in during the crisis. We listened and looked and dispensed new medications. On an earlier visit to the Tirana hospital, we learned that Albanian nurses pass medications and keep records. Unlike U.S. nurses, Albanian nurses don't assess, not even vital signs.
Families provide bathing, linens, meals, and comfort.
The Albanian nursing school will soon graduate its first class . The nurses we met at the nursing school, however, have been able to work in other European countries and have great plans to build a new nursing profession in Albania based on their experiences. They have created a four-year curriculum and put together skills labs. Their first class will graduate this summer. We left inspired, hoping for a relationship in the future.