When a young child is admitted to the hospital, it is a major stress not only for them, but for the entire family. And it is at this moment that the child vitally needs to feel their loved ones nearby. Therefore, it is extremely important that the family is not on the sidelines, but becomes part of one team together with medical professionals.
Ronald McDonald House Charities Ukraine has taken on the mission from the first years of its activity to become a driver of implementing a family-centered approach in Ukraine. And we are systematically moving along this path: we train doctors, nurses, conduct conferences, develop educational materials and trainings.
And at the same time, we understand: real change begins with education. That is why together with the State Institution “Center for Nursing Development of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine,” we developed an educational course and organized a series of trainings for instructors of medical colleges in various cities of Ukraine — Kyiv, Dnipro, Kharkiv, Uzhhorod, Lviv, and Odesa.
Our goal is to teach future nurses the principles of family-centered medicine — medicine of dignity, collaboration, and support. Today, there are 114 medical colleges in Ukraine — and we strive to ensure that in each of them, these principles become an integral part of the educational process.
In 2026, more than 150 participants joined the training — instructors, practicing medical professionals, and specialists involved in the educational process. Participants mastered modern teaching methods: role-playing, working with clinical cases, communication scenarios with patients’ families — that is, the tools that form not only knowledge, but also real behavioral skills.
For us, this is not only about education. This is about changing the culture of medical care. About medicine in which the family alongside the child is not a visitor, but a full partner.
We thank the State Institution “Center for Nursing Development of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine” for leadership, expertise, and implementation of the series of trainings “Family at the Center of Medical Care.” We thank MetLife Ukraine for trust and financial support of this project.
And we invite partners to join in supporting programs for the development of family-centered medicine in Ukraine. Because it is from such steps that systemic changes begin.
