THE LAW ON NURSING - THE URGENT NEED TO REFLECT ON A NEGLECTED FIELD OF NON-STATE ADMINISTRATION IN THE REPUBLIC OF SERBIA Cover Image

ЗАКОН О СЕСТРИНСТВУ – НАСУШНА ПОТРЕБА ЗАНЕМАРЕНЕ ОБЛАСТИ НЕДРЖАВНЕ УПРАВЕ У РЕПУБЛИЦИ СРБИЈИ
THE LAW ON NURSING - THE URGENT NEED TO REFLECT ON A NEGLECTED FIELD OF NON-STATE ADMINISTRATION IN THE REPUBLIC OF SERBIA

Author(s): Vasilije Marković, Adela Lukač
Subject(s): Law, Constitution, Jurisprudence, Civil Law, Public Administration, Health and medicine and law, Administrative Law
Published by: Правни факултет Универзитета у Бањој Луци
Keywords: Nurse; nursing; public administration; health care; functional decentralization;

Summary/Abstract: In the paper, the authors strongly advocate for the (final) adoption of the Law on Nursing, since such a lex specialis could end the spontaneous development of the career of nurses, but also numerous other open questions and problems that burden this part of the functionally decentralized non-state public administration in the Republic Serbia. This position will be supported in the work by reasons of theoretical, comparative-legal, international-legal, but also of a practical nature. The theoretical basis for passing a special law that would regulate the content and method of action, standards of education and advancement, competences and control mechanisms can be found in the old understanding that the special status of officials, especially in autonomous services, requires a separate law for each decentralized service. Also, in the paper, the authors will examine the level of compliance of the Law on Regulated Professions and Recognition of Professional Qualifications with EU Directive no. 2013/55 in the part related to the education and competencies of nurses, and to consider the possibility of possible addition through the provisions of a special act that would concern nurses. Furthermore, the paper will highlight the advantages of drafting a special law in those countries, primarily in the region, that opted for such an approach. Finally, but by no means the least important, since they were the direct reason for choosing the topic, the paper will present the most important practical reasons, from the daily life of nurses, especially after the experience of the pandemic, which speak in favor of the need to pass a special law. Normative recognition of the specificity of the status and needs of nurses, as special health workers, would undoubtedly contribute to the improvement of the functioning of the entire health system, as an indispensable part of non-state public administration in the Republic of Serbia.