Summary
Ukraine’s Ministry of Health has granted nurses and nursing assistants the right to independently register and update patient data in ЕСОЗ (the national Electronic Health System).
Nurses and nursing assistance will sign the record with their own digital signatures.
What’s Changed
Previously, patient registration and data updates in ЕСОЗ required physician confirmation; nurses could only assist. Under the new rules, junior medical specialists registered in ЕСОЗ as “Assistants” can now perform the following independently:
- Register new patients in the Patient Registry
- Update existing patient demographic and personal data
- Certify actions with their own qualified electronic signature
The change applies to nursing staff across primary and specialised care settings who hold an active ЕСОЗ profile. MIS (Medical Information System) vendors have up to two months from the date of updated technical requirements approval to implement and certify compliance.
Comment
A great and long-overdue step. With Ukraine’s acute healthcare labour shortages — compounded by the ongoing conflict — redistributing documentation workload from physicians to nursing staff is not just sensible, it is essential.
The logical next move is integrating AI into this workflow: either facilitating the process alongside the nurse, or handling routine data entry autonomously under nursing supervision. The digital infrastructure (ЕСОЗ, MIS integration, e-signatures) is already in place. The policy is now catching up.