In modern Ukrainian healthcare, a hospital executive has long since ceased to be merely an administrator. This is a person who makes daily decisions at the intersection of medicine, finance, law, communications, digital transformation, and crisis management. Amid a full-scale war, staff shortages, and constant challenges, the resilience of a medical facility, the quality of patient care, and the team’s ability to operate under extremely difficult circumstances all depend on these decisions.

That is why programs aimed at developing leadership competencies in the healthcare sector are becoming increasingly important. One such initiative is the National Health Service of Ukraine’s Resilience-Building School, which took place for the second time this year and attracted record interest from the medical community.

In 2025, the National Health Service of Ukraine (NHSU) received 822 applications for participation in the second season of the program — nearly 50% more than the previous year. After several selection rounds, 150 healthcare facility executives, their deputies, and financial and economic specialists from all regions of Ukraine joined the training.

The increase in the number of applications points to an important trend: Ukrainian healthcare administrators increasingly need not only clarification of regulatory changes but also practical tools for managing teams, resources, communication, and reforms. After all, the challenges hospitals face today extend far beyond the medical field.

As part of the program, ZDOROVI delivered a series of ten training sessions focused on leadership, effective communication, change management, organizational capacity building, and team collaboration.

Nataliia Tulinova, foundress and CEO of ZDOROVI, along with the organization’s program managers, Tetiana Kuzmenko and Iryna Pashkevych, shared their practical experience with the participants. The training was based on real-life case studies and challenges that the ZDOROVI team addresses in collaboration with medical institutions across Ukraine.

During the sessions, participants discussed issues that concern virtually every hospital administrator today: how to support a team amid professional burnout, how to build effective internal communication, how to overcome resistance to change, how to strengthen leadership in crises, and how to make complex management decisions amid constant uncertainty.

One of the program’s key strengths was the open dialogue between the speakers and participants. Representatives of medical institutions actively shared their experiences, asked questions, and discussed the management challenges they face in their communities. This format not only facilitated the transfer of knowledge but also created a space for the professional exchange of experience among healthcare managers from different parts of the country.

For ZDOROVI, participation in the NHSU Resilience-Building School marked a continuation of its systematic cooperation with government institutions in the development of Ukraine’s healthcare sector. For many years, the organization has been working to strengthen the capacity of healthcare facilities, support management teams, and implement modern approaches to healthcare system development.

Today, the resilience of the healthcare system is determined not only by the availability of equipment, funding, or reconstructed infrastructure. To a large extent, it depends on the people who lead medical facilities, support their teams, adapt to new challenges, and remain committed to continuous learning. That is why investing in the development of managerial competencies is becoming one of the key factors in strengthening Ukraine’s healthcare system.

Background‍

The NHSU Resilience-Building School is a two-day intensive training program for healthcare executives. Its goal is to help leaders of healthcare facilities work effectively within the Medical Guarantees Program, manage financial and legal aspects of administration, use analytics and data from the Electronic Healthcare System (eHealth), and develop leadership, teamwork, and conflict resolution skills.

‍The program is implemented by the National Health Service of Ukraine as part of the partnership between the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Ukraine and the European Union’s Empowering Communities in Ukraine (EU4Recovery) initiative, in cooperation with the National Agency ZDOROVI.