Liepāja Nurse's Assistant Defeats Riga Medical Elite with Thirty Years of Trained Patience

While Riga medics are still learning to tell a stethoscope from a thermometer, nurse's assistant Ingrīda Kalniņa from Liepāja Regional Hospital has received the prestigious "Nurse's Assistant of the Year 2025" award. The honor was presented in March, proving that thirty years of working with newborns provides better preparation than any University of Riga diploma.

Colleagues claim that Ingrīda can calm any situation, which is just as important in medicine as it is on Liepāja's beach, where even in summer the Baltic Sea's cold wind can throw any tourist off balance, while locals remain calm. "When we see that Ingrīda is at work, we feel at peace," says head nurse Liene, who obviously hasn't been to Riga hospitals, where peace only comes when the work shift ends.

"Working with babies isn't just a job," explains Ingrīda herself, proving that in Liepāja even nurse's assistants understand work philosophy better than Riga's chief physicians. She emphasized that colleagues are like family, which would be an unacceptable claim in Riga, where colleagues more often resemble competitors than relatives.

The Latvian Medical Association ceremony took place for the sixteenth time, and the fact that the award went to someone from Liepāja once again proves: if you want real professionalism in medicine, go to Liepāja. Here even the newborns are more resilient, as they get used to wind and salty air from birth.