A Form of Decision –Making Failure in Arabian Nursing Education
Journal Title: Biomedical Journal of Scientific & Technical Research (BJSTR) - Year 2017, Vol 1, Issue 5
Abstract
Late in the twentieth century and, exactly, in 1983, Yarmouk University/ Jordan started its Bachelor of nursing programme. At that time, when the Faculty of Nursing (FoN) had no nursing PhD holders, other than the Dean, nursing students had the opportunity to study a course titled “Bed Nursing Diagnosis”, which has, overtime, changed to become “Health Assessment” course. This is an essential course that is taught all over the world since decades. The nursing curriculum was never based on the medical model. Thirty years later when, in October 2012, I joined the University of Benghazi, Libya, to teach nursing, I had the opportunity to view the nursing curriculum that was developed by PhD holders who obtained their qualifications from a developing country. The curriculum was introduced in 2007 after approval by the University higher authorities. The curriculum has no “Health Assessment” course; English language was not considered as a unit that students need to learn before they start the nursing courses offered in this language. Therefore, English language, courses were scattered over the four year duration of study. In addition the curriculum suffered fatal errors as it contained various courses that were purely based on the medical model and were taught by medical doctors. Such courses were “General Internal Medicine”, “Special Internal Medicine”, “Forensic Medicine”, “Obstetrics and Gynecology Medicine & Surgery”, “Geriatric Medicine”, “Pediatric Medicine and Surgery”, “Psychiatric Medicine & Mental Health”, and “Community Health Medicine”. The FoN had a “Quality and Performance Appraisal Unit” headed by an academic member of staff who had a Bachelor of Botany degree and who was also the Faculty research representative at the University Council! The Dean of the FoN who is a medical doctor appointed himself as the Head of Scientific Affairs! The question that poses itself is: What is going on in the twenty first century with regards to nursing education in Libya? To answer this question in such a way that would help the reader understand why nursing in Libya is substantially lagging behind the world, the facts reported above would be discussed in some detail. University administrators and decision makers might not be aware that there are huge variations in the quality of nursing education programmes across institutions of higher education in the world; many programmes in the developed countries are much more advanced than those offered in the developing countries. Therefore, the said University and may be others take inappropriate decisions when recruiting teaching staff with low academic capabilities and giving them responsibilities that they cannot fulfill. Evidently, the price of this is, in part, a poor nursing curriculum confirming that teaching faculty might be unaware of what is going on in the world of nursing education, and may not be willing to learn from the experiences of others. The visible landmark of administrative corruption which is evident in the appointment of individuals in positions they are unqualified for complicates the picture further. Nevertheless, such administrative corruption is not unique to the Libyan context; it does affect other institutions of higher education in the middle east region.
Authors and Affiliations
Belal M Hijji RN
Keywords
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- EP ID EP578915
- DOI 10.26717/BJSTR.2017.01.000452
- Views 173
- Downloads 0
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