Educational Preparation of Nurse Professionals: Trends and Challenges

Abstract

Dear Readers,
One of the most important aspects of any profession is the adequate and appropriate educational preparation of the practitioners of the profession. Nursing education has grown in the 19th to 21st century from no formal nursing education to Diploma, Bachelor’s degree, Master’s degree and Ph.D. in Nursing. Nursing education is now delivered at university level and nursing education is bound to incorporate the directions and guidelines of National Education Policy (NEP), 2020.
Historically, higher education was designed for the elite, and definitely not for the masses. While earlier, the young people would be content being just the diploma holder or at the most a graduate, now they are opting for post-graduation, and many are not ready to settle down for anything less than a doctorate degree. Nursing education is also not left untouched by such a pattern shift. Nursing diploma holders are turning their diplomas into degrees by additional two years’ course, and nursing graduates are making a beeline for turning their graduation to post-graduation as fast as they can, while post-graduates are in a hurry to sign up for doctorate programmes. As a result, scores of colleges and universities are offering the so called ‘non-attending’ nursing education Diploma, Bachelor’s and Master’s in Nursing programmes. Even doctorate in nursing is not spared by these universities, who are over occupied handing out doctorate degrees by hundreds, annually. But what about the quality and standards of the education and such degrees?
One can imagine very well how such universities are corrupting and degrading the erstwhile prestigious PG and doctorate degrees. Recently, University Grants Commission (UGC) took strict action against some such universities and debarred them from offering such low quality, sub-standard Ph.D. programmes in general, and in nursing in particular. Without the quality control measures, the Ph. D. programmes run by the universities are headed towards making the nursing education and nursing practice sub-standard and low in quality.
While it is a welcome move that nursing profession has adopted master’s and doctorate degrees as the appropriate degrees for nursing leaders whether young or old, the quality of these degrees and quality of basic level and advanced level educational preparation of nursing professionals remains a challenge to this day.