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DENOSA gets informal briefing of status of migration of nursing education
At DENOSA Brown Bag Lunch Seminar this afternoon, DENOSA NEC was briefed informally by the Department of Higher Education and Training on the current state of the proposed migration of Nursing Education to Higher Education band. This also relate to the implication of nursing training location outside the Department of Health. The following summary can be shared:
The Department of Health and the Department of Education(DHET) are working on a Migration Strategy as a way to manage the transition process within the outcome of the Nursing summit of 2011 and the new nursing qualifications which are packed within the higher education band. The acknowledgement that nursing must be a national competence is embraced as part of this process.
80 percent of nurses are currently produced by public nursing colleges, and only 20% is produced by universities in the country. The Council of Higher Education require nursing education institutions to comply with the 19 criterion e.g., nursing educators qualifications, infrastructure etc., for accreditation.
SANC has commenced with the process of phasing out legacy qualifications towards implementation of the New Qualifications Framework programme ass from 1st July 2015.
Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) suggest 2018 as the better date for phasing out the legacy qualifications in order to allow a smooth transition and to curb unintended consequences, such as remuneration conflict, competition for employability amongst others.
DHET shared that some nursing colleges are still far from being ready, and that few are ready; in terms of required qualification levels, infrastructure, clinical practice environment and access to universities and considering the distribution of disease burden in the country.
There is a burning issue and uncertainty on the skills levels of nurse educators and how many will qualify to lecture at university if nursing colleges were to migrate to Higher Education and Training.
If nursing colleges were to go to Higher Education and Training, there is still uncertainty on the status and availability of funding under HPDG (Health Profession Development Grant), NSFAS, clinical placement grant.
There are the following matters to be considered:
Offering Nurse Education outside the domain of Higher Education and Training has a number of funding and structural implications.
E.g. there is no certainty on where the stipend will come from, if Department of Health loses custodianship of nursing education.
The number of nurses who have masters qualification as a legal requirement to teach at a university is not quantified yet, or even those who are currently studying for their masters qualification so as the Colleges can qualify to offer a Bachelor program.
The consultation process to synergise the old cadre and new cadre in terms of scope of practice, job description remuneration and specialities has not been fully explored. Caution is implied if this process does not unfold where the employer might face conflict and an aggrieved employees.
DHET have a proposed a model to match what is offered at universities and explore support mechanisms for colleges to adapt and grow gradually into the new higher education environment.
Accreditation of universities takes up to 18 months due to stringent processes, and the fear is that not all colleges meet the quality assurance standards, and this may delay the process further if it is not addressed now.
The colleges will have to have their own legal boards as a requirement.
the proposal further say both Departments' DDGs through JHSEC meet and determine the state of readiness of nursing colleges to meeting the quality assurance standards.
The Minister of Higher Education never approved this proposal, and suggested that a feasibility study be done by HET to determine the state of readiness of nursing colleges in this regard.
DHET cautioned of the past experience whereby the incorporation of Teaching Education training into universities led to lower funding and drastic drop in the production of teachers. Therefore it was understood that this scenario must not be allowed to repeat itself with the nursing qualifications.
The fact is that currently, students at universities are trained for a national demand, whereas nursing colleges train for the provincial and regional health demands. This might challenge the capacity within the universities, and the caution is that if migration of nursing education to HET were to succeed, clustering universities according to uniformity of diseases in their areas has to be thought through very carefully.
The assurance shared was there is still cross departmental (DoH and DHET) consultations pending the outcome of the broader feasibility study as recommended by the Department of Higher Education and Training.
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