Enrolled nurses course halted in line with global trend - university

The reason behind stopping the university course leading to a certificate in enrolled nursing was primarily a change in the role of the nurse on a local and international level, with nurses expected to be evidence-based practitioners, capable of practicing autonomously and in collaboration with other members of the health care team, the university said.

Reacting to a call by the Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses for the reintroduction of the course, the university said this change in role required students to be educated at tertiary level and entrants to such programmes needed an adequate level of preparation for them to pursue a nursing course with profit.

This move was in line with a global trend which was seeing a movement towards a one-level (registered) nurse. The strategy locally has consequently been to upgrade the existing enrolled nurses to registered nurse status by offering an Enrolled Nurse to State Registered Nurse conversion course.

Reintroducing the Certificate in Nursing would undermine all the efforts which had taken place to upgrade the skills and knowledge of the current pool of practicing nurses, improving the service provided.

The effort to improve the skills and knowledge of nurses was also seen in the efforts to encourage nurses to obtain a degree in nursing and the number of graduates increased over the years. This too was in line with trends in other EU countries where the movement was towards an all graduate profession. Reintroducing a certificate in nursing went counter to these efforts, decreasing rather than improving nurses’ educational level and the standards of care provided.

The university said that the strategy it was following to meet the demands for larger numbers of nurses was to attract more students to nursing.

Over the past academic year, the nursing division was actively involved in career guidance seminars with secondary school students and students within sixth forms. The nursing courses were also being made more competitive with those offered by English speaking universities to attract more foreign students.

Over the past two years there was a twofold increase in the number of entrants to the B.Sc. and diploma in nursing courses when compared to previous years. Efforts to increase student numbers were ongoing, together with efforts to meet specific educational needs.

It was through such efforts, not by decreasing standards of education and service that problems with manpower planning should be addressed, the university said.