Before 1950, Nepal was inaccessible to coincide with developed countries in health sector.5,6 There was neither a university nor appropriate medical and health education about fifty years ago.1,7 There were thumbs down public health programmers, few hospitals, no laboratories, no paramedics and only less number of Nepalese doctors and unsupplied with Nepalese nurses.1,8 But, gradually with strong and determined efforts of past years, noteworthy achievements have been made in the health sector. Ever since the inauguration of nursing education in 1956, there was constantly a scarcity of nurses in Nepal due to ineffective education guiding principle. With historical growth of nursing sector it has crossed three junctures: formative period, transformative period and globalised period. Nursing education started under the Ministry of Health (MoH) at Surendra Bhawan (Sanepa) in 1956 and the development in requisites of education and development lingered relatively slow.7,9–12 Being started from a single school and moved to Institute of Medicine (IOM), Maharajgunj in quick succession with growing evidences of nursing education now.
Today, nursing education has escalated its branches and networking with university campuses along with numerous affiliated colleges under Tribhuvan University (TU), Kathmandu University (KU) and Pokhara University (PU), Purbanchal University (PU), Council of Technical Education and Vocational Training (CTEVT) and also an sovereign body B.P. Koirala Institute of Health Sciences (BPKIHS) at both government and private sectors in different regions of Nepal.
Gradually, various nursing colleges & ANM centers were recognized & advanced in different time periods. The specialized post graduate programme in “Master in women Health and Women Development” was launched in 1995. In 1996 (2053) Basic B. Sc Nursing a four year program was introduced in BPKIHS, Dharan and the institute of medicine also started four years B. Sc Nursing in 2005 (2062). Currently, there are numerous new campuses for PCL as well as Bachelor programs of Nursing under affiliation of T.U, K.U., P.U., & C.T.E.V.T since 2005. Only ten percent male students were registered in nursing programs in 1986 & clogged in 1990. On the whole, four batches of male students graduated in PCL nursing campuses and more often they had completed master level.13,14 But, once again male students have been given 15% reservation in nursing education currently in 2018 by government of Nepal to reduce the gender discrimination. Nursing education experienced quantitative and qualitative changes steadily and took approximately further two decades to progress into specialization in post graduate nursing.7,13 Nursing education focused with changes as center of attention at the certificate level to highlight prospective functions in the public health and at the bachelor level to focus on advancement of leadership skills. Six levels of nurse education from ANM to Ph.D. in Nursing were accessible in Nepal by the academic year of 2012–13 which are as follows.
Still, Nepal government and Nursing Council need to monitor.
Still, Nepal government and Nursing Council need to monitor.