Growth of nursing education sector and its effects on professionalization of nurses in Nepal

Abstract

This paper traces historical development and growth of the nursing sector in Nepal and then explores the impacts and effects of the growth to the nursing sector and nurses' professionalization. Providing an overview of an evolutionary development of the nursing sector in three historical junctures, "formative period", "transformative period" and "globalised period", this paper shows that historically nursing education in Nepal has grown extensively in the globalised period, after 1990 when the government allowed the private sector to open nursing colleges. Despite the growth in the sector, this paper shows that privatisation of nursing education sector has not been accompanied by strong monitoring and quality control mechanisms. As a result, it has had several implications to professionalization of nursing service in the country. The impacts noticed are 1) privatisation and commercialisation of nursing education and training sector; 2) problems of quality control and integrity; 3) lack of demand and supply analysis of nursing professionals; 4) exploitation of newly trained nurses; and 5) Nursing as an accelerator of international migration.