A Case Study Of A Bachelor Of Science Nursing Program In Abu Dhabi

Nursing education: a case study of a Bachelor of Science NursingProgram in Abu Dhabi, United Arab EmiratesJudy A. Wollin and Carrie T. Fairweather Name: Course: Instructor: Institution: Date: Nursing education: a case study of a Bachelor of Science NursingProgram in Abu Dhabi, United Arab EmiratesJudy A. Wollin and Carrie T. Fairweather Education is regarded as a crucial part of development over the world. This is relative to the fact that with education comes improvement in the basic skills that different professionals need to bring about the redefinition of the various industries and how the people are able to interact with the same. At the local level, people are able to utilize the resources available to them to better improve their lives and that of their loved ones. In the countries rich with natural resources such as the United Arabs Emirates, this is a key investment. The government is trying to diversify the level of reliance on the oil as a natural resource (Wollin and Fairweather, 2011). The UAE is one of the richest nations in the world and its growth has been exponential in the last several decades. This is relative to the fact that the nation is rich in natural resources and in particular oil, which is a crucial commodity in any given economy across the globe. With such a resource, the country trades in trillions of dollars on any given day, which has led to financial stability (Wollin and Fairweather, 2011). However, modernity calls for development in the human capital and more importantly diversification of the various industries to reflect global standards. One such industry is the health sector and in particular in the field of nursing. In addition, the country has also identified that education and the tourism sector are crucial alternatives for revenue generation. However, the focus of this paper is on the health care sector, with emphasis on the nursing field of education and practice. To bring the topic into focus, this paper reviews the report carried out Judy A. Wollin and Carrie T. Fairweather both from Australia and employed by the Griffith University, titled; Nursing education: a case study of a Bachelor of Science Nursing programme in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (Wollin and Fairweather, 2011). The report documents the development of the nursing education system in the UAE to reflect the international standards. It documents the integration of the UAE nursing education system with the Australian education system for nursing to bring up the international recognized levels of nursing for the nurses in the UAE. The nursing field has been largely neglected in the past with nurses only having to acquire diplomas (All Nursing Schools, 2018). There is also the fact that, there is a global shortage of nurses with bachelor’s degrees (International Council of Nurses, 2006). These are the two main factors that were established for the commissioning of the Fatima College of Health Sciences. To achieve this, there is an agreement between the Abu Dhabi Education Council and the Griffith University in Australia to provide a bachelor level in nursing education within Abu Dhabi. The Griffith University provided the technical expertise on the matter, while the Abu Dhabi Education Council offered the infrastructure in partnership with the Institute of applied technology. With a combination of native and non-native students on board, learning as part of the pre-registration or the post registration program, the partnership and all the efforts were a success (Wollin and Fairweather, 2011). Case Summary The partnership between the Griffith University and the Abu Dhabi Education Council, was established by the need to modernize the nursing education and practices in the UAE. Previously, the nursing profession was not held in such high regard and as such all of the nurses were only required to get a diploma in their educational achievements to serve in the various hospitals. This is relative to the fact that they were considered as simply support staff, for the doctors and other major health care professionals in various fields (Wollin and Fairweather, 2011). The country has also relied on the oil reserves for much of the economic growth that it has achieved over the years and the government needed to diversify into other fields such as education, tourism and now nursing. There is also need to get nurses from the Emirates (Swan, 2010). This is relative to the fact that most of the nurses are expatriates (Bell, 2014). To achieve this, the recruitment process considered other countries such as the United States of America before settling in Australia. To have the improvements in the education system and practices in the nursing field, the two bodies, that is the Griffith University and Abu Dhabi Education Council had to come up with a partnership system that would ensure that the education standards in the field are raised and that they match both the local needs and the international standards. This called for a dual system, one ran under the Abu Dhabi Education Council and the other under the Griffith University. With the two systems, the latter ensured the international standards are met, while the former ensured that the local needs and standards are met, before the students could be accredited (Wollin and Fairweather, 2011). The Griffith University system has a 3 year bachelor program, however, the UAE has adopted the American system with four years for a bachelor’s degree in nursing. As such, there had to be some significant modification to match the needs of the UAE. The infrastructure was developed in the form of the Fatima College of Health Sciences, within twin campuses in both the Abu Dhabi city and another in the oasis town of Al Ain, a distance of 140 kilometers away from the city of Abu Dhabi. The two were managed by the IAT. Students that were fresh from high school were enrolled in the Bachelor of Nursing Pre-Registration program and those that were already in the nursing field were offered the Bachelor of Nursing Post Registration program (Wollin and Fairweather, 2011). There were eight key issues that the program needed to address to ensure that it was a success and sustainable even after the contract with the Griffith University had come to an end. These included the process of collaborating with the Griffith University, curriculum development and setup, dual degree status, teaching resources required and available, admission criteria, students, academics to teach in the program and finally reviewing the quality of education to match the objectives of a global standard and the local needs (Wollin and Fairweather, 2011). The report also documents the evaluation process, which was quite complex relative to the different standards of the two bodies. Review The program set out to establish development in the field of nursing relative to the standards. Basically, the partnership between the Abu Dhabi Education Council and the Griffith University was crucial for the establishment of bachelor’s degree accredited professionals in a field that was largely associated with diploma educated nurses. A close evaluation of the paper in general reveals that the authors are keen on establishing the key elements of the project, from the onset challenges to the success achieved during and after the project and finally representing the elements that could be important in the future (Wollin and Fairweather, 2011). For any given project, it is important to make sure that the objectives are established and clearly stated. The researchers in this case start off the readers with the basics of the project. This includes the objectives of the education redesigning and this is a crucial aspect as it sets the stage for all the other aspects that they are going to be explaining. This way the readers are able to follow the project development stages with the objectives of the same at the back of their mind. This is a background that sets on the basics of what the situation is like before the establishment of the solution (Wollin and Fairweather, 2011). Ideally, the researchers are able to bring out the need for the project. It is not enough that there is a project being carried out that is supposed to bring about the modernization of the nursing sector, rather there is need for the research to show that, there had been a gap which the proj...