FUTURE OF NURSES IS IN UNDERGRADUATE EDUCATION
The experts point out the importance of 4 year undergraduate education in nursing, a profession with an increasing importance in the field of healthcare. Assoc. Dr. Filiz Öğce, Head of Department of Nursing, Faculty of Health Sciences, Izmir University of Economics (IUE), stated that as a result of the changes in the responsibilities of nurses, the need for offering undergraduate education became evident.
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Öğce, ''Nursing is an independent profession. Undergraduate education is the biggest need in progressing in nursing. The heavy workload of hospital nurses is a major problem. There are nurses working in different fields such as diabetes, surgeries, emergency care, etc. Being a manager also requires a degree at least in undergraduate education.”
'Wind of Change for Nursing'
Öğce mentioned that the graduates of vocational school of health are given the title of "nursing assistant" as pursuant to the law that came into effect in 2014. Öğce, who reminded that this week was celebrated as the nurses’ week, stated the following:
"Providing a qualified service is based on receiving a nursing education sufficiently from experts under favorable and sufficient conditions. Changes in healthcare, increase in national and international arena, increased importance of quality in healthcare bring along new quests. Graduates of vocational schools of health used to fabricate their ages to start working if they graduated before the age of 18, but today both the specialization and the scientific developments reveal the significance of our profession.”