Degree move to tackle Emirati nurse shortage

Kareem Shaheen

• Last Updated: November 18. 2009 12:32AM UAE / November 17. 2009 8:32PM GMT

ABU DHABI // A severe shortage of Emirati female nurses is to be tackled with the launch of a degree programme aimed at raising the perceived prestige of the profession.

Only eight per cent of nurses employed by the Ministry of Health are Emirati. The number is lower for the whole UAE, where four per cent of nurses are nationals.

Dr Hanif Hassan, the Minister of Health, said the proposed programme would consolidate existing diploma degrees in the Higher Colleges of Technology (HCT) into a single bachelor’s programme.

“The nursing issue is extremely important in the UAE, particularly when it comes to emiratising that profession,” said Dr Hassan.

“If we want to draw more high-school graduates to this profession, we have to evolve the conception of nursing and the institutes that teach it.”

The plan laid out by the minister would also involve the formulation of an overall strategy to develop the profession across the UAE, come up with rules that determine whether hospitals and medical centres are equipped to train prospective nurses, accreditation of the new degrees and development of training and education facilities.

Dr Hassan acknowledged that the UAE faced an uphill battle in attracting Emiratis to nursing.

“There are some challenges that we all face in attracting female Emiratis towards this profession,” he said. “The first thing is society’s perception.”

“Nursing is not a job that parents encourage females to join,” he said, because many felt that it “is not on par with the family’s position in society”. The other problem was that nursing is a low-paying job. Starting wages for nurses who earned the existing diplomas did not exceed Dh10,000 (US$2,720) a month, said Dr Hassan.

The bachelor’s programme would improve the starting pay grade and society’s perception of nursing, he said.

Nursing degrees in the UAE have gone through several changes. The programmes used to last for 18 months when they were introduced in the 1970s.

Now, prospective nurses are trained in a three-year programme after high school.

But the ministry wanted to make nursing a priority, Dr Hassan said.

In a session at the Federal National Council (FNC) yesterday, he laid out the Government’s plan.

It would consolidate existing institutes that train prospective Emirati nurses into a single institute called the UAE College of Nursing and Health Sciences, which would be introduced within the HCT.

The HCT were chosen “because of their presence in different parts of the country”, said Dr Hassan. “This makes it easier logistically to offer these services without requiring female students to move.”

The agreement to create the programme would be signed in the next few days, said Dr Hassan, when an undisclosed partner would be given the task of developing the necessary facilities and management to begin teaching the programme.

Dr Hassan did not clarify whether existing nurses would be required to undergo training at the new facilities, but said the ministry would emphasise continuous learning among professionals.

“There is an increasing need to train Emirati talent in this field,” said Dr Hassan, reiterating that there was a global shortage of health workers in general. “There is a shortage even in countries that used to export nurses to us.”

In 2007, the ministry asked the HCT to begin devising ways to improve the nursing programmes they have on offer.

As part of the scheme, the HCT sought assistance and advice from the American University of Beirut, Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, US, the University of Sydney, and Monash University in Melbourne.

In addition, there is a high turnover among nursing professionals who come to the UAE.

“Our region has become a transit location,” said Rashid al Marar, a member of the FNC.

“Most nurses who come to work in the UAE get some experience before leaving for Europe and the US.”

Addressing Dr Hassan, Mr al Marar said: “There is a noticeable shortage in the number of national female students who join these institutes every year. What is the ministry doing to improve these institutes and make them attractive?”

The solution was for the country to “emiratise this profession as much as we can through incentives”, Dr Hassan replied.

“Nursing is not less important than other health professions.”

kshaheen@thenational.ae