Nursing Education in BiH: Roadmap toward the EU Directive

BiH nursing education is still developing toward the EU directive on regulated professions. At present, there are two large projects dealing with the reform of nursing curricula in Bosnia and Herzegovina; one of them is the Tempus CCNURCA (Competency-based Curriculum Reform in Nursing and Caring in Western Balkan Universities) project and the other is the ProSES (Strengthening Nursing in Bosnia and Herzegovina) project. Both projects have a shared goal to reform nursing curricula and education in general toward the EU directive dealing with regulated professions. This study performed a deep analysis about the current nursing education situation in BiH. The findings were very interesting because there were a lot of different information from different schools, all of which is important to improving nursing education. The methodology used for this research was analytic, comparative, descriptive, and prospective. Three nursing faculties were analyzed: the Faculty of Health in Zenica, the Faculty of Health Sciences in Mostar, and the Nursing Study Program at the University of East Sarajevo. It is important that the Tempus CCNURCA project also be implemented in Albania and Montenegro with EU partners from Belgium, Slovakia, and the Netherlands. Our findings showed important differences between the BiH and EU nursing approaches. The number of nursing staff employed, medical orientation of the curricula, practice versus theory, and usage of different teaching and assessment methodologies are some of the major differences between BiH and EU approaches in nursing education. These will be the starting and leading points for BiH nursing schools as they reform and introduce proper nursing education recommended by WHO standards for nursing education and EU directive 2005/13 on regulated professions. In conclusion, a deep analysis of the current situation was a major precondition for the successful improvement of nursing education in BiH in accordance with EU standards.