gms | German Medical Science

The structure of Medical Education in Europe: Implementing Bologna – On the way to a European success story?
International Conference hosted by the German Rectors' Conference (HRK)

10 - 11 October 2008, Berlin

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Harmonization of the two-cycle education of nureses in Croatia - an opportunity for mobility development

Abstract

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  • corresponding author presenting/speaker Radivoje Radic - University Josip Juraj Strossmayer, Faculty of Medicine, Osijek, Croatia

The Structure of Medical Education in Europe: Implementing Bologna – On the way to a European success story?. International Conference hosted by the German Rectors’ Conference (HRK). Berlin, 10.-11.10.2008. Düsseldorf: German Medical Science GMS Publishing House; 2011. Doc08hrk24

doi: 10.3205/08hrk24, urn:nbn:de:0183-08hrk241

Published: January 13, 2011

© 2011 Radic.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/deed.en). You are free: to Share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work, provided the original author and source are credited.

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Yesterday: The Faculty of Medicine Osijek has been conducting a professional nursing curriculum since the academic year 2003/2004. Since 2005, the faculty has been actively participating in the reform of study programmes, in co-operation with the other three centres for nursing education in Croatia (Zagreb, Split, and Rijeka).

At that point, the decision was made to organize nursing education in at least two cycles, a 3-year course (180 ECTS) at Bachelor level and a 2-year course (120 ECTS) at Master level.

Today: From 2005 to 2008, the Faculty of Medicine Osijek managed to develop the study programme according to the guidelines of European Parliament’s Directive 77/453/EEC-2 and to standardize the basic part of the curriculum at Bachelor level at all three centres of education. At the same time, the developed curricula have been competitive due to the development of local different elective courses.

Faculty of Medicine Osijek’s position on the way towards mobility is shown in figure 1 [Fig. 1].

Tomorrow: A major obstacle to more rapid development of higher education of nurses in Croatia is serious lack of competent teachers in the area of nursing care. Therefore, in the next five years the Faculty of Medicine Osijek plans to educate additional numbers of teachers which will contribute to the development of the elective part of the curriculum and in this way develop centres of excellence in particular areas. It is its intention to develop complementary education of nurses at Master level in various health care areas at least at two more centres of education of nurses.

Conclusion: Increase of quality in specific areas of higher education of nurses would certainly result in greater mobility of both students and teachers, strengthening of the modular teaching approach and logical development of the education of nurses at Master level in particular areas.