UHS to conduct centralised admission to nursing colleges

LAHORE:Admission to the nursing colleges in Punjab this year will be carried out through a centralised mechanism like public sector medical and dental institutions of the province to ensure uniformity and standardisation.

Admission will be done by the University of Health Sciences (UHS) and the candidates will apply for 4-year BSc Nursing Programme through an online portal. This was decided on Tuesday in a special meeting of the UHS Board of Studies in Nursing presided over by the caretaker Provincial Health Minister Prof Javed Akram. Besides the heads of around 60 affiliated nursing colleges, Punjab Specialised Healthcare and Medical Education (SHC&ME) Department Secretary Dr Ahmed Javed Qazi, UHS VC Prof Ahsan Waheed Rathore, KEMU VC Prof Mahmood Ayaz, FJMU VC Prof Khalid Masood Gondal and University of Child Health Sciences VC Prof Masood Sadiq were present in the meeting. A delegation of the Women Chamber of Commerce and Industry (WCCI) attended the meeting under the chairmanship of its former president Dr Shehla Javed Akram. Moreover, the principals of public and private sector medical colleges of Punjab also participated through a video link.

All the participants agreed to the decision to centralise nursing admissions. Secretary SHC&I will head the Admission Committee while vice chancellors of all medical universities and DG Nursing will be its members. It was agreed that the BSc Nursing admissions will be advertised in Sept.

The online registration of candidates will be completed in Oct while the first merit list will be out in Dec. Classes in nursing colleges will start in March. This policy will be effective from the session 2023-24. A committee of experts was constituted to make the curriculum reforms, which will submit its recommendations within a month.

On this occasion, approval was also given to start Punjab’s first journal of nursing to promote scientific research in the field. WCCI Lahore announced that it will conduct three and six-month short courses in English language, IT, and interpersonal skills for nurses to groom their personality. For this purpose, a formal agreement will be signed between WCCI and UHS.

Addressing the meeting, Provincial Health Minister Prof. Javed Akram said that reforms were being made in the nursing curriculum across Punjab. He announced that the faculty of nursing colleges would be sent to the UK for PhD.