Activities at Nursing College to obtain Accreditation

Output 1 aims to strengthen the capacity of nursing administration. One of the related activities is to provide technical assistance to the project's target Nursing Colleges (NCs) to obtain accreditation ^*1 .

We visited six of the project's target colleges ^*2 in November and December 2024 to check the readiness of each NC to obtain accreditation. There are five standards for accreditation (1) Administration and Leadership, (2) Student type and Intake, (3) Teaching Staff and Learning, (4) Curriculum Delivery, and (5) Resources), and each NC has formed a working group for preparing for a self-assessment to determine whether the NC meets each criterion. Although the NCs were busy since it was during the exam period, the project team and the NC working group member checked the documents prepared by each working group, verifying one by one whether the correct documents were ready, whether there are any missing documents and whether the necessary information was indicated and provided advice to the NC. In addition, specific items that each NC should work on in the future are summarized in an action plan so that the progress of accreditation activities can be concretely confirmed among the parties concerned.

Progress of preparations for obtaining accreditation varies from NC to NC. For example, the project team visited Chattogram Nursing College several times. The faculty's knowledge and understanding of accreditation are deep, and they have made considerable progress in preparing the educational environment and submitting documents to meet the required standards. Once all the required documents are prepared, a self-assessment will be conducted, and the assessment report and the accreditation application will be submitted to the Bangladesh Nursing and Midwifery Council (BNMC). After that, a site visit by the review team formed by the BNMC will be conducted.

Rajshahi Nursing College and Shaheed Tajuddin Ahmed Nursing College (Gazipur) had their first visit by Japanese experts in charge of Output 1 activities during this period. Accreditation activities will now begin in earnest. It is necessary for the faculty members to fully understand the purpose of obtaining accreditation and how to proceed, and the entire college will be involved in the activities from now on. The faculty members actively participated in the working group work this time and seemed to have a deeper understanding of accreditation.

The project continues to provide technical support to the target NCs as they progress in their accreditation activities. In addition, we are planning to share experience among the Dhaka Nursing College which has already received accreditation during Phase 1, the two first target NCs (College of Nursing, Sher-E Bangla Nagar and Mymensingh Nursing College) that are actively preparing for accreditation application, and the six NCs the team visited this time. By sharing good practices and lessons learned to obtain accreditation among stakeholders, we expect to deepen the knowledge of accreditation in each NC and improve the quality of nursing education.

*1 Accreditation is a system whereby educational institutions are objectively and systematically reviewed by internal and external examiners according to certain standards established by an external accrediting body to assure the quality of education and to help improve quality. The Bangladesh Nursing and Midwifery Council (BNMC) has been playing a leading role in introducing the accreditation program in Bangladesh to guarantee the quality of the profession in nursing colleges.
*2 Our 6 target nursing colleges are Chattogram Nursing College (Chattogram), Sylhet Nursing College (Sylhet), Rajshahi Nursing College (Rajshahi), Rangpur Nursing College (Rangpur), Barisal Nursing College, (Barisal), Shaheed Tajuddin Ahmed Nursing College (Gazipur). In addition, the project supports two more colleges as the first target nursing colleges.