THE Sangam College of Nursing and Health Care Education is a higher education institution under the ambit of the Sangam Institute of Technology. The college is one of thirty-two higher education institutions registered under the Fiji Higher Education Commission and one of only 10 registered institutions that receive government funding.
The College opened its doors in 2005, offering nursing and midwifery programs and has since graduated six 603 nurses, 59 midwives, 28 enrolled nurses and eight nurse practitioners. Apart from producing graduates who meet the health needs of our country, the college has always been sensitive and responsive to the needs of the Government towards nursing education in Fiji.
Hence, in 2015 the college embarked on developing a bridging curriculum for registered nurses who needed to upgrade their qualification to degree level, as the Fiji Nursing Council stipulated that the minimum qualification to become a nurse in Fiji was a Bachelor’s degree. In designing the program, the college had to consider many factors such as the different geographical locations that the nurses were stationed in, the different shifts that they work, and the demand of the services and of course, the financial reality, which nurses, faced.
Apart from these factors, the credibility of the program had to be ensured, wherein the College had received the approval of the Fiji Nursing Council and the Fiji Higher Education Commission. The Bachelor of Nursing Science program, also known as the bridging program, commenced in Labasa in June 2016 followed by Lautoka and Suva in August and September 2016 respectively.
Due to the high demand for the program among nurses, two other centres had to be opened this year, namely; Ba and Taveuni in May and August respectively.
It is a one-year program offered over three trimesters and comprises six courses. 402 nurses have enrolled in the program so far. The first graduation took place in Labasa last month where 69 students graduated. That will be followed by Lautoka where 74 nurses are due to graduate and approximately 63 nurses from the Suva centre, both scheduled for October, 2017.
The college is honoured to be part of upskilling of registered nurses and looks forward to more applications next year and I urge nurses to take advantage of the many educational opportunities available to them.
