Kathmandu. Nepal has completed 70 years since the start of nursing education. Nursing education is found to have begun for the first time in BS 2013. The institution, which started as Surendra Bhawan Nursing School under the then His Majesty’s Government, came under the Institute of Medicine, Tribhuvan University, after the New Education Plan was implemented in BS 2029.
While it was located in Mahaboudha, Kathmandu, the campus was known as Mahaboudha Nursing Campus. In BS 2042, it was shifted to its own building in Maharajgunj, constructed with support from the Government of Japan.
Dr. Devaka Kumari Acharya, Campus Chief of Maharajgunj Nursing Campus, said the campus has produced thousands of skilled nurses over the past seven decades. According to her, the campus currently runs a three-year Bachelor of Nursing Science, a four-year BSc Nursing, and a four-year Midwifery program.
At the postgraduate level, studies have been conducted in subjects including women’s health, adult health, child health, mental health, community health, and critical care nursing. The campus has also been teaching fields including critical care, child nursing, and geriatrics.
Dr. Acharya said many nurses working in government, private, and international health institutions in Nepal are graduates of Maharajgunj Nursing Campus. She noted that the 70-year journey of nursing education has laid the foundation for health workforce development in Nepal, adding that the campus is moving ahead toward producing specialist nurses, expanding research, and achieving international-level academic outcomes.
Former Campus Chief Chandrakala Sharma said that along with the development of health services, nursing education has expanded and reached the stage of producing specialist nurses.
In the history of modern nursing service in Nepal, the first Nepali nurse, Lamu Amatya, taught at the nursing college for a long time. She had studied nursing abroad and contributed to laying the foundation of nursing service in Nepal. After that, Surendra Bhawan Nursing School was established with the objective of producing nurses in a systematic manner. From BS 2029, Prof. Dr. Uma Devi Das was appointed as the chief of the Nursing Campus.
Meanwhile, at a program organized by Maharajgunj Nursing Campus on the occasion of completing 70 years, Tribhuvan University Vice-Chancellor Sushil Bahadur Bajracharya expressed the university’s commitment to providing additional support to the campus that established nursing education. At the program, nursing students and professors presented dances, and outstanding nurses were honored.
College News Education News