Everything about studying Nursing in Turkey

1- History for Nursing in Turkey:

The roots of modern nursing in Turkey need to go back to the Crimean war. Until then, sick people were cared for by informally trained women. During the Crimean war, English and Turkish soldiers were managed by Florence Nightingale. After that war, a group of nurses came to Turkey from Germany to care about Nightingale’s care principles (Terzioğlu, 2011).

Nurses are defined as all the “practicing” nurses providing direct health services to patients, including self-employed nurses. However, for some countries (France, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Turkey, and the United States), due to lack of comparable data, the figures correspond to “professionally active” nurses, including nurses working in the health sector as managers, educators, researchers, etc. (Nurses, 2021).

Despite many struggles from past to present, nursing has recorded a development process, and today, Turkey has an important place in the international educational standard for nursing (Dal, 2008).

Today, after graduating from high school, you must complete s four-year nursing program.

2- Duties and Responsibilities of a nurse

The list below covers all responsibilities of a nurse:

To evaluate and plan patients’ needs,
Caring the patients before and after the operation,
Prepare the patients for the operation,
To administer serums and drugs,
To report patients’ medical history and monitor the changes in their conditions
Taking blood sample and entering it the register
To provide immediate care in terms of medical such as car accidents, heart attacks, and strokes
To report patients’ blood pressure, sugar, fever measurement
To pay attention to all aspects of patient care, including physical activity and proper nutrition.
Working with professionals,
Providing physical support for both patients and their families and friends
Complying with regulations of the institution and maintaining a clean working environment.

3- Career Opportunities:

The student graduated from the Faculty of Health Sciences Department of Nursing.

In many fields of medicine such as;

University hospitals, private hospitals,
Public hospitals,
Outpatient clinics,
Health-related education and research centers,
Rehabilitation centers,
Care and rehabilitation for children,
Elderly and training centers,
Family medicine centers,
Chronic and long-term care centers,
Hand surgery centers,
Nursing homes,
Dialysis centers,
Schools,
factories,
health units of banks,
municipalities,
private and public institutions.

Additionally, after getting a bachelor’s degree, you can work as an academician in undergraduate and graduate nursing programs by doing your Master’s and Ph.D.

5- Nursing in the World

You can see the role of nursing in achieving population health and well-being according to the World Health Organization’s Report in figüre 1.

( State of the World’s Nursing 2020, 2020)

6- Percentage of males and females in nursing

7- Nursing in Turkey:

Nurses are at the center of solving problems in the health system in the international and internal arena. This is because only medical treatment is not sufficient to provide the best service in terms of medicine. Day by day, medical costs are increased, and to reduce them, nurses play a critical role in maintaining and developing the health of the individual, family, and society. That’s why nurses have specialized, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills that are really needed in the healthcare industry. You can have all these skills in the higher education process. In Turkey, there are four different higher education institution structures: health colleges, nursing faculties, nursing colleges, and health sciences faculties (Rujnan, 2015).

8- Where Can I Study nursing in Turkey?

Some of the best universities for nursing in Turkey:

9- Conclusion:

With the impact of the COVID-19, the need for qualified nurses has increased globally, and policies on empowering nurses around the world are among the priorities given in the Strategic directions (Global strategic directions for Nursing and Midwifery, 2021). So nursing, whose importance has increased with the pandemic, is one of the most in-demand professions.

References:
(2020). State of the World’s Nursing 2020. World Health Organization.
Dal, Ü. (2008, Mart). The Historical Development and Current Status of Nursing in Turkey. Amierican nurses Association.
(2021). Global strategic directions for Nursing and Midwifery. World Health Organization.
Nurses. (2021). OECD: https://data.oecd.org/healthres/nurses.htm
Nursing Shortage. (2020). NCBI: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK493175/
Rujnan, T. (2015). Distribution of Nursing Students and Teaching Staff in Nursing Higher Educational Institutions in Turkey. Journal Of Health and Nursing Management.
Terzioğlu, F. (2011). The History of Nursing in Turkey. Researchgate. The History of Nursing in Turkey