Prague, Aug 29 (CTK) – A basic change in the education of Czech nurses is to be placed on the agenda of the Chamber of Deputies session that starts on September 6, Health Minister Svatopluk Nemecek (Social Democrats, CSSD) told journalists yesterday.
The nurses will no longer need a full extension course as now, but only a year of a higher-level school.
The credit system should be cancelled as it has only been a good business for organisers of the courses while no one checked the knowledge of their participants, Nemecek said.
“We are aware of the need to gain new health personnel and to keep the existing one,” Nemecek said.
“There is the objective to stabilise the system of qualification education with the preservation of its quality so that the graduates could enter the practice as soon as possible,” he added.
Between 2010 and 2015, Czech hospitals were left by almost 1300 nurses and other health personnel and the trend continues.
Last year, the Institute of Health Information and Statistics registered 47,495 nursing jobs in acute care, which was 1,530 fewer than in 2010.
However, jobs in other non-bed care increased by 1287 to 29,003.
Along with the amendment to doctors’ education, the amendment to nurses’ education is a crucial legislation.
Nemecek said along with changes in the education, nurses’ salaries will increase, too.
Nurses’ salaries were increased by 5 percent in two consecutive years and the government has approved a 10 percent rise for next year along with the intention that the salaries should be rising by 10 percent in three years in a a row.
The newly introduced model 4+1 is to replace the current system in which a nurse first completes the secondary education and this must be followed by a three-year study.
Former health minister Leos Heger (TOP 09) is against the proposal.
“If it is passed, the degradation will be obvious. A university graduate may be replaced with a secondary school graduate with a one-year course,” Heger has told CTK.
Last year, the average salary of a nurse in a state-run hospital was 30,866 crowns a month and in hospitals run by joint-stock companies 25,434 crowns.
($1=23.928 crowns)
