The Medical Education Commission has decided that Certificate (PCL) and Bachelor (Bachelor) Nursing classes can be conducted by the same college/institute. The commission meeting held on Friday decided that both these programs can be run by the same organization. Anjani Kumar Jha, vice president of the Commission, said that the decision was made based on the suggestions of the working group formed under the chairmanship of Nepal Nursing Council Sarla KC.

PCL CTEVT and Bachelor of Nursing is an academic program taught by the university. The Medical Education Act 2075 prohibits universities/health science institutes that teach at the graduate level from conducting programs of certificate or lower level in medicine. However, Vice President Jha said that the decision was taken because the law does not prohibit such educational institutions from teaching at the certificate level by taking affiliation from CTEVT. 

Currently, about 50 medical colleges are teaching nursing at the undergraduate level. According to the commission, more than 2 thousand students will get admission if PCL is taught in those colleges. Most of the nursing colleges have closed down due to the provision of the Act requiring its own 100-bed hospital for PCL nursing education, which has led to a contraction in the student enrollment quota in PCL. Until 2075, there was a quota of more than 5,000 students to get admission. According to CTEVT, there are only 1,900 seats available for admission.

Prime Minister and Commission Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal, Co-Chairman Education Minister Sumana Shrestha and Health Minister Upendra Yadav attended the meeting to resolve the nursing problem. "The nursing council has given a report with suggestions that PCL nursing can be taught in any institution with more than 100 beds," Vice President Jha said, "The decision to implement the said report was made by the commission meeting." He said that the program can be conducted.

 The Commission said that the seven-member working group consisting of representatives from Tribhuvan and Kathmandu University's Medical Dean's Office, NYMS, Patan Institute of Health Sciences has given this suggestion. Jha said that the Commission has only made a policy decision and those colleges (institutions) should take affiliation from CTEVT to implement it. "If the standards set by CTEVT and the commission are met, PCL students can also do practical exercises at the place where graduation is taught," he said.

Srikrishna Giri, the former vice president of the organization, expressed a different opinion about the commission's decision that graduation and certificate nursing can be conducted from the same institution (college). He pointed out that the decision is against the law and affects the quality of medical personnel. He said that decision was made under the influence of those who do not understand medical education but understand business. He claimed that the decision could not be implemented because the Medical Education Act itself had stopped teaching PCL nursing in the university.

"One college cannot be affiliated with two institutions, one institution cannot even distribute the educational certificates of two institutions," he said, "Here, it is being asked to give the school level (CTEVT) certificate to the college that gives the university certificate." It has gone the other way around.'' The founding vice president Giri commented that the commission is about to lose the achievements it has achieved so far in improving medical education. He pointed out that the quality will automatically decrease when the school level is taught where the university curriculum is taught.

'An Act and a Commission have been formed to correct the distortions of yesterday. Such decisions perpetuate unhappiness. Now PCL Nursing should also be made available only after passing class 12,” he said. The act also stipulated that the PCL program should be phased out from the university within 5 years. Earlier, the instructions given to the government by the Education, Health and Information Technology Committee of the House of Representatives regarding PCL nursing education were also disputed. The committee had instructed the Ministry of Education to give permission to the closed nursing colleges to conduct practical exercises in other hospitals rather than their own hospitals. But the Commission said that the decision is against the law and cannot be implemented. 

The Commission has decided to allow the teaching of PCL in the college which is currently teaching undergraduate level as an alternative. Experts in medical education have pointed out that the decision is against the law and is also unreasonable. According to the experts, when the students practice in other hospitals by agreement before the law was issued, they did not learn enough nursing skills. They have been suggesting to the government to allow 100-bed government and private hospitals to teach because of the shortage in nursing production. Most of the educational institutions that were closed were making students practice in government hospitals. The passing rate of nursing students who studied in educational institutions without their own hospitals was found to be poor, and there was a complaint that when students from many educational institutions practiced in the same hospital, they could not even see patients. That is why the Ministry of Health decided to have its own hospital in 2067. But it was not implemented.