THE ACADEMIC DEVELOPMENT IN NURSING

CRITERIA FOR MASTER STUDIES GRANTS FOR NURSES AT THE PUBLIC NURSING FACULTIES IN BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA

1.  Public education in nursing

1.1. Access to II study cycle in nursing in BIH

Provision of high-quality nursing services requires educated and competent nurses. This can be achieved by strengthening the BIH educational systems. Adjusting the formal education to the altered needs of the health care system is therefore of a crucial significance for improving the quality of the health care services, and by so for a positive influence on the efficiency of the health care systems of Bosnia and Herzegovina. 

Significant success has been achieved during Project Phase 1 focused on formal higher education of nurses at public faculties/study programs of nursing in BIH by:

• Reaching an agreement on defining the nurses' competences that are to be gained through higher education in order to be able to cope with the present and future health care needs and problems of the population, including an agreement on alternations of the curricula that are demanded by the adapted profiles of the competences: the curricula have been revised at 5 higher educational institutions, one of them being implemented from 2016/17; clinical skills catalogues were developed at a few nurse faculties; clinical skills laboratories have been equipped at all 8 public nurse faculties, while the nurses that run them have been trained to work in the clinical skills laboratories.

• Developing strategies for building the local teaching capacities of nurses through the higher education, which include concluding agreements on cooperation with foreign universities: the project supported nurses fulfilling defined criteria for PhD grants with in total 10 grants in the first round and 11 in the second round of grants awards.

One of the Project Component 3 activities in Phase 2 is financial support for access to nurse Master studies.

Component 3 is still focused on public nurse education in Project Phase 2, by:

• supporting the reform in secondary vocational nurse schools,
• further aligning nursing study programs with EU standards,
• building local nurse faculty teaching expertise by supporting access of graduate nurses to 2nd and 3rd study cycle,
• developing strategies to introduce specialized nurse training.

1.2. Significance of the academic development in nursing

Following the model of the EU countries, the education of nurses is being increased to a greater academic level in BH as well. Nurses are getting the opportunity of academic progress in their own country. Thought the first generations of Masters and PhD's in nursing will be educated by doctors during the transitional period, after the completion of the Study Cycle I and II these Masters and PhD's in nursing should be selected for academic professions in future. Only when the nurses become lecturers at the nursing faculties we will have a system of education in line with the EU standards.

Support of the ProSes project in this part is very important. Graduate nurses will have an opportunity and financial help from the project, in accordance with the criteria, to enroll for a Master study, and by so meet the preconditions for being chosen for academic profession. Table 1 lists all BIH public faculties with a licensed nursing II study cycle, while study costs are provided in Table 2.


Table 1  List of the public faculties in BIH with nursing Master programs

Name of the faculty
Master study
Faculty of Medicine, Nursing Studies, Banja Luka
Yes
Faculty of Medicine, Nursing Studies, Foca
Yes
Faculty of Health Studies, Sarajevo
Yes
Faculty of Medicine, Department of Health Sciences, Tuzla
Yes
Faculty of Medicine, Department of Health Sciences, Zenica
Yes
Faculty of Health Studies, Mostar
Yes
University Dzemal Bijedic, Nursing Studies, Mostar
No


Table 2  Study costs of nursing Master studies in BIH

Master study
Study costs (KM)
Study duration
Republika Srpska
Tuition fee – 1000 KM
Master’s paper submission – 500 KM
1 year (2 semesters)
Federation of BiH
Tuition fee: Sarajevo – 2200 KM,  Mostar – 3200 KM,
Tuzla – 2500 KM,  Zenica – 3000 KM
1 year (2 semesters): Sarajevo, Tuzla
2 years (4 semesters): Mostar,  Zenica

2.  ProSes grants application requirements and procedure

2.1. Grant award criteria for nursing Master studies

Only candidates who have enrolled a Master program at one of the public BIH faculties will be eligible to apply, as defined by the
bellow listed criteria. Grants will be awarded to those students who are enrolled on any of the semesters that will have been completed by 30 November 2018 in the amount of 50–90% of the total tuition fee for the semester concerned, depending on the total number of candidates fulfilling the criteria and the resources available.

The application deadline is 30.09.2018.

2.2. The application assessment procedure

The selection of candidates will be made by a commission appointed by ProSes on the basis of the documentation completeness and the given eliminatory criteria. Only those candidates who fulfill eliminatory criteria will be assessed based on success and additional criteria.

2.3. Documentation required for application

The criteria and supporting documentation are listed in Table 3. The selected candidates will be required to sign a contract
with both the ProSes.


Table 3  Criteria and required supporting documents for nursing Master studies grant awards

Documents needed
Criteria
Type of criteria
Study contract or certificate
Enrolled in nursing Master studies at one of the BIH public faculties with nursing studies
Eliminatory
(fulfilled/not fulfilled)
Certificate on semester enrolled as full-time
student and its duration
The semester that ProSes support is asked for
ends by 30.11.2018
Eliminatory
(fulfilled/not fulfilled)
Certified copy of citizenship certificate
BH citizenship
Eliminatory
(fulfilled/not fulfilled)
Certified copy of diploma and/or diploma supplement
Completed Cycle I of nursing academic studies –
180/240 ECTS
Eliminatory
(fulfilled/not fulfilled)
Average grade certificate (only if already
submitted diploma/diploma supplement do not contain this information)
Average achievement of 8.0 (or 3.5) or
higher at study Cycle I
Eliminatory
(fulfilled/not fulfilled)
Average grade certificate (only if already
submitted diploma/diploma supplement do not contain this information)
Study Cycle I achievement (average grade)
Success
(max. 15 points)
Certificate on normative study duration, the
year of enrolment and the year of completion
(only if already submitted documentation, such as diploma etc., does not contain this information)
Cycle I study time (the ratio between the normative duration of the program and the
time used to complete it)
Success
(max. 10 points)
Certified copy of engagement contract or engagement certificate (only in such case)
Employed at nursing studies department

Additional
(max. 5 points)


Note: The candidate can provide more than one piece of required information on a single certificate, if
the same institution is responsible.
Ostala obavezna dokumentacija
Application form 1A
Certificate on the semester tuition fee amount
CV

REMARK:

Applicants can apply by sending a completed application form and required attachments to Foundation fami to the following
address: Fondacija fami, Višegradska 24, 71000 Sarajevo.

To download: Application for scholarship award for students of the third cycle of study - Form 1A PDF document.