New course calls for Emirati nurses

Enrolments sought for Rashid Hospital training initiative.

November 29, 2011, Dubai, UAE: Right to left: Hind Mahmoud Abdulla Younes,is a nurse in the Trauma center of Rashid hospital. She takes care of multiple patients in severe pain, 12 hours at a time. Here she takes the temperature of Mohammed Nasser who suffers from a cervical disc prolapse. Lee Hoagland/The NationalShow less

DUBAI // An advanced nursing course has been set up to try to encourage Emiratis into the field.

Rashid Hospital's Centre of Excellence for Emirati Nursing Development is open to Emiratis who hold a bachelor's degree in nursing.

The course is free, with a guaranteed job throughout the four years at one of 54 government hospitals or clinics.

Only 54 of the 3,500 nurses at Dubai Health Authority hospitals and clinics are Emirati.

Students will spend two years learning to put the theory from their first degrees into practice.

The second half the course will be focused on one of three career paths: clinical nursing, education, or management. Students completing the course will be encouraged to pursue a master's degree.

So far 15 students, all women, have enrolled.

Jane Griffiths, the director of nursing at Rashid Hospital, said it was hoped men would also apply.

Ms Griffiths said that was important given the large proportion of the hospital's patients who were male, and cultural concerns about men being treated by women.

"Twenty per cent of our nurses are male," she said. "This is higher than the international average, which is 8 per cent."