Nursing Education & Administration

HISTORY OF NURSING ADMINISTRATION AND EDUCATION THEMATIC UNIT (ADM/EDUC)

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Dr Emma Matheka : Thematic Head 2021-Date

Dr Lucy W Kivuti-Bitok

Dr Lucy W Kivuti-Bitok- Thematic Head 2014-2021

Prof. Anna Karani - Former Head of Thematic Unit 2008-2014

The Department of Nursing, formerly the School of Nursing Sciences was started in 2004 with a director and it had four (4) Thematic Units as follows:

Medical Surgical Nursing
Community Health Nursing
Administration and Education Nursing
Midwifery and Obstetrics Nursing

Before that (previous history) nursing was a department in the faculty of medicine which started in 1968 with diploma in Advanced Nursing which trained registered nurses. In 1992, the department started training Bachelor of Nursing Sciences (BScN) until 2004 when Masters of Science in Nursing (MScN) was started. The MScN comprised of most specialties in Nursing under different thematic areas.

The academic members of staff were 14 and they were distributed according to areas of specialization. Each Thematic area had 3 staff members except Medical Surgical which had 5.

In 2009 one of the Admnistration/Education Thematic member passed on and she was never replaced to-date. The students were approximately 160. The student population has since then grown to 540 BScNs including the upgrading programme . MScN has 40 students and PhDs about 10.

A certificate course in counseling was started in 2003 facilitated by Prof. Karani and over 300 health worker graduated from the progamme.

MScN programme facilitated by Prof. Karani started in 2004 and over 50 graduates has gone through the programme while about 10 did education and administration. Thematic Head has also supervised 6 PhDs to completion and 4 are ongoing. Mrs Bitok has also been part of University of Nairobi ISO 9001 Champion and is also pursuing a PhD .

The staff has published widely on peer reviewed journal articles, books, chapters, manuals among other publications. This also apart from core functions of : Teaching, research, community service and consultancy services.

Overview

Welcome to the Administration & Education. Thematic Unit. I am pleased to inform you that Administration & Education Thematic Unit will continue to prepare a nurse with the highest levels of competency to provide teaching and administration skills in order to care for patients and clients in the hospitals and in the community. The nurses are prepared holistically so that they can be able to work at any setting locally, in the region and globally.

I am also pleased to inform you about the achievements of our thematic unit that have been realized since its inception in the year 2006. The unit has successfully engaged in training, supervision and mentorship of a large cohort of undergraduate and postgraduate students.

About 50% 0f the courses in the deartment’s curricula are under the Admn/Educ. thematic unit. We have continued to build capacity for health care delivery locally, regionally and internationally.

The graduates of our post graduate program have formed the pillars for training nurses at higher institutions of learning in Kenya and the region. The training covers key nursing specialty areas which include Education communication &Technology, Education Psychology, Management &Administration of Nursing Services, Curriculum & Instruction in Nursing, Research project, for undergraduates. For masters we cover, Biostatistcs & Epidemiology, Research methods & communication science, Health systems management, Nursing education, Nursing Administration & development & Research project. For PhD we cover Research Project. The Department of Nursing Sciences, University of Nairobi is currently the only tertiary institution that offers these diverse options of specialization at postgraduate level.

As a thematic unit, we have attracted students nationally and internationally. Students from countries such as Malawi, Tanzania, Zambia, Sierre Leone, Ethiopia and Rwanda are registered into our academic programs.

The academic staff in the thematic unit have worked very hard to ensure that objectives of the programmes are met and their contributions towards these achievements are highly appreciated.