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| Nursing/Health Students |
When choosing between schools of nursing and colleges of health science and technology, consider that nursing schools are generally more competitive, expensive, and longer in duration but offer broader career prospects and higher professional recognition, while health colleges are easier to gain admission to, more affordable, shorter, and offer limited but still viable career opportunities.
Since both schools prepare you for health discipline, it has always been the joy of many science students, even some non-science students, to become nurses or health assistants, community health workers, etc.
However, making the final choice depends on several considerations. You may want to consider factors including the convenience of gaining admission, the cost of running each course, the potential of each, and most importantly which one is right for you.
In this post, I will be sharing my experiences and that of others when it comes to your life as you pursue a nursing or health science course.
But before then, let's get the basics.
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A Brief Difference Between a Nurse and Health Scientist and Technologist
My post, "School of Nursing, Health Tech and Hygiene: Answers to Students’ Questions on Admissions" had long been answering several questions about this. And if you'd taken the time to go through you should by now, understand the main difference between Nurses and Health Scientists and Technologists, the career outlook, and more.
When I wrote, "Top Schools/Colleges of Health and Technology in Nigeria", and "List of Schools and Colleges of Nursing in Nigeria", I was trying to separate the two and show you the schools and colleges that offer them as separate entities.
But if I must still repeat it here, schools of Nursing produce nurses especially Registered Nurses (RN) and Registered Midwives (RM), and most recently, ND/HND in Nursing.
Whereas, colleges of health science and technology produce similar but not the same health workers including community health extension workers, health assistants, environmental health officers, medical technicians, etc.
Competitively, most admission seekers prefer schools of nursing to colleges of health sciences and technology especially if it gets tough to gain admission through JAMB to universities offering Nursing.
This, of course, is worth it, from experiences and career perspectives. Yet, it's clearly at certain costs. The costs of choosing a School of Nursing over a college of health technology will be covered in the rest of this piece.
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1. The Convenience of Gaining Admissions
When I wrote the post, "Easier Admission Btw School of Nursing and University Nursing?", I was aiming to make it easier for a school of Nursing admission seeker to see things favorably.
However, at the end of the article, I was forced to confess, which is obvious, from experience, that gaining admission into schools of nursing is even more difficult than gaining admission to universities offering Nursing Science through the JAMB UTME.
With this standpoint, and years of consulting experience, I'd come to the conclusion, as well, that gaining admission to colleges of health science and technology will be easier than the schools of nursing.
The quota of not more than 99 intakes, no matter the number of the applicants and their performance in the entrance exams and interview is one thing to consider for schools of nursing. Although colleges of health may have similar quotas but not as popular as the schools of nursing.
And luckily for some colleges of health aspirants who can't meet the cut-off marks for their proposed courses, they may be dropped to some other less competitive courses at the college.
This doesn't mean that you won't fight for a space at the college of health, it's just not going to be like a tug of war - which is the standard for several schools of nursing especially federal-owned and state-owned.
You may not need any connection (man-know-man) if you're going for a college of health but for the school of nursing, even on merit, you may still need some backing.
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2. The Financial Requirements
95 percent of admission seekers will want to know about the financial prospects of any course before it becomes a daydream. The reason for that is not farfetched if you're in a country where it's becoming difficult for a family of five to eat three times a day.
If wishes are horses, beggars will equally ride. That's your watchword when making a choice of discipline or else, you may drain your parents to the bone marrow before you're a graduate.
Schools of nursing are generally more expensive than colleges of health. Irrespective of whether we're considering a government-owned or private school of nursing, you should be ready to pay the bills.
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For example, while the College of Health Technology, Ilesa, Osun State bills somewhere above #100,000 for tuition and other fees, per year, the same state government is collecting above #200,000 for its School of Nursing, Ausbiaro, Osogbo.
This price range is comparable to other states' schools. For example, while the Kwara State College of Health Offa bills about #80,000, in fees, per year, Kwara State College of Nursing, Oke Ode tuition is about #200,000
Though some colleges and schools of nursing in the north e.g Kaduna State College that even sells entrance form free, can be more financially friendly, admissions to them will equally be a bigger struggle.
And if you should consider a private school of nursing around, schools such as Baptist College of Nursing Saki, Oyo State, Mercy College of Nursing Iwo, Osun State, Sacred Heart College of Nursing, Lantoro, Abeokuta, Ogun State, Bowen School of Nursing, Ogbomoso, Oyo State, etc may not be more accessible, for the fees. You should prepare about #350,000 to #500,000.
For any private college of health, you shouldn't be that troubled. Preparing #200,000 should be fine for private colleges of health such as Pogil College of Health Technology, Ijebu Ode, Ogun State, etc
NOTE: All fees mentioned above are generally in range. That's not specifically what each school is charging. The actual tuition may be a bit higher or lower.
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3. Succeeding in the Programme
Similar to gaining admission into these schools, succeeding in flying color at the end of your studies, though depends majorly on the students, experience has shown that students of colleges of health don't find it as hard as nurses who are being produced by the schools of nursing.
Of course, because of the nature of the discipline, the intensity of the studies, at schools of nursing, should definitely be more than that of the colleges of health.
As a point of reference, I've seen more cases of schools of nursing students dropping out or being sent home after their first years than colleges of health students.
Although they both may subject their students to their popularly-known year-1 weeding exams, it's more likely for a school of nursing student to come home if weeded out. Colleges of health may drop you to another course if you can't compete well for the one you applied for.
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4. Duration of the Courses
Whereas, college of health years of studies differs by the courses. For some, such as Community Health Extension Workers (CHEW), you'll spend 3 years. While some certificate courses such as Health Assitant, Pharmaceutical Technician, Laboratory Technician, etc, or courses for National Diploma such as the one you got through JAMB, you will spend 2 years.
Obviously, your course at a school of nursing course will require more years than the college of health - depending on the college's course.
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5. Potential of Future Academic Pursuit
Admission to a university offering Nursing Science, through RN or post-RN midwifery, is usually easier and more possible than seeking admission to universities after colleges of health, for the same course.
Although, for candidates who studied Health Information Management, their chances may still be broader than those who study other courses, generally, colleges of health certificates acceptance for DE will be limited to some courses such as Environmental Science, Public Health Technology, etc. rather than competitive courses such as Nursing, Pharmacy, etc.
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6. Careers and Job Prospects
Needless to say, nurses are accepted widely at any hospital; federal, state, or private. As if that is not enough, they're hotcakes when seeking offers abroad. Our nurses are internationally recognized.
Graduates of the colleges of health may not share the same benefits. They may be accepted for fitted positions at hospitals generally, such as health assistants, community health workers, and laboratory technicians. Making attempt to seek positions abroad may prove abortive based on their certifications. This is known from experience!
As such, candidates who are done with environmental science may need to wait for government offers or start something, on their own, if they will ever use their certificates and experiences. Furthering their studies may be added advantages though.
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7. Professional and Social Recognition
At hospitals, who do you respect? This is an international viewpoint. Nurses are more recognized than health assistants at various hospitals.
In fact, as compensation, people don't care to know if a staff is a nurse or an assistant. They refer to nearly any female official as a nurse.
Socially, everybody should be doing well in his or her field. Yet, where it's known, people will respect you more if you're a nurse than a CHEW.
After your studies as a nurse, you're qualified to start your own hospital, if you have additional requirements, as detailed in my post, "After the School of Nursing, What Next?", However, a health assistant or CHEW is not legally allowed to start a hospital except he or she can employ qualified nurses and doctors.
Even though you may see it otherwise around you, that doesn't mean they're working legally under the certification by the government or any statutory body.
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Conclusion
What matters when choosing to go to a school of nursing or the college of health and come out as a nurse or health assistant, CHEW, etc, is to understand what it takes. In the end, if you deserve a school of nursing, you will make it. Otherwise, your best fallback will be a college of health.
Both have good prospects as we can't all become the same thing in life. The further you go in your chosen discipline will determine the loser and the winner.
Best of luck!
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Thanks for this
ReplyDeleteMy brain is widely opened