Khaberni - With the increasing phenomenon of training centers offering short courses in nursing and marketing them as sufficient qualifications to enter the healthcare job market, recently, this phenomenon has raised concerns of the Nurses' Syndicate, which has detected illegal registration attempts by citizens who do not hold the required academic qualifications.
The internal regulations of the Syndicate and the public health law clearly define the categories licensed to practice the profession, which are the registered nurse with a Bachelor of Nursing, and the associate nurse who holds a diploma from a community college and has passed the professional exam, while any other path is an explicit violation and exposes its holder to legal accountability.
The Council of the Syndicate of Nurses, Midwives, and Legal Midwives expressed its rejection and condemnation of the advertisements by some educational institutions and academies about organizing professional nursing courses outside the framework of the authorized academic programs for bachelor's or diploma degrees.
The council affirmed that the nursing profession is taught exclusively through universities and nursing colleges, where the student obtains a bachelor's degree after 4 years, qualifying them to become a "registered nurse," while community colleges grant an "associate nurse" certificate after two years.
It emphasized that any practice of the profession not based on an official practice certificate issued by the Ministry of Health constitutes a legal violation that warrants accountability.
Warning Against Misrepresentation and Exploitation
The statement clarified that the current offering of short courses merely constitutes forgery, misleading of citizens, and exploitation of their need for job opportunities, portraying these programs as qualifying them to enter the healthcare job market, while they carry no legal or professional legitimacy.
The Syndicate called for immediate intervention by the Ministries of Health and Higher Education to stop any entity attempting to threaten citizens' lives or trade their safety through sham programs that do not authorize participants to practice nursing.
It confirmed that the continuation of these practices negatively reflects on the image of Jordan's health system and undermines the community's trust in official medical institutions.
It stressed that protecting the profession and maintaining its status is a collective responsibility, and any violations in this area pose a direct risk to the quality of healthcare services and the reputation of the nursing staff in Jordan.
Financial Exploitation
Nurses confirmed that the problem is not limited to the legal aspect but also extends to financially exploiting citizens, as some of them pay between 500 and 600 Jordanian dinars for these courses, believing that these will open job opportunities in hospitals and health centers.
This "exploitation" raises questions about the supervision of private training centers.
The Syndicate highlighted the spread of videos and advertisements promoting these courses as a guaranteed path to employment, which led them to take the issue to official institutions for legal follow-up of these advertisements.
Unaccredited Training Courses
Commenting on this, a member of the Nurses' Syndicate Council, Zuhair Muslim, stated that the Syndicate has recently detected several citizens who have applied for registration in the Syndicate after obtaining short training courses in the field of nursing, ranging between two months and four months, based on what some training centers informed them.
Muslim clarified in a statement to "Al-Ghad" that the registration system in the Syndicate is subject to clear and strict conditions, the most prominent of which is that the applicant must have obtained a Bachelor's degree in nursing to be granted the status of "registered nurse," allowing them to officially register in the Syndicate and proceed to the Ministry of Health to obtain a practice certificate.
He pointed out that there is another legally recognized category, "associate nurse," which requires holding a diploma from a community college and passing the practice exam in the Ministry of Health to obtain an official certificate allowing them to practice.
He explained that these two categories are the only ones licensed by the Ministry of Health to practice the nursing profession, while it was observed that many citizens who do not hold a high school certificate had obtained training courses in nursing, and tried to register in the Syndicate or the Ministry claiming that the centers that trained them convinced them of the possibility of working in the health sector after passing these courses.
He confirmed that this is an explicit violation of the Syndicate's law and the practice regulation system, as well as being in conflict with general health legislation.
Muslim added that the Syndicate also detected advertisements from some training centers promoting courses in nursing, misleading participants into thinking that these qualify them to work in the health sector, prompting the Syndicate to issue an official statement warning of these practices, clarifying that these courses are merely health education programs and cannot be considered a qualification for practicing the profession.
He emphasized that the Syndicate addressed the Ministry of Higher Education and the Jordan Nursing Council to stop any attempts by academic institutions or training centers to organize non-specialized nursing courses, confirming that the goal of this step is to protect the community from exploitation and ensure citizens are not misled.
Muslim mentioned that some citizens reported paying money for these courses, after being informed that they qualify them to work in the health sector, and some circulating videos even showed training centers claiming to provide job opportunities for participants after completing the course.
He confirmed that the Syndicate found itself compelled to refer these advertisements and publications to official entities to follow up on the legality of these courses and ensure they are not used as a means to qualify unqualified individuals to work in the health sector, which constitutes a clear violation of the regulations and laws governing the profession.
